Page 50 of Choosing Stella

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“Do you need anything?”

“I could use about five functioning leg muscles.”

His breath brushed warm over my shoulder when he laughed.

“I can’t help with that.”

“You’re responsible for at least four of them.”

“I’ll accept partial liability.”

I smiled and straightened slowly.

Geo disposed of the condom, then brought me my shirt and pants. He handed them over and turned toward the dresser while I dressed.

I pulled on the shirt and left the pants beside me.

“Do you want water?”

“Yes, please.”

He returned with a fresh glass and sat at the foot of the bed, leaving enough distance that I could decide whether to close it.

I drank half the water.

“Do you want space?” he asked.

I looked toward the open doorway across the hall. Twenty feet away, the bedroom lock still belonged only to me. I could get up, go back there, and close him out without explaining why.

Instead I shifted farther onto his bed and patted the space beside me.

“I don’t want space yet. Sit with me.”

He moved beside me without pulling me against him.

I rested my bare foot against his calf.

Going back to my room would’ve been easy. I wanted to see what happened if I stayed.

Chapter Four

By the time pale October daylight reached the high windows, Stella was already in the kitchen.

She stood at the counter in a black T-shirt and charcoal pants, her white streak bright against her dark hair in the gray morning light. Bread waited in the toaster. She had one hand wrapped around a glass of water and the other resting against the counter.

She’d left my bed sometime before dawn.

I’d felt the mattress shift and opened my eyes long enough to see her gathering the pants and underwear she’d left beside her. She’d paused at the bedroom door and looked back at me, her bare legs disappearing beneath the hem of the black T-shirt.

Then she’d crossed the hall to the room that locked from her side.

I hadn’t followed.

Now she looked over as I entered the kitchen.

“Morning.”