She steps closer to me, taking the flowers from my hands and pressing her chest against mine. With her heels on, she’s at eye level with me and is able to kiss me without much effort.
I let out a sigh of relief at the contact, as if me not having seen her all day was starting to wear on me.
What can I say? I’m clingy but Denise hasn’t seemed to mind these past three weeks. If anything, she’s just as attached at the hip. Despite what she tries to argue.
I rest my hands on her hips to bring her closer. She smiles into the kiss, pulling away just a little. I rest my forehead against hers, closing my eyes and focusing on the feeling of her gently running her nails up and down my shoulder.
Sometimes I still feel like I’m living in a dream. Like I’ll wake up and Denise being my girlfriend was something I made up to cope with her lack of interest.
The late-night phone calls. Me spending most of my time at her place. Being able to kiss her and hold her hand whenever I want. Even the way she looks at me like this might all feel just as surreal to her—all of it has me deciding that if this is a dream, then I don’t ever intend to wake up.
She gently kisses the corner of my mouth. “You’re kinda cute, Callahan.”
“Wow.” I chuckle.
“What?”
“We’re moving into compliment territory? This really must be a dream.”
She hums against my lips. “I can’t help it. You make me wanna tell you everything I like about you.”
“Well,” I begin. “Our dinner reservation isn’t for another hour. I think we have time.”
She laughs and pulls away again, this time taking my hand with her free one and walking me into her apartment. I close the front door, letting Denise guide me to her couch. The same couch we tend to make out on when we’re supposed to be watching a movie.
Not that I’d ever complain about that.
She sits down and pulls me with her, dropping her legs into my lap and resting her head in the palm of her hands, the rosesnow sitting in her lap. I brush one of her neatly done curls behind her ear and then begin to run my palms up and down her bare legs.
“I’ll give you five whole minutes of interrupted compliments.” Denise smiles. “But I require dessert after dinner.”
I tap a finger on my chin, pretending there’s any thinking required. “Hmm, sounds like a fair trade to me.”
Her smile widens and she doesn’t waste time showering me with her favorite things about me but I’m not even listening to the compliments. I’m just thinking of all my favorite things about her.
???
After dinner—and dessert as promised—Denise and I decide to walk around New York City before taking the train back to Ellingbrooke. We walk alongside the rest of the foot traffic and even though it’s more packed here than in Ellingbrooke, it’s nice to have a night outside the campus.
Eventually, Denise started to complain about her heels hurting her feet. Without much thought, I lift her up onto my back which is where she’s now. My hands are hooked under her knees and her arms are around my neck, now talking about a “deal” she got on this pair of heels.
“Jesus, Denise,” I laugh as I walk down the semi-busy street. “I thought I had no self-control.”
“They were limited edition Jimmy Choos, I had no choice but to buy them.”
I shake my head at the thought of thinking that me spending almost two hundred dollars on a pair of sneakers was outrageous. But my two hundred—which was paid off inpayment plans—compared to her almost three thousand has me wondering if I’ll ever be able to give her absolutely everything she wants and deserves.
“You’re making me a little nervous here, Stryker.”
“Why?” She kisses the side of my neck.
“How am I gonna keep up with your taste?” I chuckle, wanting her to know it’s not her taste that’s the issue. It’s that I’m still yet to have signed on as an official team member of the New Jersey Snakes.
One more year,I remind myself.
She hums, genuinely thinking about it for a moment. “I don’t expect you to spend that much, ever. But holding my bags is non-negotiable.”
I smile, giving her thighs a squeeze. “I think I can handle that.”