AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mm,” I say when I pull away.
She grins at me flirtatiously and goes into the kitchen to start digging through the bag she brought.
“So, what are we having?”
“Well, I remember you telling me last week about how you are obsessed with Sloppy Joes.”
“Sloppy Joes? That’s your grand gourmet meal idea to prove to me that you’re a good cook?” I tease. “I don’t know if you know this, but that’s not exactly the most difficult thing to make.”
I sit on the barstool at the counter and observe her. I love the way she moves around my kitchen as if she lives here. It makes me wish she did.
What the hell is wrong with me? It’s only been twenty-five days.
She shoots me a playful glare. “These aren’t justanySloppy Joes,” she explains. “I am making the seasoning and tomato sauce myself! Not to mention, I have a secret ingredient that will blow your mind, too.”
“Blow my mind, huh?” I ask, raising my eyebrows. “That’s a pretty bold statement to assume.”
But she looks fairly confident. She gets to work and starts cooking, and I would’ve thought I would get bored sitting here doing nothing, but it’s ridiculous how much fun I’m having. It’s ridiculous how much fun I have with herevery timewe hang out.
Our first time getting together after we met at the pool hall, we went to the movies. We watched some mystery film, and I got to learn that Blair is one of those people who constantly says things in a frustrated voice when the actors’ characters aren’t being smart enough. People in the theater actually shushed her, but it only made me crack up.
Afterward, she apologized for her outbursts and explained how embarrassed she was, but that she just couldn’t help it. I told her that I thought it was the most adorable thing in the world, and that was when we had our first kiss. She had to get up on her tippy toes.
It was weird and scary at first because I hadn’t kissed anyone since Jennifer, but to my relief, kissing Blair felt like a totally different experience. She was sweet and shy and timid. She didn’t immediately try to attack my face and jump my bones. It only lasted a couple seconds before she pulled away and had that adorable blush on her face.
It wasn’t until the fourth time we hung out, when we went on a walk through the park by the college—where all the trees turned brilliant shades of orange, yellow, and red—that our kisses turned any more serious.
We had just finished cracking up about how pointless it was to go on a walk there because it was the end of November, and pretty much all the trees were bare of any leaves at all. Then we decided to have a leaf fight instead. We picked up all the dead, cracked, dry ones we could find and started tossing them at each other.
Then as we kept walking, we found a giant pile of leaves that some landscapers probably scraped together, and Blair and I fell back into it together. But then our heads collided, and we cried out in pain, and I rolled over on top of her to cradle her head and make sure she was okay. The way she stared at me was different that time. When I leaned forward and kissed her, she wrapped her hands tightly around my neck and pulled me in closer.
By the time we finished making out, I asked her if she had a concussion or something, because I definitely hadn’t been expecting that.
Back in the kitchen, Blair’s excited voice brings me back to the present. “Okay, are you ready for the secret ingredient?” She’s looking at me from across the kitchen counter, her eyebrows wiggling.
“I love how excited you are about this,” I tell her. Then my stomach twists at the fact that I said the wordlove.
If hers did, too, she doesn’t show it. She reaches a hand into her reusable grocery bag, and when she pulls out the ingredient, I see that it is a can of cream of mushroom soup.
“Soup? That’s a secret ingredient? What, are we supposed to dip the sandwiches in there or something?”
She slowly shakes her head at me like she wants me to guess again.
I scratch my head. “Uh, we heat that up? That way, we have backup when we try the Sloppy Joes and realize they taste disgusting?”
I knowthatwon’t be true because it smells amazing in here.
She smirks at me. “No.” She digs around for a can opener, and then starts twisting the can open. “You mix it with the ground beef and tomato paste.”
I look at her uncertainly.
“Come on, you trust me, don’t you?”
My stomach dips so violently that I almost lose my appetite for a moment. Her dinner almost starts smelling repulsive.
Trust is a funny thing. How can I willingly give my trust, when the last person who had it was completely careless with it? And how is it fair to Blair for menotto give it to her, when she hasn’t done anything to not deserve it? And what’s even worse, is that I know she trusts me, but she shouldn’t. Even a little bit. I’m not always honest. There’s a lot I haven’t told her about. There’s a lot she doesn’t know.
“Damascus?”
