“JuJu?” he says after a while.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for coming over.”
“Thank you for asking.” I twist just enough to brush my lips over the inside of his wrist. “You know you basically love-bombed me into moving in on night one, right?”
“I would’ve shown up at your door with a boom box if you’d said no,” he admits, nuzzling into my hair. “Full John Cusack. Zero shame.”
“That’s really creepy.”
“I know. But I couldn’t spend another night without you.” Hishand runs through my hair. “Is it insane that one week with you wrecked every other bed I’ve ever slept in?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “But same.”
He makes a low, happy sound and pulls me tighter, like he’s trying to fuse us together. Sleep drags us under still tangled, limbs heavy, hearts loud in the quiet.
“We needto leave in twenty minutes.”
Romeo’s voice pulls me out of sleep. Wrong bed. Wrong room.
Then I remember. I showed up at 11 PM because I couldn’t sleep without him.
“JuJu?” He’s in the doorway, already dressed. “You awake?”
“Unfortunately.”
“You don’t have to come with me,” he says. “You could stay here, sleep in?—”
“I have work at ten. With Marnie.” I force myself to sit up. The sheet pools and Romeo’s eyes track the movement. I’m wearing his t-shirt and nothing else. “I should probably drive separately.”
“Or you could just come with me. Save gas.”
“Romeo—”
“We’re both going to the same place.”
He says it like it’s simple. Like we’re not about to announce to his entire team that we’re together.
“What if people notice?”
“Let them notice.”
“Easy for you to say.”
He crosses the room and sits on the edge of the bed. “What are you worried about?”
Everything.
“I don’t know. You’re a professional athlete. I’m a skating instructor. People are going to talk.”
“So let them talk.”
“You keep saying that like it’s simple.”
“It is simple.” He tucks hair behind my ear. “I like you. You like me. We’re together.”
I want to believe it can be that easy.
