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“No, Noah. Keep your eggplant emojis to yourself, okay?”
Noah’s laugh sounds like he sure as hell doesn’t believe me.
I hang up the phone and walk out of the bathroom door, moving down the hallway until I find Ellis in the living room curled up on the couch with her phone in her hand. “The pizza should be done in exactly thirty seconds.” A wide smile splits her face when she sees me, eyes lingering on my hair briefly. “You have impeccable timing.” She pauses, pocketing her phone before stretching out her legs and moving to stand. “And you have purple hair.”
Simon hops down from where he had been seated next to her, prowling across the room until he props himself in front of the sliding back door. I don’t miss the way he glared at her—like he wasn’t ready to give up his spot cuddled in close.
“I see my cat is whoring himself out to you. I don’t know when he became so fond of strangers.”
She stops in front of me, eyes shining when she looks up. “Don’t judge your cat. You kissed me while sitting on a literal toilet with purple dye in your hair.”
I laugh, the deep sound booming through my apartment. “I’d do it again.”
The timer goes off for the pizza, and I spin on my heel, looking back once as Ellis follows me into the kitchen. I turn off the oven, grab a mitt, and pull out a frozen pizza.
“You didn’t catch my house on fire,” I state, grabbing the pizza cutter and working to divide our lunch
Ellis lets out an amused huff. “Of course, I didn’t burn the house down.” She grabs two plates from the cabinet and sets them on the counter. “How can you insult me like this? You let me dye your hair and draw a permanent crescent moon on your back, but you don’t trust me to make a pizza?” Her tone is laced with humor, and when I look at her, she’s smiling still, a dimple peeking out on her left cheek.
And damn if it doesn’t make me go soft.
Ryan and Noah are going to absolutely slaughter me.
I throw a few pieces of pizza on each plate and turn to face her. “I never did ask about the tattoo. Why a crescent moon?”
Her cheeks flush, and she looks away. I decide that particular shade of pink might be my new favorite color. “It was a simple design,” she says. “That and because we spent all night together. I don’t know. It seemed fitting. Don’t attach too much meaning to it.” She finally looks at me, and my heart leaps in my chest as I try to put zero meaning to it. Absolutely none. No meaning. “You can pretend it has no meaning if you want. It’syourpoorly done tattoo.”
I can’t help the crooked smile on my face. I’m sure it’s a dopey expression. “It’s officially my second favorite tattoo.”
She cocks an eyebrow. “Yoursecondfavorite?”
I lean against the counter, gazing down at her insulted expression, that humor still swirling in her brown eyes. “My brother will come back from the dead and haunt me with his freaky anime porn if I make your tattoo my favorite.” We’re standing close in my kitchen, and I can feel her fingers brush against mine, drawing me in closer. “I find that his ability tohaunt me is more dangerous than your affinity for the color purple.”
Ellis’s eyes are bright. “It looks good, by the way.” She reaches up, running her fingers through the still damp strands, analyzing her work. I want to pull her close again–to feel her skin on mine.
Fuck.
I cannot be hard right now.
“You think?” I grab her plate from behind me, holding it between us to offer it to her. “I think maybe you’re right, Ellie. You should quit cricket farming and take up a job as a hairstylist.”
When she grabs the plate, moves it to the side, and quickly presses a kiss to the corner of my mouth, my eyes widen. With her plate still in her hand, she spins to walk into the living room.
“I’m actually pretty hungry,” she tosses over her shoulder.
I grab my pizza, following after her to the couch. I’d follow her to a lot of places. Maybe even all of them.
I throw myself on the couch next to her. “Then what in the world were you doing kissing me, my darling wife of over ten years?”
Ellis rolls her tongue along her cheek, curling her legs up with her plate balanced on her knees. She shrugs. “I like the purple.”
Ellis spent a lot of time talking about her aunt's daughter and telling me about how much her job sucks the life out of her. I made sure to mention that I wasn’t surprised, and she glared at me and reminded me that arrogance looks good on no one–even if their hair is purple and they have an incredibly impressive crescent moon tattoo on their back.
As the afternoon stretches on toward dinner, I can’t help but think I don’t want our time to end. I’d be willing to take her on a thousand more adventures if only to get the chance to learn more about her life–her world.
It feels like I’ve gotten all the borders of the puzzle placed, and now I’m just getting to the good part–high on everything I’ve accomplished so far.
Ellis sits up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I should probably get going,” she says, and I hate the way my heart sinks. “I probably smell disgusting, and these jeans were on wear number two when I put them on. I need to go home and change.”
