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“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Every morning we wake up together, you wear nothing but my shirt, and I make you breakfast.”
I kiss her. It’s not until I break the kiss that I realize what I said, how serious I sound.
I sound like I want to make things official with Tori. And right now she’s gone silent while staring at me, clearly so thrown off that she doesn’t know what to say.
Shit.
I mean, I do want to make things official with Tori. I’d make her my girlfriend in a heartbeat, if that’s what she wants too…
I halt that thought as it forms in my brain. I can’t think about that now, not when she looks completely freaked out at the thought of us together for real.
I clear my throat and try to laugh, but it sounds so forced and unnatural. I know it’s not convincing.
I take a step back. “Sorry, that probably sounded weird?—”
“It doesn’t,” she says.
I pause. “It doesn’t?”
She shakes her head. Those golden-brown eyes are bright and focused as she stares at me.
“Do you mean that?” she asks. “Do you want to do this every day? Do you want things between us to be real?”
I take a breath as the nerves inside of me fire off. “Yes. I’m done faking this. I want this to be the real thing, Tori. I want to be with you.”
I hold my breath, waiting for her reply.
A beat later she grins wide and wraps her arms around my neck. She pulls me against her and kisses me.
“I want to be with you too,” she says when we break apart.
I rest my forehead against hers and smile. My heart pounds in my chest. I’m thrilled and relieved all at once.
“You answered that a lot quicker than I expected,” I say.
She lets out a soft chuckle. “That was the easiest ‘yes.’ Of my life. Amazing sex and you cook? Sign me up.”
I stumble back as I laugh. She pulls me back to her and cups her hands on my cheeks. “The second easiest ‘yes’ was when you asked me to be your fake girlfriend.”
Her eyes search mine as she gazes at me. There’s a rawness in her stare, almost like she’s afraid to admit that to me.
I move closer so I’m standing between her legs again. She wraps her legs around my waist and I snake my arms around her middle.
“I’ve liked you from the moment I met you, Tori. I wanted to ask you out from the get-go, but I didn’t because…”
I feel so embarrassed even talking about this.
Her eyebrows crash together. “Because why?”
I huff out a breath. “Because I know I’m not boyfriend material. For so long I’ve been the guy who hooks up—the guy who’s a good time in bed, but not the serious boyfriend type. And for a long time, I was fine with that. But then I met you. I didn’t want to just hook up with you. I wanted to date you. But my brother and sister and our friends warned me to stay away from you. They didn’t have a whole lot of faith that I could treat you well. I know that makes me sound like a jerk.”
She shakes her head as she holds my face in her hands. “They warned me too. I liked you from the start too, but they all told me to stay away from you, that I was sure to get my heart broken.”
Just hearing her say that feels like a punch to the gut.
Tori starts to smile. “But maybe it’s good that we waited. Maybe it’s good that things worked out the way they did. We were friends first. We have that solid foundation. Sex and a relationship is just the cherry on top, right?”
