ME: yes
ME: you should probably just start budgeting expanding your wardrobe at this point
CADE: already have actually
CADE: I’ve accepted that half my wardrobe belongs to you now
I physically pressed my lips together trying not to smile into my pillow like an idiot.
He wasn’t even trying hard. Nothing about Cade’s flirting felt rehearsed or overly polished. It just flowed naturally, like he genuinely enjoyed talking to me more than anybody else.
Which was deeply concerning for my mental health.
ME: good acceptance is the first stage of healing
CADE: is it healing if I like seeing you in my clothes?
Okay, this is what fucks me up. That subtle dangerous line he kept stepping over without making it feel dirty or overly obvious. Cade somehow managed to flirt in ways that felt intimate instead of rehearsed, and honestly that was probably why every single text hit me ten times harder than it should have.
The way we were both dancing around the ‘closet incident’ still had me on edge though.
Then again, nothing he said sounded copied and pasted from some hockey-boy playbook. He didn’t flirt like someone trying to collect girls. He flirted like someone paying attention specifically to me, and goodness, that distinction was becoming a serious problem for my emotional stability.
Because “I like seeing you in my clothes” should not have affected me the way it did.
And yet suddenly all I could picture was oversized black KFU shirts hanging off one shoulder while Cade’s body stretch before me as he worked one out.
The bear is legit walking away from me because even it knows I’m an idiot.
ME: depends, are we talking hoodies or are you planning on donating your entire closet to the cause
CADE: you can wear ANYTHING in my closet, Pip
My entire body went warm reading it and seeing it in my mind all over again, the implication there absolutely did not feel accidental.
ME: really? Because oversized T-shirts are kind of my thing
The silence after sending that bullshit response was killing me. I just laid there staring at my ceiling fan in crisis.
‘Why the hell would you send that you absolute rookie.He is baiting you’
Then finally—
CADE: that’s very interesting information
Good grief.
I rolled onto my stomach hugging my pillow while rereading it three separate times because apparently humiliation wasn’t enough anymore. Now I also needed emotional self-destruction before midnight.
Then my phone buzzed again.
CADE: let’s play twenty questions
My stomach flipped immediately.
ME: oh, this feels dangerous already
CADE: probably
