I can hear her shuffling around, in bed maybe? Thinking of me with her hand down her pants, I hope.
She talks, sounding so cute. “About an hour ago, I gave Lix a pill that Idris made for him. He’s been sound asleep since.”
Relief hits me so hard my shoulders sag. “Nice,” I murmur. “That’s really good news.”
She hums, amused.
“And what about you, huh?” I ask. “You holdin’ up okay?”
“I am,” she says, all soft and pretty. “A lot better now after hearing from you. I suppose I’m not used to not having you around, so I missed you.”
“Yeah?” I say, chuckling like a schoolkid over his crush. “Missed ya too.”
The elevator’s moving down fast. My eyes track the floors I’m passing, seeing a missing thirteenth button.
“But for real, Em, how was your day? What’d you do today?”
She tells me all about it. I tell her dumb shit about mine. Sheflirtswith me. I make her laugh. I kiss the phone some more like a goddamn idiot and don’t even care how sappy I’ve become.
Well,sappier, really. Guess love changes a guy.
“I can’t wait to see you,” she says like she didn’t just shoot straight into the heart.
My chest tightens in the most diabolical way. “Give me like, ten minutes,” I tell her. “I’ll drive like a maniac, so you can see me as soon as possible, Em.”
She sighs. “Please donotspeed.”
“I make no promises,” I say.
The elevator dings, and I step out, feet moving fast.
“Um, Stan?” she asks.
I grunt in response, popping my trunk and tossing my bag in like muscle memory’s running the show while my brain’s elsewhere. On Em, really. On her body. Her brain too. And her heart.
“Certainly you must be aware that I’ve been rather hormonal, so forgive me for being forward,” she starts saying.
Holy hell, she sounds so serious, so I stop whatever I’m doing, including thinking altogether. I listen real close, knowing what she’ll say will wrench my heart some more, but I don’t mind it. I love it when she wrecks me, in any way she wants.
She takes a deep breath before letting it out, long and loud. Then she says, “Lately, I’ve appreciated honesty more and more.”
She keeps going, voice even, like she’s not about to completely rearrange my internal organs with just her words. I can tell whatever she’ll say is gonna mean a whole hell a lot.
“When I was administering Lix’s dose today, I told him it has been irrevocably moving to receive his affection, as well as yours, so…” She clears her throat. “I told him I love him.”
I stop dead with my hand on the trunk lid.
“And I’d like you to know that I love you too,” she says.
The trunk closes louder than I mean it to. It just dropped when I went reaching for my heart, tracing the tattoo that’s been there before I met Em. Before I knew someone as magnificent and smart and incredible and sexy as her could’ve ever existed.Efor her, all along.
I stand there for a second, phone on my ear, staring at absolutely nothing while my heart forgets how to do its job.
My chest feels too full, like someone shoved air into it and forgot to let any out.
I swallow air once. Then again.
But it’suseless.
