It’s not the nicest place in the world, but the grounds are well-kept and I don’t see any crime scene tape, so I’m already excited.
“And now we wait,” Mike says as he pulls into an open parking spot.
“We wait?” I ask. “Why?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says, “their office doesn’t open for another hour. So, when are you going to tell Dane that you want him to split you like a tree trunk?”
“Split me like a—you have a problem, Mike, seriously.”
“It’s not like you didn’t already know,” he tells me. “I saw the look on your face when you realized he was there.”
“I was startled,” I rejoin. “You should have seen your face. Your mouth was open so wide I could see your wisdom teeth.”
“Whatever,” he says. “I’m talking about after the initial shock. You looked like you were going to—”
“Can we please talk about something else?” I ask. ?
??Have you had a chance to try what I told you?”
“What? You mean completely changing everything about the way I kiss?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Eh, a little bit. I don’t know if I just got magnificently better at it, or if I’m still as terrible as ever, but we weren’t kissing very long.” He leans over, grinning, and nudges my arm, saying, “If you know what I mean.”
“Oh, God.”
We sit there for a while, and I continue to dodge his questions about Dane. When the office finally opens, we go in and talk to the manager. She takes us on a tour and it simply doesn’t compute that I can get a two-bedroom apartment with a decent floor plan for under $1,000.
I really haven’t been living in the city that long, but that kind of freaks me out.
I’m ready to sign the papers right now, but Mike steps in before I can commit to anything and tells the woman that we have a few more appointments today, but we’ll let her know.
By the time the day’s done, I can hardly remember what that first apartment looked like.
“So,” Mike says as we’re on our way back to New York and all the insanity those two words juxtaposed entail, “you’re really not going to tell me what you’re going to do.”
“Nope.”
I don’t want to tell him that, with every new apartment we looked at, I was making a mental note of which room would be mine and which one would be Dane’s. I admit it, I like him and I don’t want to leave him, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to share a bedroom with him either.
Mike drops me off in front of my building and we make plans to get together tomorrow and decide which place is going to be the right fit.
I’m not looking forward to walking into that apartment and having to try and think of a way to approach Dane now that it’s all out in the open, but I don’t get the chance. As I come up the stairs, Dane’s coming out of the apartment.
“Don’t lock it!” I call.
He jumps a little, but nods and opens the door.
When I get up to him, my every thought is of walking right by him, but I stop.
“Dane, I wanted to talk to you about last night,” I tell him.
“Could we not do this?” he asks. “I’ve already humiliated myse—”
My lips are pressing into his and I’m pushing him backward through the open door to the apartment. He’s stunned for a moment, but in a flash, he’s kissing me back and chills are running throughout my entire body.
I know this isn’t the way to leave things with him, but who says that I want to leave things at all?