For a moment, it’s awkwardly silent in the kitchen. Alex takes the towel from my hand, sets it aside, then steps beside me with a clean towel, drying the pans I’ve washed.
“I feel like we were talking about something,” he says. “But I’ve completely forgotten what that was.”
“Before my egg-yolk face distracted you?” I say tartly.
He glances my way. “Are you embarrassed?”
“Obviously!”
“Why?”
“Because I had egg yolk on my face! And you had to wipe it off!”
“It was endearing,” he says.
“Endearing.” I roll my eyes. “Sure.”
“Ted, can I inform you of something?”
“Inform away.” I pick up the last pan in the sink, add a squirt of dish soap, and start scrubbing.
“I am a physically affectionate guy.”
I fumble with the pan. “Not terribly Sagittarian of you.”
“Cancer moon,” he explains.
I peer up at him, genuinely surprised. “You are the first man I’ve ever met who knows this much about his star chart.”
“Trust me, I didn’t learn it voluntarily. My sister, Ari, went through an astrology phase. Averyintense, impassioned phase.”
I smile. “Intense and impassioned, huh? Real surprised she’s related to you.”
Alex looks at me steadily, undeterred by my teasing. “Physical affection is big for me. And it has been pretty scarce for… quite a while.”
“I get that,” I tell him quietly. “Me, too.”
He holds my gaze for a beat longer. Heat creeps up my cheeks.
Slowly, he turns back to the pan, eyes on the towel as he dries it. “So something like egg yolk on your mouth, I don’t see it how you do, as something to be embarrassed about. I’m too busy being greedy for the chance to touch you. Because it feels good. Because you seem to like it when I do, and that makes me feel good, too. So if it really is just embarrassment that makes you regret a moment like that, I hope you know, on my side of things, that’s not where my mind is. But… if it’s because me touching you makes you uncomfortable—”
“It doesn’t,” I blurt.
Alex glances my way, his expression tense, wary.
“It doesn’t,” I tell him, my voice calmer, meeting his eyes. “I do like it. It… feels good to me, too. Very good.”
His gaze holds mine. “I haven’t been friends with a woman in a long time. And you’re really fucking good at putting me at ease.” He clears his throat. “See inappropriate towel spanks from five minutes ago.”
My heart’s thudding in my chest.
“So,” he continues, “just… please tell me, if at any point I’m going too far, touching too much, okay?”
I nod. “I will. And same, with me? I know I hug. A lot. And that can be… a lot.”
Alex smiles slowly.
“What?” I ask.