AllFreeNovel
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“And the other way around,” I murmur, smiling.
“What other way?” She looks at me in question.
“I mean… I’ll know what you wear, what time you go to bed… I mean.”
I’m not blushing. Nope. Not fucking happening. That sounded creepy as hell. Why do girls get to say these things so easily and we guys have to make sure they don’t sound like innuendos?
“Oh, yeah!” Lu laughs again. “Right. Here.”
She passes me a coffee with the perfect amount of cream and sugar. I can get used to this, a girl making me coffee in the morning.
“Hey, I’m making grits and toast. Want some?” She doesn’t even look at me like I already agreed.
I’m usually out of the condo by this time. We don’t interact much in the morning. I hate grits since the army. So I argue. “I don’t want to bother—”
“I’d love to!” Lu chirps and takes two bowls out of the cupboard. “I love eating healthy in the morning because then I can stuff my face with delicious unhealthy food the rest of the day. It’s a balance.”
She’s a balance between my happiness at being around her and the aching anticipation when I’m not, looking forward to the moment when we are in the same space.
Beautiful, talented, and a cook.
I instantly relax, my heart snapping into a soothing rhythm.
Lu talks for both of us, and I like it, both her voice and the way she rubs the sole of her bare foot on the arch of the other while she’s making breakfast. Forme. I feel giddy like a teen on a first date.
There’s a smudge of paint on her hands.
“Did you paint this morning?” I ask, watching her hustle and feeling awkward standing at the island like a prince being waited on.
“Last night when I got home. Sometimes I can’t sleep. And I like working late when the rest of the world is asleep.”
My Midnight Lu.
Pushkin comes up from behind me. With a longing huff, he drops to the floor next to me and sets his head on my bare foot.
“He likes you.” Lu smiles. “No one claimed him yet, so he’s ours.” She drops to her haunches and gives him a tiny treat. “Yeah, cute muffin?”
The tea kettle whistles loudly, and she pours water into the bowls with grits, while I’m stuck on the wordours.
That’s Lu—trusting and humble. There’s a reason I stayed away at first like I knew that she’s this magic potion I’ll want more of after just one taste.
“Sit.” She nods to the kitchen island.
She moves around effortlessly and gestures freely, every movement fluid and easy. She’s invasively friendly in a sweet kind of way, and when she passes me a bowl of grits, I tell myself it’s a one-time thing, and I can definitely survive them if Lu makes them for me.Especiallywhen she sits down next to me and talks about art and her new portrait order as my whole body tenses at her proximity.
“Hey, Lucy, I was wondering—”
“Call me Lu, please,” she interrupts. “All my friends do.”
I am a friend, and not just in my mind. Good.We’ll be friends, Lu. For now.
All the best relationships start with friendship. Konstantin wouldn’t agree. He went all ape-shit when Eva called him that. “Do all your friends know what you taste like?” he asked. But his Oxford degree didn’t make him a good psychologist, because I can tell you for sure that by the end of the book, Eva was his best friend. He just didn’t know it, because his alpha personality took a liking to calling her his little slut.
I finished the book, yep. It sucked me in.
And I’m all for friendship.
I forget what I wanted to ask and steal glances at Lu’s hands, delicate and with bright yellow nail polish that has paint smudges around the cuticles.
