Page 94 of Play With Me

I grinned. “If you bleed to death, will you promise to haunt me?”

“If you’re lucky,” he looked thoughtful. “I might haunt Has just to piss you off.” He wouldn’t. He was going to haunt me.

I sat on the edge of the bathroom counter, and he stood between my legs while I gently dragged the razor down his face. Carving through the shaving cream lather he’d expertly applied and rinsing the razor off in hot water after every swipe. This was going to be the best shave he’d ever gotten.

“What’s the best shave you’ve ever gotten?” I asked quietly.

“Mmm.” His voice was low and rumbly. Rich. “Jaimie took me to this Haitian barber over on Chatham.”

What the fuck?

“What the fuck? When did you hang out with Jaimie?” I asked.

“While you and Has were in the city. I think we said maybe 5 words to each other the whole time, but it was awesome.”

I bet it was, actually. Two dudes who appreciated a clean shave getting buttered up by a master of his craft. Fucking adorable. The secondhand friendmistry replaced any disappointment I might’ve felt about being second-best.

I watched him shave his upper lip and clean up the spots I’d missed, and then I wiped off his face with a hot towel. He was so beautiful. My chest tightened.

As he threw his cami shirt on over his green undershirt, I realized I’d never seen him wearing camis except in that picture, where the sleeves had been rolled to his biceps. It was like opening your Christmas gift in reverse. A little bittersweet. You’re happy you know what it is, but now it’s getting rewrapped, and it looks perfect and enticing, but the wait begins again until it can be back in your hands.

“Is it hard?” I asked. “Being gone?”

“I’ll miss Keer’s 18th birthday,” he said simply. Like it answered the question, because it did.

“Rachel and I will make a cardboard cut-out of you,” I said. “I’ll get a Boyfriend Pillow and let Ciara hug it on her birthday.”

“Promise me she’ll get her Bumps. It’s a tradition, and Mom and Shiv can’t lift her alone.”

I nodded. I’d Google it later.

“I’m very strong,” I said, flexing my guns.

“I know you are, Iz.” His eyes flicked between mine.

I wanted to say it for him before he left. It felt like cotton in my mouth. He needs to hear the words, Louisa. “I—‘’ but he interrupted me with another kiss. Everything he felt for me, for us, for the next few months apart poured into my heart as if he’d said it all out loud. He was so good at silent communication, but I could give as good as I got.

“Tell me when I get back, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I said.

After Will left, Has held me for a long time. He rubbed my back, and I sighed into his chest. It was a good chest, but it wasn’t my favorite chest to sigh into anymore.

“I’m going to go back to bed for a bit,” I said. “I have that AMA later, and I don’t want to feel like a bag of ass.” Ask Me Anything, except why I’m moping.

I trailed my fingers along the chair rail in the hallway. Will said he’d murder me if I painted the stained woodwork. Even though I’d originally planned to, I loved the idea of leaving it now. His mark on this space. I’d think of him every time I looked at it. We’d be waiting for him when he got back. Me and the walls.

I walked into my room, tears leaking at the sight of our nest of blankets on the floor. Like the treehouse. And the studio after the ball.

I wiped my nose, and my eyes zeroed in on a folded piece of notebook paper on my nightstand, standing there like a little tent. Another test? Another glitter bomb? He would try to out-ruse the rusemaster. What an asshole.

I laid in my hammock staring at The Note until I fell asleep, and when I woke up a few hours later, I only had a couple of minutes to get situated. Ask Me Anything on Reddit was an institution, and I’d scheduled it for today knowing I’d need a distraction.

I imagined Will would be busy traveling and meeting people in the unit he was joining for this deployment—he’d have a couple of weeks in Twentynine Palms before they shipped out. I wasn’t expecting to hear from him for a day or two, but he texted from the airport.

Best Bear

The guy next to me on the plane sweated out the onions you ate last night so it felt like you were next to me.