“So we’ll go wherever a guy like you goes to play music,” I said. “I’m up for the adventure. Leo might get jealous if we move too far, but he’ll learn to adjust.”
“Leo!”
I paused, then blurted out a laugh. “Oh my god. He’s going to lose his mind when we tell him we’re boyfriends.”
Cass laughed loudly. “Fuck yeah he is. Can’t wait for that. But I meant, what about Pittsburgh?”
“Pittsburgh?” I stopped, thinking about it. I’d visited Leo there a couple of times and really loved the city, and they definitely had an active scientific community. “Is that a good city for rock music?”
“It’s just about perfect for me. There’s not really big money or flashy labels, but the local scenes are thriving. Plus, you’d have your brother, and I’d have my old best friend.”
“Huh,” I said. “Pittsburgh.”
Cass pulled me into another kiss, and for a few minutes, I lost myself in his arms. The sun was hot on my skin, and the scent of his musky sweat filled my nose. I was going to get to come home to him, I realized, like how he would come home to me. And slowly, a picture of our future began to form, clarifying in my mind.
“Pittsburgh,” I said. “With Leo.”
“I was dreaming big with that touring job. Thought I would buy you a house and everything. I could still do it, get us some money to start our life?”
I pulled him closer. “You’re staying right here. Whatever my advance is, we’ll be able to figure it out together.” I smiled. “And I think Pittsburgh sounds perfect.”
Cass stretched an arm out behind me, then grabbed his phone from the bench. He hit a couple of buttons, and I heard a ringing sound.
“What are you doing?” I laughed.
He pulled me in front of him, his arms wrapped around my chest. “Sharing the good news,” he answered, then angled the phone to face us.
Leo’s face popped. He squinted into the phone, staring. “What?” he said, apparently too confused by what he was seeing for a proper greeting.
I snorted a laugh. This was going to be very satisfying.
“Guess who’s moving to Pittsburgh?” Cass said, his voice tickling my ear as a grin filled my face.
Leo kept staring, his eyes practically bulging out. “What?” he finally yelped.
I rose up on my toes, smiling into the phone, then leaned my head back to kiss Cass, softly, on the lips. “Me and my boyfriend are!”
“What!”
Epilogue
Shawn
Autumn, one year later…
Curledup on Cass’s old leather couch in the living room of our brick townhouse, I was pulled from my book by a ding on my phone. Yawning, I glanced at the screen, then stood straight up, my heart jumping. “Cass!” I yelled out. “Cass, it’s here!”
We’d had only signed on the house a couple of months earlier, and there were plenty of obstacles to dodge as I searched for my boyfriend. I jumped over a footstool that still hadn’t found the right home, then rounded a corner into the kitchen, where I’d seen him last. The kitchen cupboards had become that week’s project, and all the doors had been removed and piled near the rear door, but there was no sign of Cass.
I grabbed my laptop from the dining table, then ran up to the second floor, the framed records hanging in the hallway rattling from my pounding feet. “Cass!” I hollered and stuck my head in our bedroom and then my writing nook. I sighed, ready to sprint to the basement and find him with his drum set, but Buddy’s bark from the backyard caught my attention first.
“Cass!” I hollered, grinning, as I emerged onto the back porch. In the little square yard, Cass was tossing a tennis ball with our dog, a big black-and-white mutt we’d picked up from the local rescue. Buddy jumped in the air when he saw me, his heavy cheeks flying back and forth and his nub of a tail wagging. I held the laptop up. “It’s here!”
“Fuck yeah!” Cass met me with a kiss at the top of the stairs. His hair was hanging loosely down to his shoulders, and the sleeves of his blue checkered flannel were rolled up to his biceps. “I had a feeling it would come today.”
I took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly as we stepped inside. I dropped my laptop on the counter and opened up my email, then clicked the attachment from my publisher. Cass held me from behind, peering over my shoulder as the cover of my book popped onto the screen for the first time.
The title ofYou and Your Universewas big and splashy over a gorgeous image of the Carina Nebula, an interstellar cloud of swirling purples and reds that was bursting with newly born stars. My eyes danced across the beautiful scene as Cass squeezed me tight from behind.
