His statement lands uncomfortably. I hate thinking of him as a stranger. “Don’t say that. It makes me sad.”
“Nonsense. That’s what the date is for.” He knocks his foot against mine, a reminder that we’re in this together. We don’t have to spend another day of our lives as strangers if we don’t want to. “Tell me the stuff I don’t know.”
“Like what?”
He tilts his head side to side. “Off the top of my head…Is Daphne still your roommate? How do you take your coffee? What time do you wake up in the morning? How many hours a day do you write? Do you write with music on? TV in the background? Total silence? What do you do when you’re sad? Howare your parents? Do you visit? Do they visit you? Where do you live? Do you own your apartment? Do you like living in the snow? Where do you spend Christmas? What makes you feel better when you’re sick? What’s the last perfect book you read? Do you want any more tattoos? A pet? Kids?”
I throw my head back and laugh. “That’soff the top of your head? Holy shit, West.”
“I want to know you, Mars. Sue me.”
When I realize he’s being sincere, I reach across the table and take his hand. “Where do you want me to start?”
36
Present Day
I work veryhard to keep my eyes from straying to West at the back of Dr.B’s classroom. As I speak to the students, however, his gaze weighs on me like a physical presence, like his hands are pressed to my shoulders, demanding my attention.
He looked skeptical when I steered his truck toward campus earlier today. “I want you to know there’s more to Tucson than our old college campus,” he said flatly.
“We can go anywhere you want tonight, even the roped-off room at Casa Video,” I said with a wink that earned me a laugh. “But I have a promise to keep first.”
He broke into a grin when he realized that I was leading him toward Dr.B’s classroom and settled happily in a desk in the far corner to watch me speak to a class of undergrads.
Dr.B knew I was coming, but he chuckled with delight when I showed up hand in hand with West. “My star pupils! Together at last.”
I’m starting to think he says that to all his former students,but I don’t care. My heart warmed to a worrying degree to see the proud smile on West’s face as he greeted our old professor. West has an entire life for himself here—a life he can’t pick up and transfer as easily as I could. With Daphne in California now and a job I can do from anywhere, I don’t have many physical ties to New York.
But we haven’t had that conversation yet. It’s too early to even bethinkingabout that conversation. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when the constant flutter in my stomach threatens to overwhelm me.
I open the class up to questions for the last few minutes, and as much as I’m sure Dr.B wants me to focus on writing and publishing, most of the questions are about theTorchedmovies.
“Any other questions? Anythingnotrelated to whether I can give you the phone number of a certain famous actor?” I ask.
A few students laugh, but a lanky blond boy sitting in the front of the room leans forward over his desk. “I have a question.”
“Go for it,” I say as I pack my bag to leave.
“Do you know that you’re blowing up online?”
“Like I said, if it’s about the movie, that has very little to do with me.”
“It’s not that. Everyone is talking about you and your boyfriend back there.” He jerks his chin in West’s direction.
My hand pauses. “What?”
“Apparently, he’s persona non grata. Made himself some enemies a few years ago. Especially withyourbiggest fans.”
“What?” I lock eyes with West at the back of the room before focusing again on the blond boy. “What are people saying?” Too distracted in my bubble with West, I haven’t been online in days.
Dr.B claps his hands, drawing the students’ attention. “We’re out of time. See you Friday.”
In seconds, West is next to me, pulling my phone out of my hand and lacing his fingers through mine. He tugs me out the door, and I walk just slowly enough for him to know that I’m annoyed about it.
I reach for my phone. “Hang on. I just need to check—”
He slips my phone into his pocket. “Let’s go.”
