Dany shot her a side-eye, but when she didn’t react, he looked back at his son and me.
“This is still new, and it might be too soon to tell anyone, but I think it’s best if you know.” Sebastian let his words settle for a moment, then looked up. “You remember when we were at the diner last weekend? When you said you’d be happy to meetanyoneI ever wanted to bring home?”
His parents exchanged a look. “We do,” Laura said.
“Well…” Sebastian wrinkled his nose and pointed at me. “He’s the one I was talking about back then.” He furrowed his brows as if bracing for something to hit him in the face.
They didn’t react for a full five seconds—then Dany’s laughter broke the tension. It was so genuine that I almost joined in.
“And here I thought you were about to tell us you were leaving the country or had committed a crime.” He held his stomach, still shaking with laughter. “But this is great news.”
Sebastian’s mouth fell open. “It is?”
“Of course. You two are so similar it’s almost scary. It’s like you’re made for each other. As long as it doesn’t interfere with your degree?—”
“If you’re happy, we are too,” Laura said. “That goes for both of you.”
“The fact that it’s Alex makes things easy,” Dany added. “Now you don’t have to worry about whether we like him, because you already know we do.”
Laura smiled at me. “Thank you for telling us.”
Sebastian leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms over his head. He stared at his parents, his eyes narrowing in disbelief for a few seconds, before slapping my shoulder.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” he said, squeezing me as if he needed to do something with all that energy now that wedidn’t have to hide anymore. “I thought this would be a longer conversation.”
“Oh, if you want it, wecandiscuss this,” Dany replied with a smug grin. “I bet your mom is dying to know if that means we’ll get to see you more often in Seastone. Or is Alex moving away now?”
Laura took Dany’s hands. “Easy.”
Sebastian chuckled and shook his head. “Actually, I can answer that. For now, neither. This was my last week before I have to focus entirely on my studies.” He looked at me. “But the end of summer isn’t far off.”
We hungout with Laura and Dany for another half hour before Sebastian asked if it was okay for us to spend the rest of the day working on our music. While they insisted we all have dinner together, they agreed—probably also knowing it was just a pretext. His real intentions were obvious: he just wanted to spend the rest of the day alone with me.
When we made it to my room, he threw himself onto my bed. “I hope you don’t mind that I used the music as an excuse.”
He patted the spot next to him. I climbed on top of him and rested my ear against his chest. His heart beat steadily. He was so warm.
“Can we stay like this for a little while?” he asked, his palms finding my shoulder blades.
“Of course.”
He brushed his nose against my hair and pulled me closer to his chest. “This is hard,” he whispered. “No matter how much I tried to sound mature about finishing my studies andeverything… I have to admit I don’t want to leave here without you.”
His words made me hold my breath. The warmth he offered did little to ease the weight of what he had just said. Sure, we had two more nights together, but that wasn’t much compared to the months we’d have to wait before seeing each other again.
“We’ll talk every day,” I said, hoping it would help.
“Of course we will. But I already miss your touch.” He pressed his hands more firmly against me. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone, Alex. I thought I was in love before, but now that I’ve met you, I realize I wasn’t. Whenever I was away from someone I was dating, I just shrugged it off. I still had myself. But the thought of being away from you makes me tremble. I wish I could put you in my pocket and smuggle you out of here.”
“Same.” I looked up as a thought crossed my mind, “You know, now that your parents know, I could actually visit you in Las Vegas without having to keep it a secret.”
“You want to visit me?” Sebastian pulled his head back, a smirk spreading across his face. “You know what that means: I only have a small apartment. You’d have to share a tiny bed with me. Not one of those fancy, touristy Vegas suites everyone else gets.”
I glanced at our feet, crammed together at the end of the twin bed we were lying in. “You mean a tiny bed like this one?” We both laughed. “What torture.”
