He woke up when the afternoon sun came through his kitchen windows and hit him in the eye. They’d somehow moved in their sleep to lying almost flat on the couch, but her head was still tucked in the nook of his shoulder, and his arm was still tight around her. He could stay like this for another few hours.
His stomach rumbled.
Oh, right. Except for that. The hot dogs and cotton candy from the pier couldn’t hold him forever.
She squeezed her eyes together and stirred, turning into his chest, away from the light. She kissed his chest as she snuggled against him, and the warmth from her casual caress spread through his body.
“Mmmngry,” she said into his collarbone.
“Hmmm?” He stroked her hair away from her face. Remnants of the flower were still on her cheek. He rubbed at it with his thumb.
She lifted her head a few centimeters.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this flower. I’m sure I look ridiculous.”
He smiled down at her, her cheek pink and creased from being against his chest.
“You look beautiful.”
She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him, her hands in his hair.
“I’m hungry,” she said against his lips. “You?”
He chuckled and ran his hands over her hair to her back, and then again. A woman after his own heart.
“Starving. What’s your feeling on burgers and fries? We should probably eat here instead of going out, since I’m on call tonight . . .”
She kissed his collarbone again.
“I have very positive feelings about burgers and fries. Eating here is perfect, since I accidentally glued myself to this couch.”
He kissed her ear to make her giggle and rolled out from underneath her and stood up.
“Good thing you have me. I’ll go pick them up and bring them back here while you try desperately to unglue yourself.”
So they ate their burgers on the couch while they watched terrible movies on Netflix and kept their fingers crossed that he wouldn’t have to go into the hospital.
It was probably a real risk to pull her into the bedroom . . . but he was on call until six in the morning. Was he supposed to not have sex with her tonight?
Afterward, damp and panting, he reached blindly for his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed a call. Just then it rang.
He kissed her hard and jumped out of bed after he got off the phone.
“I’ve got to go. Keep the bed warm for me, okay?”
She turned and looked up at him with that smile that always made his heart turn over.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” she said.
“I’m counting on it.”
It took Alexa a while to fall asleep after he left. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to sleeping alone. But she missed him next to her.
She wouldn’t admit this to anyone other than herself, and then only late at night, but ever since that first weekend with him, every night when she lay in bed she imagined him there with her. Even those nights right after their stupid fight. She would think of his strong arms around her, hear his slow, steady breathing, feel his chest rise and fall, and his warm body against hers, and it all lulled her to sleep. It felt silly to do it there in his bed alone, but she did it anyway.
She woke up in the middle of the night to feel him pull her against him. When his arms were around her, she felt like nothing else mattered. Like nothing bad could ever touch her.
“Everything okay?” she whispered.
He kissed her forehead.
“It is now. Go back to sleep.”
After a lazy day on the beach the next day, they went out for Mexican food Sunday night. She took a sip of her margarita, and her lips puckered at the salty/sweet tang of the drink. She took a bite of a salsa-laden chip and smiled. Chips and salsa were tied up there with cheese and crackers for the perfect snack food. Maybe not as perfect for being stuck in an elevator, but . . . He interrupted her tequila-influenced musings.
“I’m not on call next weekend, so I can come up.” He paused. “If that works for you.”
She licked the salt from the corner of her mouth and noticed his eyes follow the movement of her tongue. She smiled and did it again.
“Yeah, that works for me.”
She got to the office the next day, feeling much more wide awake than any woman who’d been on a seven a.m. flight from LAX had any reason to be. But when she had a wake-up call like Drew’s . . . well, that was going to keep her awake all day.
Theo poked his head in her door on his way into the office.
“I don’t need to ask how your weekend was; that look on your face says it all.”
Her cheeks got hot, and she tried to tone down her smile, but when Theo plopped in her chair and handed her a doughnut, it blossomed again.
“I’ll try to pull myself together by staff meeting.”
Theo bit into his own doughnut and took a sip of her coffee. They’d long ago started taking coffee the same way to simplify their lives.
“You going to see him again? Or is that an ‘of course’?”
She tried not to let her smile take over her whole face but probably failed.
“He’s coming up this weekend.”
She switched the conversation to work so she wouldn’t get carried away.
“What do you think the press will say about my program? Who are we targeting to leak about it? Or do you think an interview?”
Theo stood up.
“That reminds me,” he said. “We need to name this thing. It needs a good terrible acronym.”
Just then, the mayor poked his head in Alexa’s office.
“Thought I’d find you both here. Just wanted to let you know Richards is against the delinquent project. He fought me on it at dinner this weekend.”
Shit. Richards was the city councilman from the Berkeley Hills, and a good friend of the mayor’s. She opened her mouth to defend her project, point by point, when the mayor stopped her.
“Alexa. You don’t need to argue with me on this. I’m on your side; this is our program now. I’m just telling you what we’re up against and what work has to be done. Just huddle with Theo and figure out a plan, okay?”
She smiled at him.
“Yes, sir.”
Drew had driven straight to the hospital after dropping Alexa off at the airport. Even though that gave him plenty of time to get through his pile of stupid paperwork, he didn’t get much done.
Usually when he got home in the middle of the night after a stressful surgery he felt exhausted and wrung dry. But Saturday night when he’d walked into his bedroom and seen her there in his bed, he’d felt a sense of homecoming that he hadn’t felt in years. And when he’d wrapped his arms around her and she’d curled her body against his, his whole self had felt at peace.
He shook his head in an attempt to pull himself back to earth, or at least to his office. Why was he being such a teenager over this one girl? He was acting like this was the first girl he’d ever slept with.
He was going to have to break up with her soon. If he didn’t, he’d invariably do something to fuck it all up again. How terrible would it be when she looked at him with loathing in her eyes instead of that smile?
He couldn’t end things yet, though. They’d just started back up again. Maybe after this coming weekend.
He’d settled back in with the paperwork when his phone buzzed. He snatched at it, but it was just Carlos asking if he wanted anything from Starbucks.
Large with a shot of espresso.
He’d already had coffee with Alexa this morning, but after not a lot of sleep and getting up early to go to the airport, he’d need more caffeine than usual today.
As Carlos walked into his office, his phone buzzed again. This time, it was her.
Landed, but there were no doughnuts waiting for me at Oakland airport, terrible way to get off a plane.
He laughed down at his phone and looked up to see that smirk on Carlos’s face.
“Good weekend, I take it?”
He picked up his coffee and took a sip.
“You can stop gloating anytime now. Yes, yes, you told me so.”
Carlos grinned.
“As long as you remember that. When’re you seeing her again?”
He shrugged.
“This weekend I’m going up there.” Carlos’s grin got bigger. “Don’t give me that look! Don’t make a big deal out of this!”
Carlos rolled his eyes as he left the room.