He sat there in silence for a little while, and I braced myself for him to tell me to fuck off with my assumptions. But then he shrugged and said, “The dick sucking doesn’t count. You just have a really nice cock. But yeah, we can date if you want.” He said it like he didn’t care either way, but his fingers drummed nervously on the top of Sam’s gift.
“Yeah, I wanna date,” I said. “Ilikeyou, Chase.”
His mouth curved up into a pleased smile. “I guess you’re not terrible either.”
“Lucky me. My new boyfriend thinks I’m not terrible,” I said with a laugh, but my insides warmed because I knew he did mean it as a compliment.
“What did you get Sam?” I asked.
He wrinkled his nose. “A candle. It smells like fruit.”
“She likes candles,” I said. “I got her one last year for Christmas that smells like dog farts and she loved it.”
Chase let out a snort of laughter. “For real?”
“Yeah, she loves weird shit like that.”
The fuel light on my dash lit up just as we approached Goose Run Gas, and I slowed and turned in. I’d meant to fill my tank earlier but I’d forgotten. Chase came with me when I went inside and as I paid he let out a bark of laughter and pointed to the ugliest ornament I’d seen in mylife.It was a running goose, its wings extended and its beak open. The left wing was bigger than the right, and for some reason the eyes had been painted staring in different directions.
“Is Bobbystilltrying to sell those?” Chase asked, picking one up. I fought the urge to warn him not to touch it in case it was cursed.
The guy serving—his name tag said Wade—shrugged. “He said to put them on display. Reckons they’re a conversation piece.”
“They’re something,” I said.
“Want one? Bobby’s offering a prize for whoever sells the most,” Wade said.
“Yeah? Who’s winning?” Chase asked.
Wade shrugged. “Scoreboard’s still at zero.”
Chase hefted the goose in his palm and his eyes lit up. “I’m gonna buy one for Sam.”
“It’s hideous. She’ll love it,” I said.
Chase paid, grinning from ear to ear, and when we got back to the car he managed to wedge it inside the gift box next to the candle. “If she doesn’t like it, I’m telling her it was your idea,” he said. I got the feeling he was only half joking.
When we got home to Emporia, we had to park across from the house because the driveway was full of cars. Chase hesitated before getting out of the truck, fiddling with the ribbon on Sam’s present.
“Hey,” I said. “Don’t be nervous.”
He glared at me. “Who says I’m nervous?”
He was definitely nervous.
“Okay,” I said, “but I wouldn’t blame you if you were. Like, my lola is for sure going to pinch your cheek and say you’re too skinny and tell me I need to fatten my boyfriend up. And then she’ll feed you cake until you wanna puke.”
I thought he’d laugh, but instead he bit his lip. “You’re going to tell them I’m your boyfriend?”
My chest tightened. “I mean, yeah,” I said, “unless you don’t want me to.”
And I got it. I did. But I couldn’t help wondering if there was always going to be this push-and-pull, back-and-forth between us every time we tried to take a single step forward.
Chase tapped at the top of the box in a staccato rhythm while I waited, and he finally said, “Yeah. You can tell people we’re boyfriends.”
I leaned across the console and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
Chase blinked, startled, and then he reached across and grabbed the front of my shirt. Our mouths clashed as he hauled me in for a deeper, hotter kiss, one that took my breath away and made my heart race. When he pulled back he looked as wrecked as I felt, but he must have poured all of his nervous energy into the kiss because he’d stopped fidgeting with the gift box.
