“LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU SEX-OBSESSED, PATRONIZING, TALL… PERSON!”
“Jesus,” I snap as two elderly ladies stare at us from across the street. “Stop being a pain in the ass for one second and listen to me.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, I want them back.
“I’m sorry. You’re not—”
“I’m a pain in the ASS?” He’s pure wildfire. “A nice word, considering you have been in EVERYONE’s ass!”
“Stop exaggerating.”
“You’ve slept with THOUSANDS of people!”
“I have not.”
“And I—” His voice breaks.
He wipes his face angrily, but the tears keep coming.
The world goes unbearably soft and quiet when he looks at me, crying in earnest.
“I haven’t slept with anyone. You know that.”
He lets out a shaky breath.
“I can’t compete with bedframe-breaking blond giraffes like Jake! I’m NOT a giraffe. I’m a—I’m a LABUBU.”
Silence.
I look at him, my heart breaking and swelling at once.
I’d burn the whole damn world down before letting him feel inferior.
“Oh no,” he wails. “I can’t believe I said I’m a Labubu. I’m NOT. I’m unwell—I must be possessed.”
I pull him into my chest, holding him until the sobs turn into shudders.
He finally melts against me, fisting my shirt.
“All the blond giraffes can fuck off,” I whisper into his hair. “Everyone else can fuck off. I want you. Just you. My Labubu.”
“I’m not a Labubu,” he says, sniffling against my chest. “That was a stupid thing to say.”
I lift his chin until his stormy eyes meet mine.
“When I first saw you, I actually, literally, forgot how to breathe. You scowled at me, and I was gone. So fucking gone. I didn’t know what hit me.”
He hiccups. I keep going.
“You make me so happy. Happier than I ever thought I could be.”
He sniff-snarls. I don’t think anyone else could manage a sound just like that. It’s feral and adorable.
“Even now? I make you happy even now?”
I kiss his jaw, then the corner of his mouth.
“Even now,” I promise. “Especially now. Always. You’re the one I want.”
