18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN #3
Stanley’s face twists. “What do you mean, today?”
“Today.”
Blue starts laughing. “That is definitely not what he’s asking.”
By then Lucy has both arms around me, and Mara is trying to get in on the hug from the other side.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a little while,” I admit.
Lucy pulls back fast enough that her hair swings over her shoulder. “A little while?”
I smile at her.
“No follow-up questions.”
Her jaw drops. “Gianna.”
“Absolutely none.”
Mara lifts one hand. “I can answer them.”
I turn slowly toward her. “Do you value your life?”
Her grin gets wider, but she lowers the hand.
Eventually the room starts moving again, mostly because Stanley decides relationship revelations do not outrank sushi. Rowan carries everything into the kitchen, and people begin opening containers and finding plates while the noise shifts into ten different conversations at once.
I end up sitting beside Rowan on the couch.
Actually beside him. My thigh is pressed against his, and his arm settles along the back of the couch behind me before eventually coming to rest around my shoulders.
I keep waiting for the old instinct to kick in — for one of us to shift away when someone looks over, or for me to check whether Benson noticed. It never comes.
Nobody reacts like the building is on fire. The absence of that tension feels stranger than the tension ever did.
Stanley appears in front of us a few minutes later with a plate piled high enough that Aspen has already told him twice to put something back.
He points one of his chopsticks at Rowan. “So did you ask?”
Rowan looks at me.
I immediately start laughing. “Oh, no.”
Aspen turns toward us from the kitchen. “What?”
I cover my mouth, already losing it. “This is so much worse.”
Rowan shakes his head. “G.”
“No, they need to know.”
“They absolutely do not.”
I feel giddy. “They absolutely do.”
The room starts quieting again because apparently everybody can sense when new information is about to become available.
I grin. “I called him my boyfriend while we were hooking up.”
Rowan closes his eyes.
The house detonates.
Lucy immediately covers both ears.
Benson sits up straighter. “That is enough information, G. Christ’s sake.”
“It gets worse,” I say.
“G,” Rowan warns.
Mara is already screaming. Stanley stumbles backward into Aspen, who has started laughing so hard she nearly spills her drink, while Blue bends forward with one hand over his face.
I try to keep talking through my own laughter.
“He stops and goes, ‘Your boyfriend?’”
Rowan’s hand lands on my thigh. “G.”
“So I said, ‘Feels like it.’”
Melly makes a high-pitched sound from the other end of the couch.
Aspen has tears in her eyes now.
“And then—”
“No,” Rowan says.
I turn toward him with my sweetest smile. “Yes.”
He gives me a look.
I ignore it.
“He goes, ‘Okay, girlfriend.’”
Mara clutches both hands to her chest. “That is actually adorable.”
“It was.”
Stanley points at Rowan in disbelief. “That’s how you asked her?”
Rowan is bright red. “I didn’t ask her.”
The entire room turns toward him. Rowan seems to realize what he has admitted about one second too late.
Lucy looks horrified. “You didn’t ask her?”
He blinks. “No.”
I start laughing again. “Apparently I had already been his girlfriend for a while. I just didn’t know.”
Percy shakes his head slowly from his chair. “Laurens.”
Rowan looks around the room like he genuinely cannot understand why everybody is making this complicated. “What? She is.”
Something about the simplicity of it shuts me up for half a second.
There is no embarrassment in his voice. No defensiveness. He does not look like a guy trying to talk himself into a label because a room full of people pressured him into one.
His hand settles more firmly on my thigh. “She’s my girl.”
My stomach does an embarrassing little flip.
Mara makes another shrieking sound.
Stanley stares at Rowan for a second before shaking his head. “I hate how well that worked.”
I turn toward Rowan.
He’s already looking at me.
I smile. “See? Romantic.”
He smiles at me. Then he leans in and kisses me.
The entire house screams and falls over with laughter.
By the time dinner is mostly gone, everybody has finally found something else to discuss. Stanley and Blue are arguing about a play from last night. Aspen has her laptop open on the island. Lucy is telling Melly something about class.
I lean closer to Rowan until my mouth is near his ear. “Boyfriend.”
He turns his head slowly. “Still?”
“Forever.”
He looks up and inhales. “That seems aggressive.”
I laugh. “You’re the one who apparently made me your girlfriend without asking.”
“You agreed.”
“I agreed retroactively.”
“That counts.”
“It absolutely does not.”
His mouth starts to curve.
I kiss his cheek before he can keep arguing. This time I don’t check who saw. I don’t look toward Benson. I don’t pull away quickly. I just stay close to Rowan with his hand warm against my leg and the whole room carrying on around us.
For the first time since this started, there is nothing left to hide.