I could almost feel the hug that would have followed that.
Lina: Anyway, I’ll tell you everything about it tomorrow.
This wasn’t a conversation we should be having via text anyway.
Rosie: You’d better do that. Otherwise, I’ll kick your ass.
A knock came from the door.
“Baby?” said a deep voice from the other side. The word traveled right to the center of my chest. “I’m going to start thinking that you are hiding from me.”
God, I sucked so much.
Aaron continued, “Come out, and let’s go get something to eat. You pick.”
My jet-lagged stomach grumbled at the thought. “Even fish tacos?”
“Especially fish tacos.”
Dammit. He was really going after my heart.
“Okay, one minute!” I called as I typed another message to Rosie.
Lina: Gotta go. We are picking up takeout.
Rosie: Okay. But tomorrow, you and I. We’re talking.
Lina: Sí, señorita.
Rosie: And, Lina?
Rosie: It doesn’t have to be a dream you need to wake up from.
With that thought—no, with that hope because that was exactly what I felt as I read my friend’s message, foolish hope—I left my luscious and tiled hiding spot and went hunting for Aaron.
I found him standing in his living room, looking out the industrial-style windows facing the waterfront.
Aaron’s apartment was in Dumbo, an area of Brooklyn I wasn’t all that familiar with but I was starting to love more and more. The place was incredible. Spacious and stark, elegant but simple.
Walking up to him, I peered out the massive windows myself. “These views of the East River are breathtaking.”
“I’m very lucky to be able to afford all this,” he said, and he sounded thoughtful. More than he usually did.
Turning and angling my body in his direction, I laid my back on the windows and faced him. How could I tell him that this view—him—was just as beautiful? One simply didn’t say stuff like that. So, I limited myself to look and soak it all up.
Aaron stared into the distance, the sunlight coming through the glass of the windows and kissing his skin. His blue eyes glinting under the light.
But there was something on his mind. I could tell.
“Is everything all right?” I reached out and placed my hand on his arm.
Only then did he look at me. “Come here.” In a swift motion, he had me tucked against his chest. He squeezed me, swaying us. “Better. Now, everything is much better.”
I couldn’t disagree with him. Anything that involved being in Aaron’s arms was far better than anything that didn’t. I let him tug a happy sigh out of me, and I relished in the way he hummed when I squeezed him right back.
When he finally released me, his gaze wandered out of the window again, but this time, it did with a small smile on his face.
Baby steps.