Page 81 of Break Out

A little over an hour later, we’re thanking the driver and walking into my building.

“Are you hungry?” I ask, pulling out my phone as we ride the elevator and seeing that it’s a little after six.

I ignore the text messages from the guys, I’ll deal with them later, and look at Aubrey who’s standing across the elevator from me, her back resting against the wall, chewing on her bottom lip. I swallow, forcing myself to focus on her eyes and not on her lips. To not think about how much I want to lean over and pull her lip out from between her teeth before kissing her.

“I could eat. What were you thinking?”

“Sushi?” I frown, thinking back to all the seafood we ate in Key West. “Or are you not in the mood for more fish?”

The elevator dings, and the doors slide open. I shove my phone back in my pocket and hold the door open for her.

“I’m always in the mood for sushi. You know what I like. I’m going to go shower the plane smell off me,” she says once we’re inside my condo.

“Okay.”

She continues down the hallway. I heave out a breath when I hear the guest bedroom door close behind her. I wish she was going into my bedroom. I wanted to tell her as much, but maybe a night apart will make her rethink her stance that things are over between us.

I grab my bag and head to my room. I pull out my phone and put in our order before unpacking. Once everything is put away or in the hamper, I hop in the shower.

As I’m getting out, Aubrey yells, “Foods here.”

I make quick work of toweling off and getting dressed in black athletic shorts and a faded, worn Storm shirt before heading into the living room where she’s laid out the food on the coffee table.

“Want to watch Seinfeld?” Aubrey asks when she sees me walking into the room carrying two glasses of water for us.

“Sure.” I take a seat next to her on the couch, and she pulls up the show. We fall into a comfortable silence eating dinner and watching Netflix. I relax as, for the first time today, things feel back to normal between us. Now, if only I can convince her that we should try to make things work between us, that would be great.

“I’m so full,” Aubrey says, setting her empty container down on the coffee table.

“That’s because you polished off three rolls.” I tease, setting my own empty container down and chugging the rest of my water. She playfully swats at me, and I can’t help but chuckle. There she is.

“You didn’t feed me all day,” she says with an exaggerated sigh.

“Hey. I fed you breakfast.” I protest, chuckling. “It’s not my fault we had a midday flight.”

“I know. I’m just joking,” Aubrey says, getting to her feet and collecting the trash. I stand and help her, and we make quick work of cleaning up.

“Want to watch more Seinfeld? Or a movie?” I’d much rather be talking about us and where we go from here, but maybe that’s a conversation for tomorrow.

“A movie sounds great.” Aubrey grabs the bottle of wine and a beer for me out of the fridge. I nod my thanks when she hands it over. Glass of wine in hand, she follows me back into the living room where we make ourselves comfortable and pick a movie.

At some point during the evening, she shifts closer to me. I can’t help but put my arm around her and pull her closer. I fear that she’s going to pull away, but she doesn’t, resting her head against my chest instead. Her breathing evens out after a little while, and I realize she’s fallen asleep.

The selfish part of me wants to keep watching the movie with her curled into me, but I know I should wake her up and let her go to bed. So I do just that, leaning down and kissing her on the forehead.

“Aubrey. Beautiful.”

“What?” she mumbles, her voice thick with sleep.

“You fell asleep. We can finish this tomorrow.”

She rubs her eyes before getting to her feet. I shut off the television and the lights and follow her down the hallway. She pauses, glancing between the guest bedroom and my bedroom. I hold my breath, staying silent behind her. With one last glance in the direction of my room, she turns toward the guest room, walks in, and shuts the door.

My heart feels like it’s breaking all over again as I get ready for bed. I lie in bed long into the night trying to come up with what to say to convince Aubrey that even though we may have started out as fake, we’re not anymore, and we can make it work.

Chapter thirty-three

Aubrey