After a moment, I pull back, tuck her hair back, and smile down at her as she looks up at me, her eyes moving back and forth between mine, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you,” I say a little louder than I need to, twirling her hair around my finger, watching her sharp intake of breath, the way she focuses on me, her pupils growing.
“Felix,” she breathes, and at that moment, she must see Mr. Stone behind me, because she lets a smile spread over her face. “I—”
“Ms. Villareal.”
We jolt apart, and Maeve delivers a great performance, acting like she didn’t see him walking down the street toward us.
“Oh! Mr. Stone, it’s nice to see you.”
“You as well,” he says, his eyes flitting between me and her, his nostrils flaring. He can smell our scents mingling together, a little more since we refreshed the bites last night.
Mostly without talking about it. Sometimes, when we’re tangled up together, it just happens. I only ever do it when Maeve does it first.
“Have a great night,” Maeve says, waving after him as he turns and goes, waving back at us.
“I think he bought it,” I say, turning and watching him go, his gait a little lopsided as he moves.
“Yeah,” she says, swallowing hard, forcing her eyes back to me. When she does, there’s something in her expression I can’t quite read. “I think he did, too.”
We stand like that for a moment, watching each other, then she punches me in the arm.
“Hey,” I say, jumping back and rubbing at it, though it didn’t hurt. “What was that for?”
“Youthrew my ice cream away!”She’s already turning, marching away, calling over her shoulder. “And you owe me a new one!”
Chapter 21 - Maeve
I wake up to a notification from my bank, which is normally the kind of thing that gives me heart palpitations. Last year, I was hacked and spent months trying to get everything sorted out. Add to that the inconsistent pattern of partnership payments, and notifications from my bank are not usually a good thing.
Pulling down at the top of my screen, I read the notification.
Your account has received a deposit.
It’s strange, because I’ve been so busy working on the samples that I haven’t done a sponsored post in a few weeks. I blink away the exhaustion, tapping around on my phone until I find the bank app and open it.
The number that sits on the screen is so big, it takes me a moment to fully process it. I blink, and when none of the zeros disappear, I sit up so fast, Felix’s arm falls from me, and he lets out a low, sleepy noise.
“Maeve?”
But I can barely hear him. My hands have started to shake. Frantically, I click through to the transactions page and find ahugedeposit.
Fogue Law Associates TRANSFER OF ESTATE.
“Oh my gods.”
“Is everything okay?” Felix is sitting up fully now, his hand on my shoulder. The touch that’s normally so electric to me feels grounding now, bringing me back down to earth. My hands steady, and I set the phone on the nightstand, turning around and throwing my arms around him.
“Oh,gods!” I say into the crook of his neck. “I got the money! Felix, I got the money!”
“Holy shit!” He sits up, pushing the blankets off and rising up on his knees to match my posture. We stare at each other, on our knees in the middle of the bed, for a long moment.
I let my eyes track over him. The pink hair on his head, softer now, more like cotton candy than the bright pink it was the day he came home with it. Of course, it looked good on him. Everything looks good on him.
His sharp jaw. The dimples on either side of his smiling lips. The stubble on his cheeks that he’ll shave away this morning. I reach out and run my thumb over the line of it, wondering how something can be so soft and so strong at the same time.
Finally, Felix whispers, his talking moving my hand, “That’s great, Maeve. That’s really great.”
