Felix looked like he was weighing the idea in his mind, but he eventually said, “Let’s stay.”
I nodded. “All right.”
“Is that okay?”
“There’s no rush, right?” I tried to get comfortable in the chair despite my raging hard-on. I gave Felix a smile, kissed his cheek, and combed my fingers through the back of his hair a few times.
He leaned into the touch.
Just enough to be noticed.
THE DATEended as sweetly as it had begun. Felix drove me home after the film, as the weather was starting to get hairy. I kissed him good night, which—God, those lips—was definitely something I could turn into a habit, and went into my chilly, lonely house. I watched out the window as Felix’s car backed out of the driveway and disappeared into the snowy night, brake lights vanishing around the corner.
My phone started ringing.
I fished it out of my back pocket. Scarlet. “Girl,” I answered.
“Boy,” she replied. “Where’s your damn head?”
“Sorry?”
“You can’t tell me how your first day of teaching was—yesterday?”
“Sorry,” I repeated, this time with a varied tone.
“You’re such a space cadet, Bowen. Remind me again why we’re best friends?”
“Because I used to pay half the rent and no one else could stand to put up with a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking tattooed chick who leaves her hair in the sink, won’t take out the trash, plays grindcore for an alarm clock, and is vegetarian every day but Taco Tuesdays.”
“Oh yeah.”
“They make tofu tacos, you know.”
“They taste like trash.”
“Did you call to yell at me? I just walked in the door.”
“From work? It’s after nine!” Scarlet exclaimed.
“No, not from work. From… a date.” I took off my jacket and unwrapped my scarf from my neck while juggling the phone from one ear to the other.
“With the apple-cider phone-sex guy?”
I grinned. “That’d be the one.”
“How’d it go?”
“He’s hella into me. Scarlet, he let me pay for dinner and I got to put my arm around him and everything.”
“All right! Congrats!”
I hung up my winter clothes and kicked off my shoes so I didn’t track melting snow across the room to the thermostat. “I mean, there are a fewcomplicationsthat come with dating Felix, but I think he’s worth it. I’ve got a good feeling about this guy. And have I mentioned enough times how gorgeous his voice is?”
“Whatcomplications?” Scarlet asked, echoing the way I’d spoken.
The radiators in the living room began to tap and clank as they turned on.
“He’s twelve years older than me, divorced with a teenage son who’s a student of mine…. Oh! You know, I suspect he’s probably a dog person.”
