AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The way Lu looks at me is different now, intense, making my breath catch. It’s a look with a hint of a promise. Of what? I’m not sure. Hopefully us. Maybe in the future she can playfully call medu-ra-tshi-naand I can tell her that I’m in love with her up to my ears.
“Jace! I’m taking you out for dinner. My treat!” she announces when we’re done cleaning. “Please, tell me you don’t have to go to some sales meetings!”
Thai food is not a date, but I can’t help feeling like we are sliding into a close friend zone as we sit in a small joint on Front Street and share shrimp soba noodles and a salmon roll.
“We share it so we can try it all,” Lu says.
And I want to sharemyselfwith her. I wanna be her friend, then best friend, then lover, soulmate, boyfriend, husband—Jesus, my mind spins out of control—because in my opinion, that’s how the strongest bonds form.
They say women are obsessive with relationships and commitment. I’ll tell you that I’m already imagining what our kids would look like, if they’d look like her or me, and how many we’d have. Yep. The thought is brief but powerful, and I stuff my face with soba noodles just to bring myself back down to earth.
Lu is wearing wide pants, an oversized blue sweater, and a headband sprinkled with little cherries. She’s so adorable.
“Stand by that cherry blossom tree,” I tell her on the way home.
She throws her hands up in the air and lifts one leg, her mouth wide open in laughter as cherry petals fall on her.
I snap a picture for my Lu collection.
We take Pushkin for a walk in Main Street Park.
“Oh, hiiiiii!”
We turn around to see one of the joggers I run into in the morning.
“I was wondering who makes all these cute clothes for our Pushkin! You must be Jace’s girl, then.” She walks up with her hand outstretched to Lu for a handshake. “I’m Amber. I see your boyfriend jogging in the mornings all the time.”
The word stuns me. I’m about to tell the lady that we are not an item, but Lu laughs. “I’m Lu.”
“Your dog is adorable. Especially when he jogs with Jace.Youtwo are so adorable.”
We are adorable together, Lu.
I smile all the way back to the condo.
Lu notices. “Your jogger really likes us.”
“Uh-huh.” I know which part of the conversation she’s thinking about but doesn’t mention.
“Jace, you are blushing,” she says.
I can’t. Fucking. Help it!
Lu elbows me and laughs through her nose, but I keep my eyes everywhere but her because I’m turning red up to the tips of my ears.
“Yeah, adorable…” she sneers.
This is Lu—half-American, half-Belarusian, and a hundred percent tease.
“Sssso adorable,” she whispers under her breath and giggles.
“I have some work to do,” she announces when we get back home. “That crazy dark academia portrait, ravens, skulls, a dominatrix, and a dark lord.”
“Sounds crowded.”
“Yeah. It’s a lot of money, too.”
I go to my room but leave the door open, getting on my phone and reading about Thailand and its construction laws and regulations.
