“Well, I appreciate it,” I said as we came to a stop in front of the bakery. “But I still wanna play photographer. If that’s okay with you.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“You have to go back to work,” Milo said, standing close enough to keep his voice low but not so close that everyone on the street would notice how close he was. “I won’t kiss you goodbye, but I will tell you I want to.”
“Yeah?” I asked, throat catching.
“More than anything. But I won’t,” he added. “Because I get it, and I’m not mad.”
He wasn’t mad?
“I’m sorry,” I said anyway. I owed him an apology. After everything he’d shared with me, I owed him that. Milo deserved better.
“Don’t be. Don’t be sorry,” he said softly, leaning just a tiny bit closer. “You don’t want the whole town talking about the weird stranger you’re… having a fling with, or whatever.”
I swallowed.
“Is that what we’re doing?” I asked.
Because it wasn’t what it felt like. Okay, it’d only been one night, but it’d also been months. Months and months of caring so much about Milo.
It felt…
“Well…” Milo looked down at his feet. “I thought… I mean, you said that Dante said…”
What I really needed right now was to be good at words. I wanted to explain to Milo that I didn’t knowwhatthis was, but it felt important, it wasn’t nothing to me, and I didn’t want to lose him, and I wasn’t sure if Ieverwanted to lose him and it was too soon to know, anyway, but the risk was making my insides feel like a beginner’s macramé project.
Only I wanted to sound less ridiculous and more coherent when I said it.
But then maybe words weren’t the only way to say what I wanted to.
My heart jumped into my throat as I reached out to Milo, fingers trembling as they landed on the soft skin of his neck. His pretty eyes widened as I tugged him down, lips parting. Once he was close enough, I could smell just the barest hint of the cologne from yesterday, the scent of oranges and chocolate that would always be Milo to me, and I knew I wanted this. To do this, right out here on Main Street, in the middle of the day, where people were bound to see.
Milo gasped as our lips met, tensing at first, but then melting against me, letting me take control, kissing like he always did, like he’d never done anything he liked more in his life.
I could’ve gotten addicted to kissing him. Maybe I already had.
“You’re not weird,” I murmured, so close that our lips brushed with every syllable. “You’re not a stranger. And this isn’t a fling. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not… that. It’s not meaningless. Not to me.”
Milo swallowed, but he didn’t back off. Instead, he bumped his nose against mine, and then I felt his lips turn up into a smile.
“Means a lot to me, too,” he said. “But I am definitely weird.”
Laughter welled up in the pit of my stomach, and I couldn’t have contained it if I wanted to. All the knots there unraveled, too, and I smiled back, but didn’t move away either.
People were looking. I could feel it.
But I didn’t care. Not when it was Milo.
“Good weird,” I said. “Hotweird.”
“Like, kinky-weird?” Milo asked. “Because…”
“You’re the one with the oral fixation,” I said, kissing him again because I just couldn’t resist any longer.
“I mean, you could also tie me up if you wanted,” Milo said.
“I… could?”
