“Do you have treats hiding in your pocket? Tuna anywhere on your person?”
“Nothing. Maybe he just... likes me?”
“That’s impossible. This asshole hates everyone.”
“Apparently not.”
There is a hint of a smile on his lips when he very, very slowly reaches down and pets the top of Herbert’s head. He looks so proud of himself.
“Well, now you’re stuck there until he decides to get down, because the cardinal rule with cats is when they choose you, you don’t move until they do. It is law.” I sit on my small chaise lounge across from him and curl my feet under me. “The soup is simmering on the stove. It will be fine.”
“There are worse ways to be trapped,” he says.
I lean my head back against the soft cushion. “Isaac, I think we should probably talk about something.”
His eyes bolt from where they were resting on Herbert to mine. “About?”
“I’m honestly shocked you don’t know.”
He shifts a bit in his seat, trying not to scare the cat away then speaks. “Sawyer, look I...”
I hold up my hand to stop him. “Just let me get this out.” I tell him much like I did last night.
“You seem to need that a lot,” he teases.
“I have to get things out while they are fresh in my brain, especially if the conversation is important or awkward.”
He swallows so hard it’s audible and that just cements what I was worried about.
“We said some things in the heat of the moment last night. Things that really shouldn’t be ignored because they are important. You asked me to be yours and said I was... I said the same in return. We both said we didn’t want to see other people. I just want you to know I’m not going to hold you to your word on that. You’ve been so... quiet all day today. I’m not the type of girl who is clingy or needy like this, but I just wanted you to know I still want those things. It’s okay if you don’t. I just need you to tell me so I can break the news to Herbert.” I smile, hoping it eases whatever weirdness I’ve created.
He doesn’t say anything to me at first. He just looks at me, like he’s thinking of something to say. The anxiety in my chest is growing by the second until he finally speaks up.
“Come here, please. I would come to you, but it seems I’m the chosen one.” He smiles, nodding down to Herbert.
I uncurl myself from where I settled on the chaise lounge and walk across the living room to sit beside him on the sectional sofa, and he reaches over to place a hand on my thigh.
“Sawyer, I said the things I said because I meant them. Every day that I’m with you, the light in your eyes grows brighter and I can feel the same happening in mine. I’m not ready to lose that.”
“Even if it means you’re stuck with me for awhile?”
“I don’t want you to see anyone else and I definitely don’t want to be with anyone else, and Herbert likes me, so I mean, it looks like you don’t get a say in the matter.”
Herbert tilts his head and begins grooming himself and we both just laugh.
“What a traitor.” I shake my head and turn my body so I’m facing him.
“Sawyer, I don’t know what it is about you that has me so captivated, because it could be so many things. Maybe it’s your eyes or your smile. It could even be your laugh or your incredible personality. Or it’s the fact our connection is off the fucking charts. I like to think it’s all of the above. Whatever it is that we have, I’m addicted and all I can think about is my next fix of you.”
I move up to kneel on the sofa cushions and bend forward, taking his chin in my hand, tilting his head back to meet my gaze. “I know that affliction well.”
Our lips meet in a soft, gentle kiss. He tastes like his drink on the train and the breath mint he took from Finn afterward. It’s delectable and intoxicating.
It builds slowly at first, well on its way to more, but the moment is broken by the hissing sound of my stove as the soup boils over.
“Oh shit!”
I scramble off the sofa and into the kitchen all the while he laughs at me.
Isaac
“This is actually really delicious,” I say, as I take another spoonful of soup into my mouth. “Even if most of it ended up on the stove instead of my bowl.”
I quickly dodge a wadded up napkin tossed my way.
“See if I ever feed you again, mister.”
We are on the sofa together, warm bowls of soup in hand, simply enjoying each other’s company. It’s not something I do with women often. Most of my time with them is very much like a business transaction. I get what I need, they get what they need, and then we go on with our lives. We are repeat customers for one another if we are feeling it, and sometimes we aren’t. A relationship is not something I could have ever predicted or wanted for myself. Until Sawyer.
“Thank you for taking me with you this weekend. I really had a great time,” she says, blowing on her spoonful to cool it down.
“Everyone adored you. Anytime I spoke with someone, they’d ask me where I found you because you’re so vivacious and personable.”
“Which I don’t understand because I think I’m a bit weird and awkward.”
“Why do you think you’re weird?”
She shrugs a bit then takes another bite. “I just feel like I do odd things. I find silly things funny and like to play around, sometimes too much. I have a horrifically dirty mind.”
“Um, since when are these bad things? There is nothing wrong with playing or laughing, and I always encourage a dirty mind. Hell, I
