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On the way back to her place, she scrolls through the pictures on her phone and sends them to Chloe. “Me too,” I tell her.
“What?” she asks.
“I want you to send the ones of us, and a few of you and Chloe if you want.”
“You want pictures of us?” Her tone tells me she’s surprised.
“Yes.”
“Okay.” I can hear the smile in her voice, and all she has to do is glance over and she’ll see mine. There’s that word again, and yet again, good things happen when she says “okay.” My phone pings several times in a row, and I’m itching to look at each image and save them to my phone.
I tell myself it’s because she’s my pretend girlfriend. I should have pictures of us on my phone, right? That just makes this more believable. It’s a good story. I think I’ll stick with it.
When we get to her place, I turn off the truck, grab my phone and keys, and rush around to open her door. She waits for me, and I reward her with a quick kiss before offering her my hand to help her down. With her palm in mine, we make our way into the house. She doesn’t invite me in, but she also doesn’t let go of my hand.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asks.
“Water? I need to wash down all that sweetness we just had.”
“Right? But it was worth it. So good.” She reaches into the fridge and grabs two bottles of water, handing me one. We both take a long pull. “Movie?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I move toward the couch, and her hand on my arm stops me.
“The TV in the bedroom is bigger and newer, so it has a better picture.” I raise my brow and she laughs. “It is, and it does. I live alone, and I like to read in bed at night, and sometimes I have the TV on for background noise so I don’t feel as alone, and it made sense to put the better TV in the room where I spent most of my time.”
“No judgment,” I tell her. “But you have to admit, that sounded like a line. You use that on all the men you lure back to your lair?” I tease. I force the idea of another man in her bed to the back of my mind. I’m not going there.
“You’re the first to be here, so no.”
“Really?”
She shrugs. “I told you, I’m not very experienced, and what I do have, I knew wouldn’t lead to anything. Why would I let them into my safe place?”
“But I’m here.” I bite down on my cheek to keep from grinning. She’s opening up and taking risks she wouldn’t normally take, and they’re with me. My chest feels tight at the realization.
“You’re here.” That’s all she says as she nods for me to follow her down the hall and pushes open her bedroom door. She moves to turn the lamp on that’s next to the bed and illuminates the room with a soft glow. “I’m going to go turn off the other lights,” she tells me.
“I’ll do it.”
“You don’t know where the switches are.”
“I’ll figure it out. Get into something comfortable.” I wink, and she laughs.
“I ate too much.”
“You’re beautiful.” I kiss her forehead before going back out to the main part of the house. I check the locks on all the doors, and then find the lights and turn them off. The soft glow of the lamp from her bedroom guides me down the hall back to her.
I find her sitting on the bed, legs crossed, wearing my T-shirt. “I wondered where that went.”
Her cheeks turn bright red. “I might have borrowed it.”
“You look better in it than I do, anyway.” I kick off my shoes and climb onto the bed next to her.
“You’re not mad?” she asks.
“No, baby, I’m not mad. Keep it.”
“I planned to give it back.”
