Page 62 of What About Us

“Do I get to choose the movie?”

Xander scoffs. “Of course not. Wait, what would you choose?”

I press my lips together and then say, “The Notebook.”

“Fuck no.” He shakes his head. “No. Just you uttering those words means that you never get to choose a movie ever.”

“Hey! Not fair.”

“Totally fair. I want to watch Aladdin,” he says, keeping a straight face.

“Excuse me?”

“I have to brush up on all the kids movies for Bellie Boo. So I can sing the songs to her.”

Welp. There went my vagina, my uterus, and my ovaries, all up in flames.

“Okay, looks like we have homework. But I’m making popcorn first.”

“We need a lot of popcorn,” he says as he stands with me still in his arms, and I smack his shoulder. “Ow! What the fuck, Red?”

“Put me down. You can’t be lifting this much weight on that knee. I won’t have it.”

He rolls his eyes and sets me on my feet.

“You’re violent,” he says.

“And don’t you forget it.”

Cally’s curled up on Xander’s chest as we watch the end of Aladdin, and he keeps rubbing her back with his chin whiskers.

I might have taken a secret video of it because it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. My cat is purring like crazy, and I can’t blame her a bit because same.

“I need a shower,” I announce, and Xander’s eyebrow kicks up. “I didn’t take one this morning. I was worried that my mom would do something to Cally, and it’s driving me nuts.”

“Got it.” Xander kisses Cally one last time, then sets her on the seat next to his, takes my hand, and pulls me out of my chair and doesn’t let go of said hand as he leads me out of the media room—that might as well be a freaking movie theater—and down the hall to a bedroom. He opens the door and gestures for me to go inside.

The whole room is decorated in greens and browns, and there’s a balcony that looks out to the mountains and the pond behind the house.

“Wow, this is nice.”

“There’s a bathroom through there,” Xander says. “It should have everything you need, but let me know if it’s missing anything.”

I blink when I see my bag on the bench at the end of the bed. “When did you bring that in here?”

“When you were making popcorn. Get cozy, Red. I’m gonna go work out on my upper body for a while. I’ll be in the gym if you need me.”

Jesus, I’d like to watch that.

I manage to keep my face neutral as I nod. “Okay. Thanks. The room is great.”

He smiles and then walks out, pulling the door closed behind him, and I let out a breath.

I need a Xander break.

He’s been nothing but sweet today. Amazing. Open and vulnerable and then funny when we watched the movie.

And I need to breathe for a bit because a girl could get way too addicted to him.