my cum on your tongue, your saliva on my thumb. Lost in your eyes.”
“Don’t go all postcoital romantic on me.”
My head rolled back as I laughed. “Postcoital romantic? Is that what I’m being?”
“Yeah, and it might be more adorable than I can handle.”
“This is the kind of shit that makes the idea of waiting all summer to be with you the way I want to practically impossible.”
“I’ll be over here every day, James.”
“That’s not what I mean. I don’t want to creep around like this. Like we have something to be ashamed of. I’m not ashamed of anything about us.”
“I could never be ashamed of this,” he said.
As I scrambled for solutions, one idea that had sprung to mind in moments where I allowed myself similar fantasies pushed to the forefront. “What if we go away together? Take a trip somewhere far away, for a month, maybe two, and then when we come back, we toss off all the bullshit and just be who the fuck we are.”
His expression turned serious. He glanced down at my chest, ran his thumb against my side. “People will definitely talk.”
“But they won’t be able to touch us then. They can imagine all they want about this time, but no one will ever know, not if we don’t tell them.”
“That would never happen.” There was something dark, almost sinister in his tone, as though he would have been willing to do terrible things to keep our secret.
“Then it’s settled? We ditch this town for a bit. Get away and come back and be exactly what we are. And Wyachet can go fuck itself.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever heard you so confident before.”
I wasn’t sure I ever was more confident about anything as much as I was about us.
He added, “Where would we go? London, Barcelona, Lisbon—”
“Peru.” I didn’t have to go through a list. I knew what my Kyle needed.
His eyes shifted quickly with his smile, letting me know I was fucking right.
“So guess you’ll have to get started on your passport sooner than you thought,” I told him.
“You’re being real romantic tonight, Mr. Warner.”
Feeling I’d earned it, I leaned in and took another kiss.
“So we’ll go to Peru for a few weeks, and then when we get back, we’ll have our life together. No more hiding behind closed doors. No more close-but-not-close-enough moments in public.”
My knuckles rested against his face, and he moved his head side to side, like he just wanted to feel the rub against his cheek.
“You can’t even imagine what a spectacle I’m going to make about us when we’re finally free,” he said. “I’m gonna snatch your ass in the grocery store. Kiss your cheek at the gas-station pump. Hold your hand close when we head into a movie theatre. I’m going to PDA you so hard, you’ll have to fight to keep my hands off you in public.”
“I think we’ve decided you’re too strong for me to fight.”
His eyes watered before his gaze downturned sharply, his mood seeming to transform in an instant.
“Kyle…”
“Just don’t pull the rug out from under me. Don’t talk up this big dream and leave me hanging. Or if you change your mind, just fucking tell me. I don’t want to be the stupid kid who held on to a hope that was never really there.”
“Hey.” I slid my hand down his face, pushed his chin up. He looked at me once again. “There’s no turning back now, not for me. So if anyone’s backing out, it’s gotta be you.”
“That won’t be happening.”
“Then it looks like we’re stuck together, whether we like it or not.”
He moved close, lingering near for a moment, his breath pushing against my face. He didn’t make a move for a kiss just yet, even though it would have been easy for him to do in that position. We just breathed each other in.
I gripped the back of his neck as we moved a little closer, our noses against each other’s faces as we breathed in each other’s souls.
I sat in the restaurant, scanning the menu to narrow my choices down between pasta or pizza.
I’d anticipated she would be late, so there was no harm in taking my time to settle on something for dinner until she arrived.
I checked my phone to see a text from Kyle: Tell Sheila I said hi. :)
I was surprised by how much it made me smile, especially when I was so annoyed to be out in town when I could have been at