He eases around until he’s in front of me, his knees outside of my feet. His hands lift my face until we’re eye to eye. “At the end when we’re recounting our days. I hope, I hope, I know. You and I will still be us.”
My laugh is hoarse. “You asshole. That was from when you were waxing poetic about, well…myasshole. You didn’t know then. You couldn’t have.”
His smile never wavers.
“God.” My eyes slip shut as Trevor’s thumbs run over my jaw, my chest so tight it hurts. “Tell me?”
Lips ghost over the corner of my mouth. “I love you, too, Red. And I’ll be around when that no longer scares you. I promise.”
My exhale shudders from my lungs. “Will you build me a library?”
“Yes,” he says simply.
“And fill it with all my favorite books?”
“Yes.”
“And buy me new books?”
A chuckle. “Yes, brat.”
“Will you be there with me?” I ask, blinking my eyes open to find dark, dark brown staring back at me.
“It’s where I belong. If you’re there, so am I.”
The tears I’ve been fighting all day finally slip free. Trevor kisses them away, staying with me outside my childhood home until I’ve found my footing again. When we head inside, it’s hand in hand, the smell of vanilla perfuming the kitchen from the freshly baked cookies, smiles passed around along with napkins and glasses of milk.
It feels, at least for a little while, wonderfully and perfectly normal.
What did Todd call it? Making the best of the time we’re given?
Maybe it doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.
“You’re fucking with me.”
Trevor gives me a proud smirk, shifting his laptop around so I can see the screen. There, front and center, is his subscriber count. “Just hit five thousand.”
My mouth drops open. “Trevor. Holy shit…”
I do the math quickly inside my head, the cost of the monthly subscription times the number of people, and…Jesus.
It’s only been a couple months since Trevor launched his website, but in that time, he’s added two other performers to the lineup and placed teaser videos around on free sites to drive traffic his way. The impact has been…astronomical.
“You realize you guys are going to blow the fuck up once you start partner scenes,” I point out. “I mean…look at how many people you have on the hook already.”
Trevor hums. “Just need a decent cameraman.”
“The rest of the crew is squared away?”
He nods. “And the warehouse will be ours come end of summer.”
“You should ask Bill,” Todd says.
I peer over the edge of my bed. Todd is lying on the floor, a textbook open in front of him. “I’m sorry, who?”
He raises his head, his eyes taking a second to focus on me. “Bill,” he repeats. At my continued stare, he lifts an eyebrow. “Our housemate?”
“Ohhh. Bill. That’s his name.”
