Chapter Twenty-Five #2
Afterward, I flip onto my stomach and stretch my arms over my head in a dead man’s float pose.
With the sheets tangled in a bunch at the bottom of the bed, I’m fully naked and 100 percent exposed.
I hear Adam shift and then feel his lips on my butt.
“I didn’t know you had a birthmark.” He kisses my lower cheeks once, twice, three times.
“I meant to say something when I was teaching you best customer service practices at work, but it slipped my mind.”
He chuckles. “It’s adorable.”
I flip over. “Carley has the same one on the back of her neck.”
“You win.”
We make googly eyes at each other. “Why are you single, Sabrina?” He wrinkles his nose. “I’m assuming you’re single.”
“I hate that question.”
He winces. “So do I. Sorry. It just slipped out. But you’re pretty great, you know? Funny, smart, caring, patient…”
“Go on.” I’m impressed none of the adjectives he’s used are about my looks. Except now I wonder if he even finds me physically attractive or if I just have a nice personality .
“I’ve almost congratulated my grandma on scoring such a hot roommate several times.”
I’m unashamedly ecstatic about this add-on but play it cool. “But you were too busy warning her I could potentially rob her blind?”
“I thought we were over that.” He tickles my arm.
“We are.” I run my fingers over the red marks on his. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Worth it.” He grins. “Another thing… you always smell so good… like roses and something else I can’t place.”
“Vanilla. It’s my shower gel.”
His eyes go dreamy. “It’s nice.”
“Thank you. You always smell like grapefruit. I like it too.”
“Thank you back. You’ve conveniently not answered my question… about being single.”
I lie on my side so we’re facing each other, our noses practically touching.
“I am unattached at the moment. I’ve had two ‘serious’ boyfriends, one in high school and one in college, but only serious in that we dated for a longish time and were exclusive.
We never talked about ‘the future’ or anything.
” I genuinely cared about Eric and Seth, but I don’t think I loved them and was keenly aware neither were my forever person.
It’s safe to say neither relationship will inspire any second-chance romance novels.
“Reasons for breaking up?”
I hook my leg around his. “Nothing bad . In both cases it was graduation, which is entirely void of drama, but I’m not complaining.”
“There’s been no one since college?” He brushes his foot up and down my leg.
“Less than a handful of hookups. Between work and school, a relationship hasn’t been a priority.” I poke him in the chest. “Enough about me. Your turn.”
“I’m single too.”
“Nuh-uh, buddy. You have to give me more than that.”
He makes a face, a nonverbal fine . “I’m also unattached. I met Ashley at Academy Records and we hung out a few times, but it was casual. I’ve also had two ‘serious’ girlfriends. The first one was my college girlfriend.”
“And?”
“And…” He brushes hair off my forehead. “We’re not together anymore.”
“You don’t want to get into it. Understood.” This is not me being passive aggressive. Having sex with me does not obligate him to divulge details about his romantic history. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious. Would his college sweetheart story inspire a second-chance romance novel?
“No, it’s fine. She moved back to Seattle after graduation. We tried to make it work long distance, but when I went to visit her the last time, she told me she’d met someone else.”
I throw my hand against my mouth. “She let you fly all the way there just to break up with you? Yikes.”
He chuckles. “Yikes is right.”
“What about the second one?”
“We met on an app and dated for a little over a year but fought when I quit my second job in a row. She accused me of looking for red flags or reasons to quit jobs like other people quit relationships and that she didn’t want to be with someone so flakey and incapable of being a grown-up.
” His face flushes and it’s not a delayed reaction to all the fucking.
It’s clear this is uncomfortable for him.
“I asked if she expected me to stay in jobs that made me miserable and she said it wasn’t the jobs, it was me. ”
I grit my teeth. “Savage.”
He smiles. “I don’t miss her at all.”
“Of course you don’t. I bet she smells like asparagus.”
He scrunches his nose. “Random… but I’ll go with it. It’s really hard to figure out what you want to do while busy doing something else, so I came here to figure things out while also rebooting my relationship with Grams.”
“Have you?”
“Rebooted my relationship with my grandma? We’re getting there. But I still don’t know what I want to do as far as a career and kind of afraid I never will. In the meantime, I’m having fun working at the library. Aside from the demon kids who weaponize juice pouches.” He grins.
I smooth out a lock of his hair that’s standing up, figuring that if I’m ever going to take liberties with touching him, a safe time is probably in bed after we’ve had sex twice.
“You can’t live on a library page’s salary forever, so unless you want to go back to school for your MLIS it’s a temporary gig. ”
He rolls his eyes like a petulant teenager. “Thanks, Dad.”
I throw my hand to my mouth. “You did not just say that.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, laughing.
“I am too. I didn’t mean to overstep.” He already said he was afraid he’d never figure things out and I went ahead and rubbed salt in the wound.
His face turns serious. “I’m aware that I’m delaying the inevitable by living with my grandma and working as a page, but besides wanting to get to know her better, I hope I can make up for what happened between her and my dad.”
I open my mouth to argue that it’s not his responsibility but clamp it shut because I understand the urge to want to exert control over a situation you have no control over.
“Well, you’re definitely not going to figure out your future this minute.
” I lessen the space between us and raise my leg so it’s now wrapped around his waist. If I twist my body an inch, I can be on top of him.
“So let’s focus on the present. What shall we do right now?
” I could sleep for days, but I also really want to take advantage of the man in my bed one more time.
He flips me over and pins me under him. “Round three?”