Page 33 of Say You Want Me

The words rushed through Taylor like an electric charge, leaving her lightheaded. The room seemed to shrink until there was nothing left except the smell of Charlotte’s soft cedar perfume and the sound of her jagged breathing.

“You didn’t fuck it all up. You just panicked,” Taylor said, her sharpness dissolving into something soft and aching. “If you’d let me come by your house the next day, I was going to suggest that we pause this. That if you weren’t comfortable sneaking around, that we just pause our relationship until now. Until I’ve graduated.”

Charlotte had tears running down her face now, bright streaks cutting down her pale cheeks. “You have no idea how much I wish I had.” She pulled a crumpled tissue out of her blazer pocket, pressing it against her face to wipe her cheeks while her shoulders shook. “Is it too late? Am I too late?” She cast a desperate, fearful glance at the packed boxes by the door.

“No. Never.”

Taylor slid across the fabric of the sofa, erasing the space between them. She reached out, sliding her palm up the warmside of Charlotte’s neck until her thumb rested against the soft curve of her cheekbone.

“I love you too. I think I have since that night on the beach.”

Charlotte let out a broken gasp and leaned into Taylor’s touch, closing her eyes as more tears slipped free. Taylor pulled her closer, sliding her arm around Charlotte’s waist. Charlotte clung to her, her hands knotting into the fabric of Taylor’s shirt as if she were anchoring herself in a storm.

When Taylor pressed her mouth to Charlotte’s, the kiss was wet, sweet, and desperate. Charlotte’s lips parted instantly, her breath hitching against Taylor’s mouth, tasting like salt and tears. Taylor deepened the angle, her fingers tangling into Charlotte’s hair, holding her firm while Charlotte’s body relaxed into hers, trembling with a long, slow release of tension.

They pulled back just an inch, their noses brushing, both of them sniffling softly in the quiet apartment. Charlotte let out a breathy, tearful laugh, resting her forehead against Taylor’s, her eyes shining with hope.

They stayed like that for a long moment, foreheads pressed together, the only sound their breathing slowing into something steadier. Taylor’s thumb traced a damp path along Charlotte’s jaw, brushing away the last of her tears.

Charlotte pulled back first, wiping under her eyes again. She let out a shaky exhale and looked at the boxes stacked by the door, at the emptiness of the loft that had been Taylor’s home for the past year. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the coast.” Taylor’s voice came out low and rough. “My old bar job’s waiting, and my apartment.”

Charlotte nodded, her throat working as she swallowed.

A thought took shape in Taylor’s mind, quiet and terrifying and absolutely right. She didn’t push it away.

“Come with me.”

Charlotte’s gaze snapped up. “What?”

“Come with me,” Taylor said again, the words steadier this time because she meant them with her whole body. Her heart beat a steady, insistent rhythm against her ribs, but it wasn’t fear. It was resolve. “You said you’ve been miserable. You said you love me. So let’s stop making this harder than it needs to be. Come with me.”

Charlotte blinked, and a fresh tear slipped down her cheek, but this one wasn’t from sorrow. Her mouth opened, closed, and then she laughed. “For the summer?”

Taylor nodded, but her gaze didn’t waver. She watched Charlotte take in the offer, watched the way her breathing quickened and her fingers tightened on Taylor’s shirt.

“And after?” Charlotte’s voice was barely above a whisper. She shifted on the couch, turning her body more fully toward Taylor, and something in the set of her shoulders shifted too. She looked less like a woman bracing for impact and more like someone standing at the edge, ready to jump. “Would you… consider living with me? After the summer, I mean. Or I could find somewhere else, somewhere closer to the beach but near enough to campus. I don’t need to stay —”

Taylor kissed her again, softly this time, a simple press of lips that cut off Charlotte’s tumbling words. When she pulled back, Charlotte was staring at her with wide, hopeful eyes.

“You don’t have to figure it all out right now,” Taylor said, and she felt her own smile curve, tender and unguarded. “We’ll figure it out together. But yes. After the summer, I want to live with you. I want to wake up next to you every morning, Charlotte. I want to make you coffee and leave my guitar in your living room and cook dinner with you. All of it.”

Charlotte made a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob, and then she was nodding, her forehead pressing into Taylor’s shoulder as her body finally let go of the last of its tension. Taylor wrapped both arms around her and held on.

Charlotte sniffled against Taylor’s throat, a ragged, wet shudder running through her ribs. Taylor slid her hands lower, gripping the curve of Charlotte’s hips, anchoring her tight.

Taylor tilted Charlotte’s head up, catching her mouth in a slow, possessive kiss. Charlotte opened instantly, her tongue sliding against Taylor’s. Her fingers twisted into Taylor’s hair, pulling until their lips bruised together, breath tangling in shared hunger.

When they broke apart, Charlotte let out a breathy laugh, her nose brushing Taylor’s, another tear slipping onto Taylor’s cheek. The heavy knot of panic that had sat under Taylor’s ribs for months finally unspooled, leaving her skin buzzing with static heat.

“I’m not letting you go again,” Taylor murmured, pressing another lingering kiss to the corner of Charlotte’s mouth.

Charlotte smiled against her skin, her hands resting over Taylor’s heartbeat. “Good, because I’m yours for as long as you’ll have me.”