Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 103754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
I want to laugh, but his concern is valid. I retrieve a measuring tape from my purse. “That’s why I brought this.” I hand him one end, and we walk to opposite sides of the room. Seeing the seventy-six-inch marker pressed against the wall, I ask, “Are we talking Eastern or California king?”
He chuckles. “I don’t think we have a choice. A standard will fit, but there’s no room on the sides.” He brings his end back to the tape holder and studies the space again with his lips twisting to the side. I want to kiss that perplexed expression right off his face. “It takes up most of the room, and there won’t be space to walk around it since the mattress will be squeezed inside. We can just use the end to get in and out of it, I suppose, but making it up will be a bitch.”
Waving my hand over the space, I can already imagine us here. “It can be like a bed cave. We can hibernate in here.”
Scratching the back of his neck, he must still be fixated on the size of the room by how he’s staring at the three walls in front of him. When he finally looks at me again, he says, “I’m confused. Do you want to live here, like full-time?”
“No.” I laugh. “It’s just sort of a retreat where I can do whatever I end up doing with my life.”
“Why can’t you do that at my place?”
Point proven with that one question. “Because it’s yours, not mine.”
“It’s yours as much as mine, Sosie.”
Who could have predicted my entire life would be changing in a single blink when it’s taken years to get to this point? Not me. Obviously. But now that it feels like the sun is finally shining in my life, despite some of it being blocked by the brick building next door, I’m ready to embrace it.
I just hope it’s with Keats since we’ve been living together unofficially, without discussing where it leads. He hasn’t asked about my plans or made me feel like I had to be doing something to contribute. It’s like we’ve been on an extended vacation. But soon we’ll land back in reality. We already have in most ways. And aimlessly roaming around his apartment while he works doesn’t sound appealing. I imagine he’d get sick of seeing me doing nothing with my days anyway.
“I need to figure out what’s next, and having a witness to me failing—”
“Accomplishing your goals,” he corrects without hesitation.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you need to write or edit or do your finance stuff,” I say, wafting my hand around. “You don’t need me bugging you because I’m bored.”
Car horns scream through the windows from the street below as I wait for him to respond. He licks his lips and is lost in thought for a moment too long, making me shift in discomfort. A man of fewer words than I’d like, but as always, they hold meaning, making them even more valuable to me. He runs his fingers through his hair, then follows me out of the room to look out the living room windows. “I hate talking about money on a personal level,” he says, looking back at me, “but can you afford this place for the term of the contract?”
Going into the little kitchen area, I hop onto the counter and run my hands over the laminate like it’s expensive marble countertops. “I have enough cash for one year.”
“Then what happens?”
“By then, I’ll have established a direction. I’ll have a new job, and maybe I’ll start taking photos again.”
Though his eyes have wandered the apartment several times over, his gaze always returns to me. He grins as if he has no say in the matter. “It sounds like you have a plan. That’s all you can do is get started.”
I don’t need his approval, but I desperately crave it, so hearing him so amenable to the idea of me having this apartment means everything to me. I go to him, wrapping my arms around his neck and lifting on my toes to kiss him. He’s swift with his hands, landing them flat on my backside. With a solid squeeze of my ass cheeks, he kisses me back.
I drop my heels to the floor again and do a spin. “I’m surprised no one else has snatched it up. I mean, I get that it’s no bigger than a matchbox, but it’s all I need.”
“Is it all you need?” His tone shifts from joking to something unlike him, causing me to turn around.
Our gazes fasten as we stand next to each other. “You’re not losing me, Keats.”
“No?” he asks, angling to hold his arms out wide. “We’re not gaining another apartment. You are. An apartment where you’ll be sleeping away from me, starting your day without me, a place to be alone.” He walks to the window that has more light streaming in than in the bedroom, and peers out like he’ll discover something new each time. He suddenly turns back to face me. “It’s all you ever wanted when all I ever wanted was you.”