Page 73 of Pumped

His smile grows and he bites his bottom lip. “I want to say yes.”

“So say yes.”

“I don’t know. Should I feel guilty?”

“About Juno?” I frown. I hadn’t thought of that.

“Oh, no. They actually have a legit job at a lab at the university, so they make decent money. Plus, they have zillions of friends, so they could definitely find another roommate if they want one. It’ll be weird living apart for the first time in our adultlives, but they’ll be fine,” he says. “But what about Fender? Is he going to hate me for stealing his roommate away from him?”

I chuckle and brush Percy’s sweaty curls off of his forehead.

“He’ll survive. He could probably afford a small place on his own. And, if it makes you feel any better, AJ mentioned his brother is thinking about moving to town and might need a roommate, so Fender can always torture him instead of me.”

“Yeah?” His eyebrows go up and he absently uses the tip of his finger to draw little hearts on my chest. “You really want to do this? Living together is kind of a big deal.”

“I really want this,” I say firmly, without a hint of doubt in my voice or my heart. “I want to wake up with you every morning, I want to pick out shit to hang on the walls together, I want to spend every night with your feet in my lap while I watch ESPN and you frown at your laptop and grade papers. I want a life with you.”

His breath catches in his throat, and his eyes get glassy, making me worry for a second that I might have said something wrong. But then he sniffles and laughs again.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.” He laughs one more time, and then we crash together in another kiss.

Later we’ll work out all the details. Maybe we’ll even drag ourselves out of bed and go meet everyone at the bar so we can buy a round and tell Fender and Juno the news. But for right now, we just savor this moment, wrapped up in each other, smiling into an endless kiss.

THE END