Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
One Month Later
I sit on the steps outside our apartment building, my eyes wandering from my book to the sidewalk as I wait for Marcus to come home from work. Home. Yes. Definitely. It feels like it more than any other place we’ve been so far. Especially now that we have an apartment in a quiet neighborhood instead of a sleazy motel, jobs that pay enough (even if barely), and a routine that gives us time together. It took us a week to find this place. We checked apartment listings and went to a few until we both agreed on this one. It was perfect: great location, friendly people, didn’t require background checks, and it wasn’t Las Vegas. My mind has quieted since we moved in, even though occasionally, guilt drags it into a downward spiral, reminding me that while this is starting to feel like home, Marcus’s heart never quite made it here from the Stanford soccer field.
It’s surprisingly warm for early November. I wish it would snow. I’ve never seen snow, and now that we have an apartment with a working heater and fireplace, I’m ready for it. I think. Probably not, but I want to see it anyway.
My phone buzzes. I smile at the name on my screen.
Marcus: Hey—it’s Darius Bromley. So … I hope you don’t mind that I’m texting you, but I got your number from that guy you’re always with, and I’m wondering if you’re busy tonight.
Biting my lip, I set down my book and type a response.
Mei: Sorry. I already have big plans tonight.
Marcus: Do they include a meteor shower and me picking you up at 7:30?
I check the clock on my phone. 7:28. My smile widens.
Mei: Hmmm… It’s kind of late notice, but maybe I can rearrange some things.
Marcus: See what you can do. You won’t regret it. I don’t think you’ve ever met a Darius like this one.
The same rush of anticipation and cracking nerves I felt six months ago on my fire escape pulses in my veins. I set my phone in my lap, hand over my thudding heart. Exactly one and a half minutes later, Marcus is standing in front of me, a giant bag of gummy bears in his hand.
“Hey.” He smiles, and it beams through my jacket, my shirt, and straight into my heart.
“Darius?” I stand, pocketing my phone, and wrap my arms around his neck.
“Wow,” he breathes. “You don’t waste time.”
“Not when I like what I see.”
His hands circle my waist. “Can’t wait to see how the rest of this first date goes…”
I shrug and wiggle my eyebrows, then bend to pick up my book on the step. “How was work? And are those gummy bears for me, by chance…?”
“Work was long, thanks for bringing it up. Gonna be honest, refereeing indoor soccer games isn’t as exciting as playing, but it pays rent and leaves enough to splurge on the finer things in life. Like these gummy bears to seduce you with while watching a meteor shower.”
“Did you special order this meteor shower?”
“Yeah. Been waiting for ten years, but it’s finally arriving tonight. Think I’ve figured out the best place to watch it.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me up the cement steps and inside our apartment building, but instead of stopping on the third floor, he keeps going. We hit the fifth floor, and Marcus walks me to a door at the end of the hall.
“Found this last night while you were at work, and I was bored.” He pulls the door open to a dark, concrete staircase that leads to the roof.
“Good find, Bromley,” I say as he leads me to a pile of blankets and pillows on a flat section of the roof. “I wish Marcus would find cool things like this for us.” I smile and plop down on the blanket pile. “He never does anything surprising or funny or interesting. And he’s definitely not hot like you.”
Marcus drops the bag of gummy bears and flops to his back beside me. I snuggle against him, enjoying the silence as the setting sun disappears and night replaces it.
Marcus rolls to his side, looking down at me. He pulls a Sharpie from his pocket and grabs my wrist, writing on it. When he finishes, he blows on it, then holds it up so I can read his message.
