Gage smiled at her and said, “That sounds really nice, but solo trips could be dangerous in some places, especially for women. Are–”
“I’m hoping I won’t have to go by myself. My friend Bradley has a girlfriend, and we’ve all talked about going, but I don’twant to be a third wheel to them. So, I might go by myself instead.”
“The other option is to have someone of your own to go with you.”
“I know. That’s the hope.”
“When is this trip of yours?”
“Nothing’s scheduled. I don’t even know how I’d pay for it. Plus, I’d want to be with someone for a while before we trek across the world. I’d have to know that we would be good at traveling together.” Carrie yawned.
Gage thought it was really cute, so she smiled again and felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, except she wasn’t a schoolgirl at all, and this wasn’t a crush.
“How about we talk about that tomorrow night?”
“What?”
“All the travel stuff.”
“You want to talk about a trip that I’m not taking for alongtime because I have no money to do it?”
“Why not? We can make it part of our little note card ritual or something. We’ll have a whole travel category to find out if we’d be good travel companions.”
“I’d like that,” Carrie said.
“I’ll tell Nia that we want another night together in the morning. When she asks you if it’s okay, though, please say yes. If you say no, she’s going to kick me out of this thing.”
“I’ll say yes, but she won’t. Just relax tomorrow, okay?”
“Relax?”
“Yeah. Only wear this thing if you actually want to and not because you want to turn someone on with it, for one.”
“What if the someone I want to turn on isyou?”
“You don’t needthatto turn me on. Trust me.”
“Really?” she asked.
Carrie nodded and said, “You didn’t notice me staring at you all day today? And a little yesterday and the day before, too.”
“I’ve been a bit preoccupied with my own shit, but I’ll be paying attention now, I promise.” Gage sat up and added, “I should go.”
“Why?”
“Because you just yawned, and I’m exhausted as well. I can’t believe we’ve basically stayed up all night talking.”
“I take it, you don’t do that often with women?”
“No, not really.” Gage chuckled and stood up. “Hey, can…” She walked around the bed and held out her hand for Carrie to take. “Can I maybe kiss you goodnight before I go?”
“You want to kiss me?”
“I think that should be pretty obvious by now,” Gage teased and took both of Carrie’s hands in her own. “And I’ll be thinking about this kiss when I’m back in my room, if you catch my meaning.”
“I do,” Carrie said. “But what if it’s a bad kiss?”
“It won’t be. Come here,” she requested and let go of one of Carrie’s hands to cup her cheek and move somewhat trembling lips to her own.
