Kendall
LATER, AFTER WE’D showered and I’d fed him dinner like a good sleepover host, Rhys and I lounged together on my couch.
I played the role of the little spoon, clutching my Switch console as I made my way through my Animal Crossing: New Horizons dailies.
He was on his phone, but it felt good just being together.
Especially when he’d absently rub a hand over the indent of my waist or press a kiss into my hair like it just came so naturally to him to be affectionate with me.
He’d been so touch-starved when we’d started hooking up, and I loved being the person that could meet his needs for that.
I’d never dreamed of being so lucky in my entire life.
After a handful of minutes of comfortable quiet where we were both focusing on our respective screens, I started to process the noises coming from his phone.
“Are you watching something?” I wondered, and he cleared his throat like he was embarrassed or something.
“Oh, I was just checking on the game. Sorry. Is it too loud?”
“Game?” I repeated, turning my head to look at him. “Like a sports game?”
His mouth twitched into an amused grin. “Yeah. Football.”
“You could just watch it on my TV if you want,” I invited, gesturing to the flat-screen mounted to the wall across from us. His eyes flickered to it, and then back to mine, suddenly timid.
“Ah, that’s okay. I’m sure it would get on your nerves or something.”
“I don’t mind!” I promised. “It won’t bother me at all.”
When he only continued to stare at me with an odd sense of unease, I stretched out to grab the remote off the coffee table and push it into his hands.
“Well, I… I guess if you really don’t mind,” he said. “But I’ll turn it off if it starts to bug you.”
“Okay,” I said, only because it seemed like if I didn’t agree to that then he wouldn’t have the guts to actually turn it on. It was so weird. Was he used to getting in arguments over stuff like this?
I watched as he downloaded the ESPN app onto my TV, easily the most masculine thing that had ever or would ever be on there, logged in, and navigated to the game he’d been watching.
“So who are we rooting for?” I asked, and he snorted.
“The Colts.”
“Cute,” I decided. “Like a baby horse, right?”
“I guess,” he said, but I could tell by the tiny smirk on his face that he found my observation cute.
“Is this an important game?”
“Ah, not exactly. We’re in the offseason. Preseason starts in August.”
“So this is kind of like a practice game,” I determined.
“Well, no. It’s more than that,” he said. “You have to do well in the offseason to get put on the main roster for the team.”
“Oh, okay. That makes sense.”
Truthfully, I didn’t care much about any sports, football included, but the way his eyes lit up when he was talking about it was so attractive I couldn’t stop asking questions.
I let the game play out, peppering in occasional questions about the rules so he could explain them to me.
I could tell he liked it too, and he seemed way more relaxed than when he’d first turned it on.
“What are you doing there?” He eventually asked me, gesturing to the screen on my Switch.
“Animal Crossing,” I answered. The lack of recognition in his eyes informed me I’d need to elaborate.
“They’re really sweet and cozy. In this one, you move onto an island and build a house and, like, make friends and do tasks and collect stuff.
There’s a ton of characters and you kind of get to pick who moves onto the island, and how it’s decorated. ”
He tilted his head, watching as my character dug a fossil out of the ground.
“It’s cute.”
“Yeah! And it’s real time, so certain stuff resets every day. It’s really grounding,” I said, and he raised an eyebrow as he evaluated it.
“Cool.”
We spent the next handful of hours just snuggled together, chatting.
It was incredibly sweet, and my brain couldn’t help latching onto the fact that we could do this forever, if he’d just figure out that a quiet life with me, someone who would adore him forever and never judge him or make him feel inadequate, was exactly what he needed.
When we were like this, it didn’t even feel like it would be hard to convince him.
And we’d just fulfilled another requirement of the Perfect Relationship checklist: amazing sexual compatibility.
“So my dad knows a guy who owns a company, and they’re headquartered over in Westport,” Rhys said after a stretch of silence. Westport was a bigger city nearby, only a 15-minute drive away. “They’re looking to hire someone for their marketing department.”
“Oh?” I blinked as I waited for him to continue. I was between his thighs, comfortably settled on his chest.
On one hand, him getting a job nearby was good, because that meant he wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Then again, since I’d pretty much decided to make it my mission to keep him in Cherryvale, and I was the type of person who always accomplished the things I set my mind to, I wasn’t too worried about him wriggling out of my grasp.
