I don’t need time. I need you. Come outside.
Emergencies notwithstanding, Mal made it a rule to run every day. This was not out of concern for his physical health, though the benefits were not lost on him. It wasn’t even for the aesthetics, though the combination of lifting, boxing, and running had given him a physique worthy of an appreciative thread on r/onetruekiss. It was because his brain was hooked on the endorphins that came with exercise, and without them, it tended to break.
Despite this, his lungs burned as he sprinted down his condominium’s stairs. Why hadn’t she called before turning up? Texted? Something? From his bedroom window, he’d made out Jo leaning against the iron railings of his stairwell, her butterfly locs up in two high ponytails, and he’d had to blink twice to make sure he hadn’t imagined her. When she didn’t disappear, he threw on a clean T-shirt, tossed this morning’s cereal bowl into the sink, and ran out of his apartment like it was on fire.
When Mal threw open the door, Jo was right behind it, dressed in a white ribbed bodycon that hugged every curve. She gave him a wry smile, then tucked her phone into her purse.
“There are easier ways to get my attention, you know,” he said, catching his breath. “You have my number. You could’ve called? Texted?”
What Mal wanted to say:You look gorgeous, I know it hasn’t even been two days but I missed you, did you really just hard launchme on social media before telling me you still wanted me?But the adrenaline of realizing she washerehad still not worn off.
“I could’ve. But this way was more dramatic, don’t you think?” Jo said. She pulled her arms over her head in a stretch, smiling beatifically up at him.
“What if I hadn’t seen your post?” he said, irritated by her carefreeness. Like she’d spent the last day completely at ease, while he’d worried and fretted that he’d overstepped, that maybe he’d lost the ground they’d gained. “What if I checked tomorrow, or the next day? You know I’m not on social media like that.”
“I would’ve come back,” Jo said. “Or just hit you up directly, honestly. But today’s a beautiful day. I didn’t mind waiting.”
“I mind making you wait,” Mal said, and Jo laughed, winding arms around his waist. With her body pressed against him, her face turned up to his with mischief, he felt his hackles lower.
“I wouldn’t have to wait if we lived together,” she said plainly.
Mal blinked down at her, then laughed out loud. This was the Josephine Boateng he knew, the one who could always leave him speechless, whose audacity knew no bounds.
“So, what, you’re going to ditch Dahlia?” he asked, pulling back to look down at her face properly, the creases at the corners of her eyes.
“Dahlia’s been thinking about leaving the city,” Jo said. “She’s been wanting to try homesteading. We spent an hour last night looking up chicken coops.” She tilted her head. “I don’t take up that much space, my skills in the kitchen are improving. I don’t clean much, but I can cover the maid service. I make a pretty decent cohabitant.”
As her hands folded at the small of his back, Mal studied herface, sensing that she was trying to tell him something else, something harder.
“You’re not angry,” he said.
Jo bit her lip. “No,” she confessed. “But I am sorry. I should have tried to talk things out with you. Communicated, like you said before. I’m just so used to processing my feelings by myself, and so I did what I always do and ran away. But I promise I’ll work on it, and you should absolutely call me out if you catch me doing it again—”
“You missed me,” he interrupted.
“Desperately,” she confirmed.
Her agreement and apology left him giddy, and he cupped her face in his hands, rubbing slow circles along her temples. She closed her eyes, easing into his touch.
“I missed you too,” he said. “Which is ridiculous. It’s been one day.”
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Jo said, practically purring under his ministrations. “Clearly just a honeymoon phase on steroids. Got me thinking the wildest thoughts.”
“Not as wild as mine,” Mal said, catching on to her game. “I’m thinking I want to spend every waking moment with you.”
“Ha!” Jo said, but her smile stretched wider, and when she opened her eyes to look at him, they were dewy with adoration. The way he’d always wanted someone to look at him, like they couldn’t believe he was theirs. “I think I’ve got you beat. ’Cause I want that, but, maybe, like, forever.”
Something inside his chest cracked, and Mal tugged her close, as if she alone could fill the gaps. He remembered, not for the first time, the errant, irrational thought he’d had when she tookhis hand in her bedroom at the Adelmans’:I’m talking to my soulmate.
“What if I don’t think that’s wild at all?” he said. “What if I want that too?”
Against his chest, he could feel Jo smiling, and there, under a beating late-afternoon sun, he felt like his life was beginning anew.
“Great. We’re in agreement.” She lifted her arms. “Now, if you please, I would like to be carried upstairs to be ravished, thank you.”
The laugh that bubbled in Mal’s chest was one part disbelief, the other part delight. He bent down and scooped her up, giggling, into his arms.
“As you wish,” he said, and then he was fireman-carrying her over his threshold and into the permanent home he’d made for her in his heart.
