“It’s Kellan and Josh’s fault. They made me drink.”
“How dare they.”
“But I missed you a lot, so I still wanted to come tonight.”
Grey held open the door for me to go into his apartment.
“I missed you too,” he said, helping me out of my jacket. “More than you know.”
“I think I missed you more.” I gave his arm a playful push—or at least that was what I’d intended to do. I missed his arm completely and wobbled for a second.
Grey grabbed that hand, too, and gave me another kiss. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“You have a lot of stuff going on,” I said, which definitely helped to prove my point. “You probably didn’t even notice I wasn’t around.”
“Not true.” Grey brought me into his room and sat me down on his bed, where I swayed with drunkenness.
Am I getting more drunk somehow?
“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy. But you should know that I wished you were there every second.”
That made me smile as I flopped back onto his bed. The ceiling was circling for some reason, and my stomach twisted again, much more uncomfortably than the past few times. I fought the urge to curl into a ball.
Grey watched me, a flash of concern crossing his face.
I didn’t like that. “Are you getting bored with me?”
“Bored with you?” he repeated blankly.
“I’m scared I’m not interesting enough for you,” I half whispered. The fear had bubbled to the surface over these past few weeks, but I’d never let myself think about it too much because it would be paralyzing if I did. So, of course, it would come spilling from my mouth after a few drinks. I immediately wished I could take it back, but my stupid mouth kept moving. “You’re going to have so many exciting things come your way, and then there’s me just here and”—I blew air through my drunken lips—“boring,” I finished. I couldn’t say it was my strongest argument, but the ceiling was too busy spinning for me to care.
“How could this be boring?” Grey asked, his tone teasing, but his eyes were anything but.
“You know what I mean.” Actually, I wasn’t sure he did, but trying to explain myself again felt like more effort than moving mountains.
“I do.” His eyes crinkled with a smile, and he leaned down to kiss me.
As far as responses to my drunken ramblings went, I had to admit that was a pretty good one.
“I love you,” I said when he pulled away, then I froze. “Oh—I wasn’t supposed to tell you that yet.”
Color rose in Grey’s cheeks. “You weren’t? Why not?”
I put a finger to his lips. “It’s a secret until I’m sober.”
“Fine,” he said around my finger. “It’ll be our little secret.”
I pulled him in for another kiss, but then the ceiling decided it wanted to stop spinning, and itlurchedviolently to the side, somehow bringing my stomach with it. “Bathroom,” I managed to get out before making a run for it.
Grey’s footsteps followed me, but I barely registered them as the entire night’s worth of bad decisions reappeared into the toilet bowl.
If I’d had any ideas of sexy times with Grey that night, they never came to fruition. I spent the next couple of hours being sick off and on, with Grey slowly feeding me water and saltine crackers, which helped until they, too, were added to the toilet. Eventually, my stomach stopped rejecting the water, and keeping my eyes open became an impossible task. It wasn’t until Grey was gently nudging me awake that I realized I had fallen asleep with my face on the toilet seat.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“Don’t apologize,” Grey said. “It happens to the best of us.”
With his help, I managed to pull myself to my feet. I stopped by the sink to borrow some mouthwash, too lazy to locate myspare toothbrush. I took several long pulls of water from my cupped hands before letting him take me back to his room, where he rubbed my back until I fell asleep.
