There’s a light knock at the bedroom door, so I look up.
“Hey,” Benson says as he pops his head in.
I wave. “In the clear.”
The door falls open, and then he grabs the towel hanging behind it. “I’m going to hop in the shower. Are you good?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
His eyes go down to my legs for a beat. They come back up. He clears his throat. He walks out of the room and closes the door behind him.
I pick the phone up again and try to think of what to reply to my mom. She’s not a big texter or phone person, so to see her leaving me a voicemail and texting me is different.
I type.
Me:I’m glad you and Tyr are doing well.
I look at it, then delete it because it sounds like a sentence from a Hallmark card.
Me:I’m glad about Tyr.
That reads odd too. I delete it.
Me:I’m really happy you’re happy. I’ll see you Friday.Love you.
I send it before I can talk myself out of it, and I put my phone aside.
The bedroom door opens a few minutes later, and Benson is wrapped in a towel. It’s low on his hips. His hair is wet and pushed back. It’s like déjà vu all over again. My heart slams against my chest when I look at his really good body.
He walks to the dresser and pulls a clean pair of boxers out of the top drawer. He keeps his back to me. He pulls the boxers on under the towel like he’s done it a million times before. Then he puts on his shorts. He undoes the towel around his waist and hangs up on the hook on the back of his door. He crosses the room with his t-shirt in his right hand and his hair dripping onto his shoulders. He sits on the edge of the bed next to me with the t-shirt still in his hand.
He looks at me and asks, “Tired?”
I nod.
He pulls the t-shirt over his head and says, “Let’s get into bed and cuddle.” He gets under the covers on his side. He holds the blanket up for me. I crawl over and slide under it on my side, and he closes the covers over both of us and clicks the lamp off. The room goes dark.
My head finds the space on his shoulder comfortably, and my body folds into him. He kisses the back of my head.
“Thanks for staying another night. I could get used to this.”
I smile. “Well, I’m no longer kicked out.”
“Yeah,” he says, pushing my hair out of his way. “You could have stayed home, unpacked, hung out with G, but I’m glad you came here instead.”
“Me too,” I admit, but it has me thinking about Gianna right now. I know she doesn’t like to be alone, and I hope she apologized because it was the right thing to do, not because it inconvenienced her. “Do you really think that we’re –– I mean Gianna and I are going to be okay with…” I trail off because I don’t know what me and Benson are. If we are anything.
He doesn’t even hesitate when he answers, “Yeah, I think we’re in the clear now.”
“Yeah?” I ask, feeling happy to hear that.
“Yeah.”
I am bracing for him to say something else, but he doesn’t. I’m dying to know if I mean anything more to him than whatever this is. He keeps showing up and acting a certain way, but I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t complicate things in my head. And like he can read my mind, he leans in and kisses the side of my cheek slowly. It’s exactly what I needed to stop my racing thoughts.
“Goodnight, Lucy,” he whispers.
I grin. “Night, Benson.”
