Chapter 21
tino
When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t move right away.
Mostly because I couldn’t.
Something—someone—was draped across my chest like an incredibly soft, incredibly warm human blanket.
It took my groggy brain a few seconds to process that the weight pinning me down was Lilah.
Lilah, who was supposed to be sleeping at least six inches away on her side of the bed.
Lilah, who apparently turned into a koala in her sleep.
Her arm was looped over my middle. One of her knees rested across my thigh.
Her face—heaven help me—was buried against my shoulder, her breath fanning across my neck in slow, even puffs.
For a long moment, I just lay there, frozen, eyes open and heart hammering.
I knew I should probably move. Roll away, extract myself, anything.
But I couldn’t seem to make myself do it.
Because, honestly, it felt nice.
Dangerously nice.
I’d had dreams about her that felt less intimate than this.
Her hair had fallen into her face, all tangled and messy from sleep.
Her glasses were sitting on the nightstand beside her phone, so she wasn’t wearing them, but I could picture them perfectly anyway—how she always pushed them up her nose in the mornings, how she’d squint at me like I was the most irritating blur in existence.
The room was quiet except for her steady breathing and the faint hum of the heater.
Morning light filtered in through the blinds, painting everything in this soft, golden haze.
At some point in the night, the blanket had slid halfway off us, exposing her bare shoulder.
I tugged the comforter up a little higher, trying to be a decent person even as my pulse refused to calm down.
She shifted, murmuring something I couldn’t quite catch, her hand tightening against my side before she finally blinked awake. I stayed frozen, waiting for her to wake up enough to realize what exactly was happening here.
It took her a second to realize where she was.
Then she froze. And, very slowly, she lifted her head and looked at me.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. Her voice was rough from sleep, her hair sticking out in about twelve different directions.
“Morning,” I said, trying—and failing—not to smile.
Her eyes narrowed instantly. “Are you smiling?”
I tried to force the grin off my face, but the more I fought it, the more I wanted to smile.
“Tino.” Her tone was warning, but it didn’t help her case that she was still half-curled against me, blinking like a sleepy kitten.
“You’re the one who attacked me in your sleep,” I said. “I was minding my own business on my side of the bed.”
“I did not attack you.”
“You did,” I said. “Full ambush. You’ve been using me as a pillow for at least twenty minutes.”
She groaned and rolled away from me, burying her face in the pillow instead. “I hate everything.”
“Yeah? You didn’t seem to hate it when you were drooling on me.”
Her head snapped up. “I did not drool!”
Before I could confirm or deny, a sharp knock rattled the door. Lilah’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t answer it,” she hissed.
“Why not?”
“Because we’re—” she waved a hand between us, “like this!”
I barely had time to reply before the door swung open anyway.
Luca leaned in, squinting against the light. “Morning—oh my eyes!” He threw up a hand dramatically. “I did not need to see this before coffee.”
Lilah let out a strangled noise and practically launched herself off me, scrambling for the edge of the bed. “Luca! Knock means wait!”
“I did wait,” he said. “For like three seconds. That’s basically a lifetime.”
I propped myself up on my elbows, trying not to laugh at the way she glared at her brother like she might kill him.
Luca grinned, entirely unbothered. “Relax. Asa’s making breakfast. Pancakes, I think. Or maybe omelets. Hard to tell. The point is, he’s yelling at the stove and it’s every man for himself.”
“Out,” Lilah said, pointing aggressively at the hallway.
Luca wiggled his eyebrows. “Sure thing. Just—uh—maybe put a sock on the door next time?”
“LUCA.”
He shut the door, still laughing, and his footsteps disappeared down the hall. For a moment, there was silence again. Then I lost it.
The laugh came out before I could stop it—quiet at first, then shaking my shoulders. Lilah turned to glare at me, cheeks flushed bright red.
“It’s not funny,” she said.
“It’s a little funny,” I said. “You should’ve seen your face.”
“You should’ve seen yours.”
“I did,” I said. “In the mirror this morning, when I realized you’d glued yourself to me.”
She groaned again, dragging a hand over her face. “I’m never living this down.”
“Oh, definitely not,” I said. “Luca’s probably already telling Asa and Nina.”
She shot me a look that could’ve melted steel. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “But in my defense, it’s not every day your fake girlfriend tries to smother you in her sleep.”
Her hand twitched like she wanted to throw something. I wisely rolled out of bed before she could find an object.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go before Luca decides to interrogate me about my intentions over pancakes.”
“Great,” she muttered, grabbing her glasses from the nightstand.
She shoved them on, blinking a few times as her eyes adjusted.
Her hair was still a mess, one sleeve of her sweatshirt was half rolled-up, and I had that same stupid feeling I always got seeing her like this—unfiltered, half-asleep, herself.
She looked over at me. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “You just… look awake now.”
“That’s usually the goal when I wake up.”
“Right.” I coughed. “Good talk.”
She shook her head, trying not to smile as she brushed past me toward the door. And I stood there for a second longer, staring at the rumpled sheets, my heart doing that weird off-beat thing again.
Because for all the pretending we’d been doing, for all the jokes and fake smiles, waking up with her had felt—
Real.
And that was a problem I didn’t even want to think about yet.