talk about the day ahead, her frustration about the fridge-sharing situation at her coworking space, her lunch date with a couple of the friends she’d made there, a meeting she had with a prospective client. He was glad to have had the memory about the time she’d asked him to move in; it was a good reminder for tonight. Bringing him into her space, into the apartment she’d spent months working so hard on, almost all on her own—that was always going to have been her call, and he was always going to wait to do what he was about to do until after she’d asked.
He’d waited for the right time, and he knew it was now.
“Will,” she laughed. “I asked you a question.”
He dropped his head to her shoulder, sighing out an apology and fogging up his glasses in the process.
“You scrambled my brain in there,” he said, which was absolutely not a lie, even if it wasn’t the whole truth. She laughed again and subtly pushed herself back into him, a taunt he deserved and enjoyed and definitely responded to.
“Let’s go back in,” he said against her neck.
“It’s pretty late,” she said, but he could feel the skin under his mouth pebbling. He let his thumb tease beneath the hem of her camisole.
“Still early,” he said quietly.
“Mmm.”
“Oh, I see,” he echoed, tickling her side, and she turned to face him, pressing her mouth to his, and he settled again, kissing her deeply. Better this morning, he thought, to avoid conversation.
When she whispered against his mouth that it was, in fact, still early, he wrapped an arm around her waist and carried her inside, giving himself another break from counting the hours until tonight.
“Goodness, this has turned out to be a real disaster.”
Will rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, nodding solemnly at the same sparsely attended party setup that Nora was looking at in near horror. Lanterns hung from the fence, a string of fairy lights on the still-growing tree they’d planted together, chairs lined up in rows, a table in the back laden with unused flower crowns and unclaimed scrolls of poetry.
“It’s a shame,” he said.
“She’s going to be so disappointed. How did this happen?”
Will shrugged, feigning ignorance. “Maybe people got the date wrong?”
“It’s every month, Will,” she said, and now he was starting to feel guilty. He didn’t want Nora to feel this stressed. He’d kept it small tonight, family only, but he supposed he could’ve invited some of their newer friends—
“And this one’s the big one,” she added.
“The big one” referred to the larger-than-average annual summer poetry night tradition that had only started because of his unexpected inheritance in this building.
“Well, maybe a few more people will show,” he said nonchalantly.
She sighed and shook her head. “Marian wants me to go up and get my appetizer now,” she said. “Even though there’s only, like, ten of us here!”
“Sure,” he said, relieved. He sent a grateful look to Marian, who was right on time with her request.
Once Nora had disappeared through the back door, his neighbors descended on him in such a suspicious way that he could only hope Nora didn’t happen to look out the window.
“She doesn’t know a thing,” Mrs. Salas said.
“Corrine, lower your voice,” Mr. Salas cautioned, and Mrs. Salas cupped a hand over her mouth before dropping it again. “I’m just so excited!”
“This is the biggest production I’ve ever seen, Beanpole,” Jonah said. “But I suppose that’s only because I missed your big backyard speech way back when.”
He huffed in annoyance, still carrying a grudge over being the only neighbor to have missed it. Beside him, Kay—his girlfriend from St. Louis, in for another visit—slapped his arm playfully.
“Benny,” Will said, “text Deepa and tell her to come out.”
“Done,” he said, pulling out his phone. Currently, Nora’s best friend was hidden away in Marian and Emily’s place, part of the surprise for tonight. For the next week, she’d be staying up in his old third-floor apartment, the place he and Nora now ran as a short-term rental, and he had a feeling his next few days were going to be filled with a fair number of makeup tutorials and face masks.
“Will,” said Emily quietly, setting a hand on his arm. “Don’t forget to breathe, now.”
He nodded, face flushing, but it was difficult to get too embarrassed around this crowd these days. Over the past two years he’d made his own way with them, separate from his relationship with Nora. First of