“You snort,” he says as the crosswalk sign flashes on. “Andthat’sadorable.”
Pleasure zings through me. I try to brush it off, to not tuck it tight in my heart. I’ve already hoarded too many moments like this, the past two years, shoved them behind a door that creaks with the pressure of so many dangerously tender, meaningful memories, feelings, desires.
Alex clears his throat. “Anyway, Ethan and I have been emailing about the trip, and so far, we’ve discussed a tentative menu, conditioned on what’s available locally, our arrival time, and who’s driving with whom, but I obviously wanted to get your input. He’s getting Jen’s.”
I shrug. “You know I’m up for anything, menu-wise.”
“Even oysters?”
I gag reflexively. “Nope, not those.”
Alextsks. “I’m gonna do it, Ted. One day, I’ll find an oyster recipe that you like.”
“No amount or combination of butter, lemon, herbs, wine, or anything else I love will ever make a sea booger taste or feel like less of a sea booger.”
Alex belly laughs. “You know that just makes me want to try even harder, right? I love a challenge.”
I smile. “I know you do. What about arrival time? They’ll be there already, right? So it’s just a matter of when we get there.”
He shakes his head. “They nixed the two-week stay. Between us being able to take off only a week and Jen saying it’s too much time away when she needs to prep for the start of school, Ethan decided he’d ‘accommodate our schedules.’?”
“How magnanimous of him,” I say dryly.
Alex grins. “He said we should aim for the ass crack of dawn Monday morning, which, annoyingly, I agree with. I haven’t been to Bethany, but whenever I’ve gone to Ocean City, summertime traffic was hellish any time past sunrise, with how many people were driving inbound for their rentals. I realize we’re getting there Monday, so it probably won’t be as bad, but I figure, better safe than sorry. Unless you tell me that when you used to go, it was on a Monday, and it wasn’t bumper to bumper. Maybe Ethan’s just fucking with me.”
As we stop in the gravel parking behind the store’s staff entrance, I turn to face him. “I wouldn’t know.”
Alex frowns. “What do you mean?”
I shift the strap on my cross-body bag where it’s digging into my shoulder, then fiddle with the buckles, even though I know they’re secure. “He never took me to the beach house.”
A thick, charged silence stretches out between us, like the uneasy hush that falls right before the skies open up. I don’t have to look at Alex to know he’s furious on my behalf. I try to push past it, because the last time Alex got fired up for me, I told him I loved him, and I definitely said it in a way I shouldn’t have, whilefeelinga way I shouldn’t have, either.
Who knows what I’ll do this time, if he goes on another one of his protective, impassioned tirades.
“I’ve actually never been to the beach before,” I babble, because anything is better than this silence. “At least, in person. Been to some pretty beautiful beaches in my reading adventures, though. I’m excited to see the real thing!”
I throw my arms around Alex’s neck, quickly hugging him goodbye, then springing away. “Thanks for walking me to work.” I bend to kiss Argos’s head. “And for walking this goofball to doggy day care. I’ll pick him up after work; then we’ll get a good walk home. See you tonight!”
I rush toward the door and immediately curse myself for not having remembered that the staff entrance lock sticks so badly; I have to wiggle my key in it for half a minute before it gives. Needless to say, my entrance to work will not be a swift exit from this conversation, and I really wanted it to be.
Suddenly, a warm hand wraps around my elbow, spinning me around. I bump into Alex’s chest and wheeze out air as he curls his arm around me in a wonderfully strong, bone-crushing hug. And then I melt into him, like the sucker that I am. My head plops onto his shoulder.
Alex rests his head against mine. I feel his heart thundering in his chest.
I lift my head, looking at him. Alex looks at me, too, his nose brushing mine for a moment, before he eases back, but only a little. It’s not enough. Want hums through me: in my fingertips, aching to sink into his hair; my lips, desperate to taste his; every inch of my body pressed close against Alex, begging to press even closer.
My body, my heart, they’re a magnet to his. Every time we come close, it’s closer. And every time it’s harder to pull away. I overpower the impulse to give in by reminding myself of the first time we kissed, how dangerous that was, and pull myself back,putting enough distance between us that I’m capable of thinking straight.
“You’ve really never been to the beach?” Alex asks. “He never took you?”
I shake my head.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Didn’t seem like something to bring up.”
Alex is quiet for a moment, his jaw tight. “Well,” he finally says, “now that I know that, I’d say we have our decision on who’s driving with whom.”
