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“Can you blame me?” He shot back, his grin widening. He took a step closer and put a hand on my waist. “I’ll never tire of looking at you walking around like that. It gives me ideas.”
I felt my body react, my skin was covered in goosebumps as Alex leaned and planted a kiss behind my ear, then nibbled on my earlobe.
He grabbed me by my waist and lifted me, depositing me on the kitchen island unceremoniously. “You are like a hurricane in the kitchen, Em. So you stay here and I’ll fix up the food,” he said, pinning me in place with a stare before he turned back to focus on making breakfast.
I took that time to check my emails and socials from my phone. Lauren was already asking me to plan out my first solo stream. I had to settle on branding colors and she was urging me to interview with editors who could handle editing streams into YouTube videos and a dozen other things.
I scrolled through the Challenger Support Group Chat that Ryan invited me to and saw old conversations of high level players talking about strategy and sharing information. There was even a sub-chat with a tier list of pro Carry players. The only person in the top tier was MnstrX.
I then got a text from Casey and re-focused my attention there.
Casey
I passed all of my classes for the semester! I’ll be booking a flight back home next week.
That’s awesome! Let me know when you’re coming back. I can’t wait to see you again, IRL. I’ve missed you so much, Cas.
Casey
I’ve missed you too, Emi. I can’t wait to see you again.
We should go out for drinks or something. I know you hate clubbing so maybe we can go to a bar? You should bring MnstrX, I wanna meet the guy and do the best friend test on him. See if you can get him to invite a friend of his as well.
The best friend test was Casey’s invention. After the horrible breakup with my ex, Michael, she had taken it upon herself to screen every guy I ever thought about getting serious with.
This usually entailed a double-date scenario in which she got set up with one of the guy’s friends and tried to get as much information from the friend about the guy that I was considering dating.
You know what, sure. I’ll talk to him about it when you get back.
During my conversation with Casey, Alex continued flipping pancakes and frying eggs and bacon. He kept looking back at me, smiling and then turning back. Every now and then, he would sneak around and surprise me with a kiss.
We sat down to eat on the couch and came up with a plan on how to approach moving my stuff from my apartment here.
“There aren’t that many things,” I told him. “I moved in withjust a suitcase of clothes and two boxes. I doubt we will need two trips with the car.”
He relented. “If you’re sure.”
We got dressed and I tried to squash any anxiety I had about the move. I had been practically living at his place for a while now. I just didn’t sleep here—most of the time. Regardless, it was a big step. One that couples didn’t take this early in a relationship.
As we got dressed and prepared to leave, I grabbed Alex’s hand and squeezed it between both of mine. “Thank you so much for letting me stay until I find my own place. I don’t think you understand how much it means to me.”
“Believe me, it’s nothing. Besides, my past roommates were never as pleasant or as hot as you.” He squeezed back and smirked.
It annoyed me to no end that he wouldn’t let me pay rent, but I decided I wasn’t going to continue pushing that and instead I would try to be a good roommate and maybe transfer my fair share of rent when the time to move out came.
“You ready?” Alex asked, jiggling the car keys in hand.
“Yeah,” I said, following him out the door.
The drive to my apartment was exactly five minutes. When we arrived we quickly got to work packing my belongings. My roommates were all out or at work so it was just us.
It was strange seeing my life condensed into just a few boxes: five boxes of clothes, one box of books, and one box of electronics. I felt a pang of sadness at leaving this place behind, but I knew I was making the best decision for myself, even though it was hard.
I then got really annoyed at Alex when he refused to let me carry any of the boxes. Instead he made five trips up and down the stairs so he would pack everything into his car himself. He then wouldn’t let me carry them up to his apartment either.
“It’s our place for now,” he corrected me as I started setting up my things in his spare bedroom.
All in all, it took us about seven hours and by the end we made a list of things we needed to add to the room: a desk, shelves, and curtains for the window.