365-Forever
It’s been a long time since he’s written anything on me, and I kiss the words, then grab his neck and pull him down on top of me. His hands and lips work their magic, and I wrap myself around him until all I want is to be locked inside our apartment, but the more he kisses me and the hotter his whispered thoughts get, the more I don’t care where we are. His mouth’s on my neck, hands on my back, holding me against him. I’m on his lap, sweaters and hoodies dropping to the blanket. Cold air brushes against my skin, and his mouth’s on my neck, hands on my back, holding me against him. His fingers knot in my hair, and I push him to his back just as sirens whine to life on the street below. My head snaps up. I almost forgot we’re on this rooftop—the rooftop of a large apartment complex where a lot of other people live.
“Darius and Peggy are going to get charged with indecent exposure if they don’t stop.”
He groans, his arms spread wide across the blanket beneath us, and he sighs loudly to the sky.
I laugh, propping my chin on his chest. “Pause button?”
“Think my pause button’s broken. Only rewind and fast forward.” He mimics punching a remote button, pointing it toward me.
I laugh and sit up, grab the bag of gummy bears, then snuggle in beside him, looking at the sky. “Guess we can take out our frustrations on these poor, innocent gummy bears.”
He groans again but nuzzles my neck, and I flinch and smile when the stubble on his chin rakes across my skin. He slings his arm around me, holding me closer to his side, and I grab a handful of gummy bears and pop a few into my mouth. But they’re smaller than normal and I stop, holding one up between my fingers. “Ummm… Marcus? Where did the rest of the gummy bears go?”
“Are you so distracted by my body that you missed this?” He picks up the bag, shaking it above us.
“No—there are only heads. Lots and lots of gummy bear heads. Where did their bodies go?”
“Didn’t realize you’re so picky.” He works to keep a smirk off his face.
“I only eat whole gummy bears, bodies and heads intact.”
“You’re vicious.”
I pinch his side, and he squirms, grinning.
“What did you do to them, Marcus?”
“Look…I had a really long break between games. I was starving, so I opened the bag and ate a few.” He pauses dramatically, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. “Maybe a few more than a few.”
“But why just the heads…?”
“Because…the heads taste the best. Plus, I feel weird eating the butts.”
I lean up on my elbow, looking down at him, then burst out laughing and fall to my back again. “You are so weird ! Who thinks of stuff like that?”
He smiles and rolls into me, his hand on my neck, fingers threading in my hair. “I must not be too weird since you were about to get me naked on this rooftop.”
“Oh, you’re definitely weird,” I murmur in the slit of night air between our faces, “but I just so happen to be madly in love with weird. Can’t get enough of it.”
We make out under blankets and eat gummy bear bums, taking breaks to watch the stars shooting through the darkness above us until the temperature drops.
When I shiver, Marcus gets up and pulls me to my feet, and we gather the blankets and pillows and tuck them under our arms as we walk across the roof to the door, hips bumping against each other.
“Someday, Mei, we’re gonna have our own house and our own roof where we can do whatever we want.”
“All I really want is you, but…I’d probably really like you on a roof doing whatever we want too.”
Marcus tries to turn the doorknob, but it doesn’t move. He wiggles it again and swears. “It’s locked. Not even kidding.” He knocks while I try the knob like it just might open for me. “Okay. So let’s look for a ladder or…something.” He turns, surveying the roof for inspiration.
I grab my book, grateful I used a bobby pin as a bookmark. “Can you shine your phone on the doorknob?”
Marcus frowns but gets his phone out and illuminates the lock.
I hunch over the doorknob and slip my bobby pin into the hole. I wiggle it around until I hear the dull thud of the lock sliding away.
Marcus peers over my shoulder and whistles. “Just when I think I know you…”
“When you have a cousin who’s shady, you learn shady things that are useful sometimes.” I smile and swing open the door, and we’re back inside the building, skimming down the stairs to the second floor and our apartment.
“That was hot, Mei,” Marcus whispers as he unlocks our door, his hair standing at angles from static and my hands. Inside, he tosses the blankets and pillows on the couch, drops the key on the counter, and presses me against the door in the dark.
His mouth is hot against mine, the rest of his face cold as I whisper against his lips, “Unpause.”