I don’t know what it means that his blinding smile makes me delirious. Or if I do, I’m choosing not to examine why too closely. The man is like a living, breathing sun ray.
“Then we havea lotof work to do.”
11
Julian
Leti is flustered when she opens the front door. Her usually tamed hair is sticking up in places, and her cheeks are glistening and slightly pink. My thoughts are a wild, terrible jumble that belong in the deepest part of the gutter, because there’s no reason Leti looking red-faced and panting should be doing strange things to my nervous system.
For a moment, she stares blankly at me without a word. We’d agreed to meet at her place at two this weekend, but I thought I’d make a better impression by arriving ten minutes early. She’s not a fan of tardiness, a fact I know twice over. Now I’m rethinking that plan entirely. Have I inconvenienced her by showing up early? I open my mouth to greet her when a waft of something foul-smelling hits my nostrils.What the hell?As hard as I try to resist covering my nose by holding my breath, my face is doing something else.
“Bad time?” I somehow manage to ask without coughing.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” Her face falls as she turns to something behind her. “It’s a little chaotic around here, hence the toddler puke making your eyes water.”
I blink a few times because inexplicably, my eyesaretearing up. Then, what she’s said finally hits me.
“You have a…” The blood drains from my face, mouth falling open in shock. Didn’t I go on a full rant about people having kids too soon on our second first date? It’s no wonder she hates me.
The laugh she lets out echoes off the walls. “Notmykid. My roommate’s.”
“Oh.Oh.” My shoulders deflate, as does the tension packed there. “Thank god. I realized I might have offended you when I said everyone was rushing into having kids too soon.”
“I was offended by proxy. You know, as an aunt of three.” As she lets me inside, she apologizes again. “I live with my best friend and her daughter. She got sick out of nowhere, so Bella’s taking her to urgent care.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sure that’s a lot for your friend to deal with. If you need to reschedule—”
“Her ex, Luis, is meeting her there, so she won’t be alone. Otherwise, I would’ve canceled.” She shakes her head, as if only now remembering the noxious fumes we’re both inhaling. “Sorry. Um…if the smell is too bad, maybe we can do this at your place instead?”
“Your brother has a couple people over,” I tell her. “Might get a little distracting down there.”
Plus, I know she won’t want to explain to Andrew how we know each other, let alone that I’m helping her shake up her dating accounts. I’m not sure why she’s so against telling him that we know each other, but I’m also not about to rock the boat when she just started liking me. I’ll get to the bottom of Leti and Andrew’s relationship later.
“We’ll do this in my room, then.” She points in the direction and lets me know she’ll be right there. Then she reaches for a bottle of Febreze on the TV stand.
In her bedroom, I glance around the walls covered in posters, assorted art prints, and Polaroids. I only spot Andrew in a handfulof group photos, but Bella and Elena are in every single one. It’s a stark difference from Andrew’s space, which is shamefully lacking in family photos or memorabilia of any kind. No wonder I never made the connection between them sooner.
Surprisingly, Leti is smiling in every picture. Or maybe it’s not so surprising, and she saves her scowls for me. I’ve never seen her smile like that in person—I didn’t even think she could. She’s so delightfully snarly all the damn time, though it would probably annoy her to know how adorable I find it.
Butthis—this is a real smile. Not the condescending smirks or humorless laughs I’m used to. And its fucking radiant on her. It has me catching myself thinking dangerous thoughts, like,I want to be the one who makes her smile like that.
I shake my head. That’s not what I’m here for, and it’s certainly not what she wants from me. I’m here to help her find someone else. But really, I’m here for the same reason I swiped right on her profile a few weeks ago. Not because I’m delusional enough to believe there could be something real between us, but because there’s something about Leti I can’t seem to shake.
“Sorry about that.” She finally enters behind me, looking sheepish for probably the first time I’ve known her. “Mari’s never been sick like that before. I completely forgot you were coming over—otherwise I would’ve rescheduled, or at least warned you ahead of time.”
“No worries,” I tell her, turning back to her walls and then her desk setup. Two monitors take up the bulk of space, with an open laptop and a Nintendo Switch placed between them. Two pairs of Bluetooth headphones hang from the purple monitor on the left. “Can’t smell the puke in here, so that’s a plus.”
She chuckles softly, then goes rigid as I pick up the gaming console. “Please put that back.”
“I knew you were a gamer, but I didn’t think you were agamer,”I tell her, carefully setting it back down where I found it. “This is…intense.”
“We all have a hobby that keeps us sane, right?” She shrugs, but it turns into a wince as I plop myself down in her desk chair. It’s plush and oversize, possibly the most comfortable seat my ass has ever had the pleasure of sitting on. Which is a shame, since she’d rather I not be sitting on it if her uncomfortable expression is anything to go by.
“I don’t think I like this.”
“Don’t like what?” I spin in the chair until my back is to her, taking in the colorful knickknacks artfully cluttering her desk. The urge to touch everything isstrong, but something tells me I’m one wrong move away from being kicked out of her apartment.
“You, in my space, touchingeverything.”
