“With the best man?”
“Also me.”
The bartender grins. “He had it coming. I heard what he said.” He pulls out a bottle from under the bar. “Here. On the house.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Get out of here before my manager sees.”
Rodriguez takes the bottle. “You’re a legend.”
We leave before anyone can stop us. Rodriguez is holding the champagne like a trophy. I’m trying not to laugh.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” I say in the elevator.
“I promised you stolen champagne. I’m a man of my word.”
“That was given champagne, not stolen.”
“Same difference.”
The elevator ride feels endless, Romeo’s thumb tracing circles on my hand the entire time. When we finally reach our floor, the hallway stretches out with that particular hotel silence—muffled TVs behind doors, the distant hum of heaters, someone’s room service tray abandoned by their door.
“Having second thoughts?” Romeo asks, misreading my hesitation.
“No. Just—” I watch him juggle the champagne bottle while fishing for the key card. “This morning feels like a week ago.”
“This morning I didn’t have a police record.” The lock clicks green and he pushes the door open, setting the champagne on the entry table with a flourish. “Now I’m a dangerous criminal.”
“‘Criminal’ is a gross exaggeration of what actually happened.”
“Let me have my bad boy moment.” He turns to face me. “Hi, JuJu.”
“Hi.”
“You’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“You’re definitely nervous.” He moves closer. “We don’t have to?—”
“I want to.” The words come out fast. “I’m not nervous about that. I’m nervous about—” I stop. “Everything else.”
“What everything else?”
“The fact that I can’t stop thinking about you. The fact that you got in a fight for me. The fact that your name is Romeo and mine is Juliette and we’re literally a walking cliché.” I’m rambling now but I can’t stop. “The fact that you see me. And that terrifies me because what if I’m not actually worth seeing? What if?—”
He kisses me.
Soft and slow and sure.
When he pulls back, I’m breathless.
“You’re worth seeing,” he says quietly. “You’re worth everything, JuJu. And I’m going to spend however long it takes convincing you of that.”
“Romeo—”
“Yeah?”
