One of Olly’s friends sent a message next:Bro, you had the room next to ours. We heard you. ALL WEEKEND.
We could hear you across the hall, too!Taeho helpfully added.
“All of them,” Ace said, groaning and holding his head. “I nearly threw all of this away and they… they already knew…”
“Hey,” I said, turning off my phone screen and lifting his chin with the tip of my finger. “It’s alright now. You didn’t throw it away. You’re here.”
I was surprised to see him blinking back tears, small droplets of starlight that clung to his dark lashes and made me want to wrap him up and keep him safe forever. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get over myself.”
Another buzz sounded from my phone, but I didn’t care anymore. The reaction of everyone else had never been the point. Not for me. I turned and led Ace into my apartment by the hand, closing the door behind him. The second we were truly alone, I tossed my phone towards the sofa (making the impressive shot without smashing the screen) and turned back towards him. I let my hands stray to his sides, leaning against him until he stumbled back to the wall, his hands going up above his head as if he was already begging me to restrain him.
To keep him there.
To do whatever I wanted with him.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you halfway,” I said because he wasn’t the only one that had had boundaries and lines in the sand. And he was the only one who’d had to change – even if that was right.
Ace shook his head vehemently, his hair skimming the wall behind him. “You didn’t have to,” he said. “That wouldn’t have been fair. You were right. About everything. I needed to accept myself and everything I am and stop thinking so much about how other people would see me. I needed to learn to take things that I wanted, instead of waiting for approval from someone else.”
“Take, huh?” I asked, easing closer to him until our thighs bumped against each other. I ran my hands up his side, over his arms, up to hold both of his wrists up there against the wall. The scent of him, shampoo and earth and the outside air, filled my nose as I moved to nuzzle at his neck. I transferred his wrists to just one of my hands, using the other to bunch his hair up into my fist, feeling the silky strands of it slip through my fingers like I’d been dreaming about for so long.
“Or be taken by,” he breathed. “Obviously.”
“I like the sound of that,” I murmured against his neck, then straightened up with a grin. I let go of his hands, letting my touch linger for a moment before moving away. “Have you eaten yet tonight?”
“Tease,” Ace muttered crossly.
I laughed, walking back over to the sofa. “I can order something if you like.”
“That sounds good,” he nodded, following me and sitting down at my side. He’d never been here in my apartment, but somehow, he fitted right in. Like he’d been there all along and I just couldn’t see it. “While we’re waiting for the takeout to arrive, we could…”
I chuckled, grabbing my phone and bringing up a food app. “We could,” I agreed. “So? What do you want? Korean? Italian? Mexican?”
“Brody,” he said, looking at me with such hunger that I abandoned the idea of food there and then – and when he launched himself on me, flattening me against the sofa with his body, I didn’t mind one damn bit.
Ace – Epilogue
“Are you sure?”
I looked at Brody standing next to me, his arms full of boxes. He was pale and worried, studying my face closely as if looking for a sign I was about to run away.
I grinned. “Of course, I’m sure,” I said, gesturing up to the apartment building that towered over us. “Your apartment is way nicer than mine. Besides, I’ve already quit the lease.”
“Right, but…” Brody swallowed. “I mean, are you sure about moving in with me at all?”
If I wasn’t carrying four bags and hauling a suitcase, I would have hugged him. I settled for leaning in to kiss his cheek. “It’s been six months and we haven’t killed each other yet. It’s natural to see if we’ll survive the next phase.”
Brody blinked. I laughed.
“Damn, Ace,” he said. “I know you love your horror movies, but please. I don’t want to liveinone.”
I chuckled as I started to lead the way toward the door. We weren’t going to get me moved in by standing around next to the van, after all. “Stop worrying,” I told him. “We talked about this, didn’t we? We weighed up every single angle.”
“Right,” Brody hummed.
“And what did we decide?” I prompted him.
“That we should move in together to take things to the next level. And that we were sick of only seeing each other at weekends or late at night because of the distance.”
