Page 125 of Sunset Catchers

“Everything okay, pretty girl?”

“Yup,” I whisper, unable to fully commit to the word. To the lie.

“Want to try that again?”

Now his question is met by a snorted sigh. After some rearranging of limbs, we end up seated in the middle of the bed, facing each other, my legs loosely tucked around his waist, Levi’s hands on my thighs.

He reaches over to smooth the hair around my ear.

“Remember when you took me to eat burgers for the first time.” He tilts his head sideways—he’s listening. “We agreed that some things are best enjoyed scarcely, with special circumstances?” A small furrow of brows. “What if I’m one of those things?”

Levi’s hand slip up my neck until he’s cupping my nape.

“You’re not. I’ll never get enough of you. I want all of your ordinary moments, in every circumstance.”

I sigh, tenderly. “Levi.”

It’s so easy to believe him. To take him at face value.

I move on to the other thing worrying me: “What are we going to do, then?”

“Let’s talk about it,” he says.

I’m soft over how willing and open he is at having a midnight chat with me because he knows this is what I need right now.

I lean in to peck a kiss on his lips. He really is a good guy.

“What’s going to happen when I leave?” Levi opens his mouth to speak, but too many thoughts are being evicted from my skull. “Are we officially dating now? Full-time friends? Part-time lovers? Or do we just love each other, and that’s it? What would be our relationship status be on Facebook—.”

“Winnie, will you be my girlfriend?”

My heart jumps up in my chest. “Yes.”

We wear matching megawatts smiles that light up the night.

“Great. Then yes, we are dating. Full-time,” he adds that last part, shaking his head in exasperation, “Facebook official girlfriend and boyfriend.”

“Okay. Sure. That will do, I suppose.”

“As for what’s going to happen now. I guess we’ll have to do long-distance.” My smile turns fragile at the edges. Even if I know it is the logical thing to do, it still stings that spending 24/7 together will no longer be the norm.

“Right,” I say, unable to mask the sadness from my voice. Levi’s thumbs runs soothing circles over my thighs.

“We’ll go back and forth as much as we can. I only need my computer to work, and barely ever need to be in Toronto, so it isn’t a hindrance to me.”

“Same for me. I have a few projects lined up, but it’s mostly stuff I can do online,” and also, “But you have a home in Toronto. And a family.” He shrugs casually, as if those facts are expendable and negligible in our talk.

“I want to be where you are. So, we’ll just trade off on who’s visiting whom. No big deal. It works,” he reassures me.

It does work.

Very easily.

The distance is really no distance at all considering how far apart we could’ve ended up on this planet. Just the thought of it stresses me out. I put my hands on his forearms.

He’s here. I met him. It’s okay.

Something is still weighing my gut down, though.