There was a more pressing issue with the idea.
“I think I’m going to apply,” he finished.
“Do you… want to work in marketing?” I asked, analyzing his stormy expression. I was only asking as a courtesy. It was more than obvious that he didn’t.
“I mean… It’s going to pretty much be like my old job.”
“Did you like your old job?”
He hissed out a breath, letting his head fall back onto the arm of the couch. “It was a job. You’re not supposed to like it.”
“You don’t have to be miserable at work. That’s not a rule or anything,” I said, and he scoffed.
“Yeah, right.”
“You don’t!” I insisted. “I like my job.”
I waited for him to laugh at me, to tell me that frittering around the kitchen and acting cute in front of a camera barely qualified as a job, like I’d been told by other guys.
It had been a point of contention in the majority of the very short-lived relationships I’d been in.
Mostly because they were either jealous of the attention I received from my followers, or jealous of the money I made doing it.
Instead of bitterly ridiculing my choice of career, Rhys only sighed.
“I’m not creative like you, Sparkles. I can’t make things, or entertain people. The only thing I’ve ever been good at is playing football. And I sure as hell can’t do that.”
Sympathy coursed through me at the misery dripping from his words and I shifted a bit so I could wrap my arms around his torso and squeeze him tightly.
“You’ll figure it out. You can find something you won’t hate.”
“It feels like corporate bullshit is the only thing I have the qualifications for that will actually make money. Sure, maybe I could find something I wouldn’t despise, but who knows how much I’d make doing it?”
I wasn’t worried about money. Between the two of us, we’d be fine. He didn’t exactly know yet that our incomes would eventually be combined, but his slow brain was his own problem. And anyway, like I’d already told him before, I didn’t care about being rich. As long as I had him, I’d be happy.
“You don’t have to rush into anything,” I reminded him, nuzzling his chest before pressing a kiss over his heart. “I know you can find something that works for you. In the meantime, we’re all supporting you.”
“Great. I’m almost 30 and I still need my parents and some twink to take care of me because I couldn’t keep a damn job.”
“Some twink?” I repeated, raising my head to flick up an eyebrow at him.
“A very cute twink,” he clarified, backpedaling at the wry look on my face. “A very cute twink who I’m really fond of and that I appreciate very much. And who is very generous to let me sleep over at his apartment and cook me dinner. And have sex with me. A great twink. The best twink.”
Snorting, I gave him a light smack on his firm chest, shaking my head.
“Just think about what I said, okay? You obviously haven’t prioritized your own happiness up to this point. Maybe it’s time for you to do that.”
“Yeah, but imagine what people would say if I turned down an opportunity for a cushy marketing job just to take some low-paying thing that I don’t even know of yet.”
“Who cares what people say?” I asked, furrowing my brows together. “Wouldn’t you rather be happy?”
“Everyone’s going to think I’m a loser,” he argued, and suddenly his voice sounded very small and very unsure.
My heart pulsed in my chest, yearning for this complicated, broody person filling me up until it was spilling out of all my pores.
How could someone like him, who’d always been so popular and so confident be so insecure now?
“I won’t,” I swore softly, keeping my eyes locked directly on his, the intense shade of blue nearly making me swoon. “I will never, ever think that about you, Rhys. No matter what you decide to do. I’m on your side, no matter what. I promise.”
He stared at me, unblinking, for so long that my pulse skipped and my heart sped up in my chest. Finally, he reached out and yanked me against him, crushing his mouth to mine and kissing me until I thought I’d suffocate.
WEEKS PASSED IN a blur, a sparkly and swoony whirlwind that felt like I was living a fantasy life. Rhys and I had been spending more time together than ever, our lives clicking together seamlessly.
Things weren’t perfect. He’d been talking to his lawyer a lot about some of Hailey’s demands, and he’d been feeling more and more restless about the job situation.
He didn’t have much money saved, and most of his possessions were still tied up in the court proceedings.
But he’d started going out more, hanging around with the guy that he’d reconnected with on his date with Brie, which I thought was a good sign.
Socially integrating back into polite society could only be a good thing.