“Sounds like it.”
“At least I’ll get to spend time with you. I can tolerate anything if you’re by my side.”
“Oh hell no, I never agreed to that. I don’t fish. I don’t like the worms. I don’t like the fish. I get seasick on the boat. This is all on you.”
“Gabriel… no… why would you do this to me?” he asks as I begin to drive.
“I’m positive you did it to yourself,” I remind him. “You… You didn’t give my parentsallthe cookies, right?”
“No, my darling, I left plenty for you,” he assures me.
Pleased, I smile as I anticipate more cookies in my future.
“So we’ve ticked meeting the parents off the list, which means you’re moving in,” Liam declares.
“That’s definitely not what that means.”
Liam whips around to face me. “Gabriel, please… please don’t break my heart like this.”
“I’m not! I never said that once you met my parents, we’d move in together. I said it was astart.”
“Then may I move in with you?”
“Soon. And we’ll decide who is moving in where, but for right now, we’re just dating.”
Liam doesn’t seem overly pleased by this, but he doesn’t say anything about it. I honestly don’t think I’m being unfair.
“Some people date for like a year or two before moving in,” I say.
“It’s because they don’t love their other half as much as I love you.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not it.”
Liam ignores that as I pull into the driveway of my house and turn to him.
“Are you spending the night?”
He stares at me for a moment, like he’s trying to decide. Heneverhas to decide, and I honestly don’t know who he’s trying to fool by being obstinate. “I’ll consider it.”
“Alright, have a good night,” I say as I lean over and kiss him. He’s so flabbergasted that he doesn’t even reciprocate the kiss and is still gawking at me as I get out and hurry into the house. I even lock the door as I would if he wasn’t staying the night.
My long-haired black and white cat Lucille Pawl comes galloping up to see me. She’s all purrs as I scoop her up in my arms and look out to see Liam hurry to the front door and grab the handle. When he finds it locked, his shocked face fills the glass pane in the door.
“Gabriel? I think there’s an issue. The issue is that the door is locked, and I’m outside of it. Do you see my issue?”
“Oh, my bad. I thought you were going home.”
“I would never. I’d live in your closet if you permitted it.”
“And you wonder why I locked the door,” I say.
He’s laughing when I unlock it, but his attention is immediately snapped away when a teenager walks by on the road. He doesn’t have a coat on and has his hands stuffed deepin his pockets. Liam seems strangely fixated on him, making me hesitate.
“He’s just the neighbor’s kid,” I say quietly. “Hey, Cole!”
The teenager jumps and looks over at us, and I can see Liam’s body tense. It’s so odd when Cole isn’t doing anything suspicious. “Oh. Hi.”
“Where’s your coat?”
