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“Get on a plane,” he whispers. “Just come back.”

And I’ll take care of you. He doesn’t say it aloud, but I hear it anyway.

“Come back where?” I ask. “I don’t even have a home.”

“Come to me.”

“I can’t,” I whisper. “You have no idea how badly I wish I could, but I can’t. There’s another press call tomorrow, and a charity thing tomorrow night, and then I leave for Berlin. And you’re leaving anyway.”

He sighs. “Where are you now?”

“In my hotel room,” I tell him. “And I’m supposed to be at some party, and Davis is going to be such a dick about this tomorrow and make my life so much harder to punish me.”

“Get undressed. Keep me on the phone.”

I laugh through my tears. “This is taking an unexpected turn.”

“I’m not taking advantage of your exhaustion to have phone sex, I promise. Get undressed and climb into bed.”

I still have all my makeup on and my hair is like a shellac helmet on my head, but I’m so tired and…fuck it. I’m here for whatever he’s about to suggest, the makeup and hair be damned. I unzip the side of the dress and exhale in relief when it’s off. The strapless bra that’s been digging into my rib cage for hours soundlessly follows.

“Put me on speaker,” he says, “and turn out the lights.”

I pad across the carpeted floor, flicking out lights as I go, and then climb into the bed at last. They’re the smoothest sheets I’ve ever felt in my life.

“Oh my god, it’s such a comfy bed, Josh. I wish you were here.”

“I wish I were too,” he says.

I smile suggestively in the dark. “What would you do?”

“Given that you’re still crying, I wouldn’t do anything especially exciting,” he says with a quiet laugh. “I’d lay down with you, and I’d pull your back to my chest, and I’d wrap my arms around you and stay just like that until you fell asleep.”

Does anyone but me know how sweet he is? How much goodness lies under that cranky exterior? I lay the phone on my pillow and roll to face it, as if it’s him there beside me.

“You would totally get a boner,” I reply. “I’m naked.”

“I’d think about amputations to prevent it, if necessary.”

I grin. “I always wanted a guy who’d think about amputations when I’m naked next to him.”

“Then apparently I’m your prince,” he says with another small laugh. “Okay. You’re in bed? The lights are off? Close your eyes.”

His voice and this soft bed are lulling me to sleep, but I’m not ready to go yet. I feel like I just got him.

“I don’t want to stop talking to you,” I whisper.

“I’m going to be right here, just like I would be there.”

It’s afternoon in California. I guess he’s packing to leave for Somalia and once he’s there, whatever this is with us will be over.

“I wish we had that whole two weeks back, from Hawaii. I wish it had been different.”

“I do too,” he says, “but it was pretty perfect in its own way.”

I smile. “You mean the little replica of the Washington Monument in my back during the camping trip? The moment I realized you kind of liked me?”

“I don’t love the fact that you’re calling it little, baby.”