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Johnny nodded and took a seat on the leather couch, elbows on his knees.
Zara played it again and Asa made a note on the page they’d been passing back and forth. She leaned over and read what he’d written and then took the pencil from his hand, her fingers warm and soft against his, and added her own idea.
“You keep making music like that here in this little place and I’m going to have to rename it to XYZ Records,” Johnny said when it was finished.
Asa curled his hand around the back of Zara’s neck and gave it a soft squeeze. She tipped her head back and smiled up at him sleepily.
“We should go home and sleep. Or you should at least. I have to work,” he amended.
She pouted and he almost laughed.
Too bad they’d agreed not to kiss in front of anyone, because he really wanted to kiss her in that moment.
“I can nap in Nikki’s office,” Zara offered hopefully.
She was in the same state he was; she didn’t want to risk leaving the flow. It was hard to know if it would fade when you unplugged. FOMO to extreme detriment.
“Whatever is happening here, let’s not mess with it,” Nikki said. “I’ll get you food and you can both nap in my office. I have blankets and everything. Does anyone need to tell Cas where you are?”
Zara stood up. “I texted him earlier. He knows I’m here. Where are my shoes?” she asked, looking around.
Asa spotted them on the far side of the couch. He handed her sneakers to her.
After she slipped them on, he followed her down the stairs and out of the studio, down the hall to Nikki’s office.
Andre had redone the space in year the year before and it was clean and cozy. The couch against the far wall was covered in fluffy pillows and dark shades were drawn over the windows.
Nikki grabbed a blanket out of the pull-out cabinet and handed it to Zara.
“I’ll get food when you guys wake up,” Nikki said as she left the room.
Asa watched her go over his shoulder and turned back to Zara and stifled a yawn. “I can nap in one of the lounges—” he stopped speaking as Zara’s gave him an impossibly cute frown. “What?” he chuckled.
She shook her head and approached him but didn’t say anything. Taking one of his hands in hers, she tugged him away from the door, then she shut it. Still holding his hand, she led him over to the couch and pointed at it.
He should really nap in one of the lounges.
But instead he laid down on the couch on his back. She shook out the blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. Then she crawled into the space between him and the back of the couch, snuggling her small body in the gap. She draped one leg over his hips and pulled the blanket over the both of them, resting an arm over his middle. He wrapped his arms around her and they both let out a long exhale, their bodies melting against one another.
How did this feel more intimate than kissing?
Maybe some friends could snuggle with each other and not have it mean anything. He was just now realizing he wasn’t that type of friend.
She let out a soft sigh that went straight to his gut and various other locations. Her scent floated around him, filling his lungs and stirring his thoughts to ideas he had no business having in Nikki’s office.
They weren’t at home and he needed to remember that.
He closed his eyes and the heat of her body lulled him to sleep in seconds.
ZARA
A few hours later she woke up to the smell of tacos. She rolled over on the couch where she’d crashed earlier.
Asa was on the floor with a bag of food between them and a couple canned drinks. It wasn’t where he’d been when she’d fallen asleep. Which was probably for the best she reluctantly decided.
She sat up and pushed her hair out of her face.
Asa’s lips twitched as his eyes scanned her. “So, your hair just does that even when you haven’t slept that long.”
