Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 52976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
I make a hasty decision not to tell him the whole thing. “I dropped my phone on my way home. It broke pretty bad. I’ll order a replacement tonight.”
“What?? Oh, that sucks! It broke that easily?”
“Yeah. Just …” I’m such a liar. It’s fine. He doesn’t have to know. I still feel like a liar. Bro … “Just broke. Hit the ground wrong, I guess. The thing shattered. It was so crowded on the streets today. Someone probably stepped on it, too.”
Byron comes right up to me with an adorable pout. “I’m so sorry, babe.” He puts a peck on my lips, then brings his hand to my hair, stroking it. “Your eyes are just … totally sparkling tonight.”
He’s been like this a lot lately. Cute. Lovey-dovey. Sensitive. The closer our wedding day gets, the sweeter and more adoring Byron becomes.
And that only makes me feel guiltier. It’s too much to bear sometimes, looking into his eyes, feeling like I’m betraying him with every breath I draw.
Calm down, bro. We’re fine. Stop being so damned dramatic. You’ve got this.
Do we really, though?
“We’re gonna be husbands in a few days,” he says.
I force my lips to smile. “I know.”
“You’ll be mine, and I’ll be yours … forever.”
Forever.
“And yet,” he goes on, “I still can’t convince you to move out of this building.”
His words strike me. I meet his eyes. “Byron …”
“Yes, you’ve told me, over and over. ‘There’s just a special charm about this building.’ ‘It’s my place.’ ‘I can’t give it up just like that.’ You have a connection to this apartment I’ll never understand.” He slips his soft hands around the small of my back and brings me close. I can smell his spicy cologne I love so much, even after a long day at work. It even cuts through the faint coffee aroma that lingers in his clothes from the café. “I don’t want to keep pressuring you. I don’t want to be the kind of husband who makes unfair demands.”
“I know …”
“But it’s been two years now.” He brings his face close to mine. His voice is soft and understanding. “You and I should be living together.”
Seriously? This again?
Stop it, West. He has a point.
But what about me? What about my point?
“It’s been fun,” Byron goes on, “having different places to hang out at. My place. Your place. We live so close to each other. We have our own space to retreat to, especially when Pixelomenon has you working super long nights on a project, or I have one of my conference meetings that keeps me out late …”
Exactly. See? We need our separate space.
“But wouldn’t it be nice to come home together?” He delicately brushes hair off of my forehead with a finger, gazing into my eyes. “After a long day, to settle in with the one you love, comforting each other, in our private little oasis? Just you … and me.”
Just you … and me. If only he knew.
“It does sound nice,” I find myself admitting.
Hey!
“We don’t have to do it right away,” says Byron, “but we should do it soon. I know Mrs. Shaheen will be forgiving, considering the lease. She seems to have been itching for you to leave for quite a while now … for some weird reason.”
Mrs. Shaheen is my bushy-haired, thick-eyebrowed landlord who lives across the hall. She is paranoid, yet kindhearted, and was the first (and only) one to warn me about the ghost living in my apartment, despite never actually having seen him herself. I’ve wondered if over the years she’s decided the evil ghost doesn’t exist and it was all just superstition.
Evil ghost? Really? Is that supposed to be me?
“I just think when we start our lives together …” Byron takes hold of my hands and smiles into my eyes. “We should start it in our own place.”
Nope. I veto it. Tell him it’s a bad idea or I will.
“I’ll give it some thought,” I promise him. No, you won’t. “You’ve been so patient with me.”
He cradles my face in his soft hands and brings my lips to his. My eyes close as I melt against him, feeling helpless to the power of his sweet kisses. I would do just about anything for this man. I am totally devoted to him. I am completely and utterly—
Damn, dude, we get it. You’re giving me a cavity.
I stop kissing Byron at once with a huff.
Byron looks at me, alarmed. “Something wrong?”
“I, uh … Sorry, I need to use the bathroom. Why don’t you go ahead and change? We’ll have a bite, order takeout, whatever you’re in the mood for. I just …” I point at the bathroom door with a grimace, then slip out from the arms of a very confused Byron and plunge into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me.