Page 49 of Down Bad

Windshield wipers wiping.

Country music playing softly.

Maybe the same music from this morning. Or someone else. I don’t know. Country’s never really been my thing.

He pulls into his driveway, then sits there a second with this pensive look on his face like he’s debating something.

I don’t know if it’s the weather right now, how it feels like a ton of curtains hanging around us, keeping the world out, making us feel like this isolated bubble, but I don’t have the instinct to just up and go from the car. It’s actually comfortable in here.

It’s safe in this car bubble.

Even the music’s fine.

“I, uh …” he starts, stops, clears his throat, then faces me. “I … I made a lot of … of s-soup.”

I stare at him.

Huh?

“Last night,” he goes on. “Not sure why. But I did. I made a lot. Weather like today, feels … feels like soup weather.” He shuts his eyes tightly, then pops them open and smiles. “Wanna come in for a bit, dry off, and … and share a bowl of hot soup with me?”

My eyes are lost in his lips as he asks me that question.

All I see is pink. Plump. Cute.

Curly corners and a dimple.

Did he just invite me inside?

“What song’s this?” I ask.

He blinks, looks at the radio, then says, “Another Chase Holt one. Think it’s called ‘Down Bad For Him’.”

“For him …?”

“Chase Holt’s gay. Thought I told you. He’s dating someone from our town. Allegedly this song is about them. Oh, and also—”

My eyes keep drifting back to his lips.

He’s saying stuff, but I’m not really hearing it.

Just being obsessed with the way his mouth moves.

More we sit in this car, the worse my ideas get. I’m having a difficult time thinking of anything else.

Being this close to him is starting to become a problem.

“Y’know what I mean?” finishes Wyatt with a chuckle. Then he frowns. “Did you … get all that? Or did I talk too much? Was I talking too much?”

I could lean right over this center console.

Bring my face up to his.

Do something else with our mouths that isn’t talking.

Instead, I say, “Hot soup sounds great.”

His eyes are full of confusion.