Page 82 of This Could be Love

“Did the woman who sleeps next to you tell you that?” I teased, and he laughed. I joined in and suddenly it felt like we had known each other forever. As if it was completely natural for us to be teasing each other. It was nice, but also a little scary.

“I wouldn’t want to sleep if I was next to you in bed. I’d…” I paused mid-sentence, but the look on his face told me that he understood.Want to sleep with you.We hadn’t taken that step yet. The big one. The last one. I knew it was up to me. That Vince had left it up to me. And that it was okay if I didn’t. If I didn’t want to have sex without a future. If I didn’t want to sleep with someone who would be completely out of my life in two weeks. I liked that about him too. That he accepted my decisions and respected my boundaries.

“I’ll walk you home,” he said, and stood up.

We took the path along the beach, just like yesterday and the day before. Maybe it was more romantic. Or longer. It delayed our goodbye just a little bit more. The moon was nothing more than a crescent, surrounded by thousands of stars that lit up the sky.Bathed the ocean in silver light. The water was calm. Only a soft rustling announced that it was there at all.

“As for tomorrow evening,” he began as we neared Kay’s house, “I’ve got a surf date with the others.”

“No problem. We don’t have to stick to each other every single night.” I made a face, though, to be honest, I kind of liked sticking to him.

“Actually, I wanted to ask if you’d like to come along.”

“Oh,” I said in surprise.

“You could watch. Or try it out again, if you want.”

“Are you sure?”

“Why? Is there anything against it?”

“Well, I mean, you haven’t done anything with your friends in a while, and I don’t want to get in the way.”

“You’re not.”

“Do they see things the same as you do?”

We stopped at the foot of the stairs. The sand was still warm from the day’s sun, but the deeper I sank my toes into it, the cooler it became. I liked the feeling.

“Of course,” he said nonchalantly. “And, in any event, they know that it’s just…” He broke off, and I felt a slight stab in my heart. “That you’ll be leaving soon.”

“When are you meeting?” I asked to distract myself from all the conflicting emotions: fear, anticipation, nervousness, tension, concern, sadness.

“Three-thirty. That way we’ll still have a few hours before the sun goes down.”

“That’ll be tight. But I could catch up with you later if you won’t be too far away.”

“Fifteen minutes. Tops. I’ll send you the address.”

“Cool.”

“Maybe Laurie will want to come now that you’ll be there too.”

“That would be great. She wanted to see me train anyway. Maybe we could go together afterward.”

“Laurie’s gonna watch you train?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was talking to her about earlier today out on the terrace.”

“You all talk about so much stuff.” He sighed.

Making an exaggerated show of outrage, I gasped for air and moved to slap his cheek, but he intercepted my hand and wrapped his fingers in mine.

“Should I watch you sometime too?” he whispered.

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

“Because of your godmother?”