“Like once a month,” he called out from his room.
“That’s...pretty often.” Maybe too often.
“Yeah. They’ll actually be here in a couple of weeks.”
I coughed at the sudden bile in my throat. Was he that close with them, that they visited that much? I didn’t want to deal with his parents, not this soon. I hadn’t met Asher’s parents until after a year of dating, and we hardly ever saw them after.
“From where? Where do they live?” I sat down on his couch and focused on breathing.
“They live in New Jersey, in Princeton. They moved there when I was there for undergrad.”
Of course he was a Princeton grad.
Another wave of nausea hit at the thought of his parents moving from California to Princeton to be near him. Who did that?
Having finished placing all of my stuff in the master bedroom, he came to sit next to me on the couch and took my hands in his. “Hey. You can stay here as long as you like. I know that you want space. I’m not going to expect us to spend every waking moment together. Just let me know when you want to hang out, and otherwise, I’ll work, climb, do stuff as usual, ok? You can tell me if—if it’s too much.”
I took in his earnest expression, the solemn promise there...and after a moment, squeezed his hands, grateful for his understanding. “Thanks, Ian.”
I didn’t want to get into the parents discussion right then. It was too big, and we could deal with them later. In the meantime, I resolved to find a new place as soon as possible. No need to meet his parents if we didn’t live together, right?
He stood up. “I’ll cook us some dinner in like an hour. I still have some work to do, so I’m going to go upstairs to the loft and do it.” I had completely missed that there was a loft. There was a loft, in addition to a spare bedroom?
He kissed my forehead and disappeared behind the brick wall, leaving me to my thoughts.
I sat for a while, taking in my surroundings, letting the situation sink in.
Asher, my ex-boyfriend, best friend in New York, and fellow audiophile, just kicked me out of his apartment, where he’d let me stay for years with reduced rent.
Ian, my boyfriend of less than a week, of whom I knew very little, had just taken me in and offered to let me stay for as long as I liked. We hadn’t discussed any rent.
Friend to relative stranger; shithole to Williamsburg condo; and still...dependent.
Fuck.
Chapter 16
-Ian-
I was nervous about having Anna live with me. Things were moving way too fast, when she’d explicitly asked us to go slowly. We’d just started dating, hardly knew each other, and would soon be colleagues, too. It seemed like a recipe for disaster.
But she didn’t have anywhere to go, and I didn’t want to turn her away. So I gave her space, as much as I possibly could.
She had a few days before starting work at Stumpstash, and I made sure to stay at work for my usual hours to give her time to settle into her own routine.
Her second night living with me, I went to the climbing gym and didn’t get home until she was already lying in bed, so I just showered and cuddled up next to her and held her as she slept. Her body was warm and sweet in my arms, and she snuggled close, sighing and fitting against me as if she’d always belonged there. I hadn’t known that I’d been sleeping poorly for so many years until I woke up next to her, without an alarm, refreshed and ready for the day.
The next night, I worked late and didn’t get home until 9pm. We fell asleep watching old comedy sketches together and woke up to brilliant sunshine, twin smiles on our faces.
On Saturday, we went climbing together. She was getting better, stronger, and braver, and the V1s in the gym were no match for her. Lina noticed it too, and began high-fiving Anna as often as I did. At one point, I even caught them whispering together and pointing at me, then giggling. Disturbing.
That night, we cooked and ate dinner together. With Anna as my sous chef, we made a green vegetable curry from scratch, with fresh kaffir lime leaves and galangal. Her pride and delight, that mouthgasm look that she wore throughout dinner, made every extra step worth it. It filled me with pride to know that I’d been the one to put that look on her face, and I was glad that she shared my love and appreciation of good food. And based on what happened after, the enthusiasm with which she thanked me for the meal...food was a good way to her heart.
I schemed and plotted out several more meals that we could cook together in the near future.
On Sunday, her last day of freedom before work started, she asked to be left alone. She spent the day in the loft, on her computer, oddly quiet. Maybe working on a playlist? I wasn’t sure.
So that night, during dinner, I asked her about it. “Is there a new playlist coming out tomorrow?”
“Oh. No, not this week.” She stared vacantly at her plate of roasted asparagus and salmon.
“What were you working on today?”
Her brow furrowed, and she pushed a piece of salmon skin back and forth on her plate. “I was looking at apartments.”
“Oh.” I knew she didn’t want to live with me forever, but the thought put me out a little. It must’ve put her out too. She sighed.
“You okay?” I
