Page 104 of Perfect Fit
“No,” he says eventually, more to himself than to me.
“What?”
“No.” Will kneels, literallykneelsdown before me and says, “One day, I’m going to change your mind.”
“About New York?”
“Yes.” He looks so earnest I can’t help but grin. “This isn’t funny, Josephine. I’ve never been more serious. I’m not asking you to live there. I’m asking you to be excited about the prospect of visiting that city. If I’m there, and you’re visiting me, or if I’m not, and we’re going on a trip together. I need that to be something you could enjoy.”
I laugh, and he cracks a dimpled smile. “New York means that much to you?”
Will nods. Looking so fucking sincere, I want it to be mine. My sincere, mine only. After everything Will has done for me, I will do this for him. I will learn to love New York for him.
After all—just because I don’t understand something (yet) doesn’t mean I can’t respect its importance.
I kiss him. Slipping off the bench, I straddle his propped knee and grab his head and tilt it up and kiss him hard. Our lips taste like salt and sweat, like a full day of looking at buildings. Today is my birthday, and he’s so cute I don’t know how to handle how much of a crush I have on this gorgeous, supportive, life-changing man.
We’ve got high school diplomas from the same school, shared mistakes, too, and that’s the least important out of all of it. Here, now, between high school and this moment, Will spent ten years in New York growing into himself, learning what kind of person he wanted to be while I was in Texas doing the same thing. And now we’re both in Barcelona making out in broad daylight for the second time today because we grew and learned enough on our own to find and maybe even deserve each other.
I want to believe Igetthis. I want to believe I deserve to have a person to call mine. To believe I’ve earned it, believe I’ve worked hard enough that I can slow down and savor it.
Today only, I refuse to let a single doubt creep in.
We eat tapas for dinner, more aspiring than vegetarian, and split a bottle of wine we cork after one glass and take with us, so we aren’t too tipsy to cycle back to the hotel. On the ride home, the evening air slips over my skin, fingers its way through my braids. I smell the ocean, taste it, hear it hovering against the edge of the city. Maybe tomorrow we can go to the beach.
“How was your day?” the concierge asks while he collects our bikes and gear.
“It was perfect,” I respond, smiling at Will.
In the elevator, we’re surrounded by strangers, but Will and I press toward the back of the cab. He looks at me with hot, magnetic eyes until we reach our floor.
We walk around the corner to our set of doors.
“How is your body feeling?” he murmurs, his fingers dancing over mine.
“Like a shower,” I say. I was hot before dinner, but now, after the windy bike ride under a setting sun, I’m almost shivering.
His fingers drop away from mine when we reach his door.
I’m operating on pure instinct. With a lightning reflex, I reach out and grab his hand, pulling him farther along to my door.
“Water—conservation,” I say thickly.
As I fumble with my key card, practically trembling in anticipation, Will comes up behind me, pressing his lips to the back of my neck.
“I have wanted you for weeks,” he mumbles. “Years. A decade.”
Together, we stumble through the door.
In the entryway across from the bathroom, I push Will against the wall and kiss him soundly. He palms at my hips, tilting my lower body inward so my stomach is pressed against his, my shoulders arched back. He tastes like wine now, like Barcelona, the city on the tip of his tongue. Will lets me taste it again through him.
“I wanted you weeks ago, too,” I gasp. His mouth skates downpast my jawline, across my collarbone. “You reminded me what it was like.”
“To want?” he mumbles against my skin.
“To feel greedy for something I shouldn’t have.”
Abruptly, Will lifts me off him. He walks me to the opposite side of the entryway, planting a gentle fist against my stomach until my back molds into the wall. His pupils are dilated so much I can hardly see the ocean in his eyes now.
