“Think it might snow?” Seth asked, glancing at the window.
“Are we at the ‘chatting about the weather’ stage?” I asked. “I always thought couples unlocked that after their tenth anniversary.”
Seth pinched my nipple with a very precise and practiced move of his hand. “We’re not a couple, Pierce. Rules don’t apply.”
“I like this lawlessness of ours,” I said, pulling him closer in as prickles rose along my torso from the cold touch of his fingers. “Gotta warm you up.”
Seth melted into my hold, rising to the tips of his toes and pressing his lips against mine. It was a sweetness overdose, shooting through my veins like a drug, and I closed my eyes, leaping off a cliff and discovering I could fly.
God, but it was good to kiss him. Couple or not, it didn’t matter. What could possibly matter when this was what we had?
Seth’s hands moved down the length of my bare back and rested on my ass, fingers sinking into the soft fabric of my sweatpants.
“Careful,” I murmured against his lips. “You’re dangerously close to making me horny.”
Seth chuckled. “You’ve been horny all day, admit it.”
“Not cancel-the-date-level horny,” I said.
“It’s cold outside anyway,” Seth replied, floating an idea I didn’t dislike at all.
“Oh, well, we can’t risk getting you sick,” I said. “Maybe we should just stay in.”
Seth kissed me, bit my lip, then pulled back with a furious look in his eyes. “That was a test, Damon, and you failed.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Let me get dressed.”
Seth’s gaze dropped down my torso as he stepped back, and he bit his lip as his gaze passed over my crotch. He was so predictable; I loved it.
We went out to a small cinema that played old films, probably without the proper licensing, inside an abandoned factory warehouse, and watched Bella Lugosi’sDraculawhile sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs. Seth’s head rested on my shoulder throughout the film while I struggled to keep my eyes open. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the classics. I just had more contemporary interests.
The melodrama skyrocketed on the modest silver screen, and Seth tucked himself closer against me, making my heart peaceful and content. It was such a strange thing to love another human being so thoroughly and in such detail. It never ceased to surprise me, all these many weeks later, when I spotted something about him that I loved so completely. Like the way a lock of his hair curled upward from above his left temple, because that was how he leaned his head on his fist when he took notes. Or how sweet his lips were when he ate chocolate and didn’t wipe all the traces from the corners, and I had to lean in to lick them clean. Or how he would sit at his desk and read over his notes, then let his gaze wander off the notebook and onto me, lying on his bed, and he would forget all about the rest of the world for a moment. There were too many things I loved about him to make counting possible. I tried to count, once, when we’dfailed to secure the privacy of one of our rooms, and I lay awake that night, just finished texting him. I thought about the way his gaze lingered on my eyes for a moment longer than anyone else looked at me. I thought about his slender fingers and what he could do with them when he threaded them through my hair. I thought about the small of his back and the faded tan line around his waist and how I wished I had been next to him when he’d last sunbathed.
The movie ended, and Seth wrapped his arms around me to hug me for a moment. “You make a wonderful body pillow,” he said as if he didn’t feel any kind of pull between us. As if he hadn’t fallen into the same trap I’d fallen into. The more time I spent with him, the more certain I was that he had. How could he not? Could I be the only fool between the two of us?
“I make quite a few wonderful things,” I said, voice low and for his ears only. “As do you.”
“Mm. A flashlight?” He poked my rib cage with one finger and grinned.
I kissed the top of his head, and we slowly got up from our seats, muscles stiff and backs hurting. The cinema was slowly dismantled, and the lights above the bar were on again.
We stayed for a round of drinks, going for a Bloody Mary as a tribute to the film, and I watched the Christmas lights play across Seth’s face.
“Come with me,” I said, leaning back in my chair and watching him hopefully. “During the break. Let’s run away.”
The muscles on his face tensed. “I…can’t.”
“Sure you can,” I said. “Say you want to ace the exam. Or get ahead. Or that you have friends staying on campus. Nick’s going home, I bet.”
Even though he tried to remain expressionless, I could see the cogs turning inside his head. I could also see the questions rising to the surface. If he stayed, did it mean something? I couldsee him turn that over and toss it aside. “That’s definitely an incentive to stay.”
I laughed. “So stay. And we’ll just go away.”
Seth laughed softly and shook his head. “I already said I’d go home.”
“Me too,” I said. “But I don’t feel like it anymore.”
“We could see each other there,” Seth said. So, we were negotiating. I rubbed my hands together and leaned in.