Eric looked slightly disturbed. "I wish them well on their spiritual journey, whatever it is. I just hope they have enough food from my mother's painting and my father's basket sculptures. The last I heard, that's what they were selling."
"Does your mother still get her allowance?"
He shrugged, with a long low exhale. “My grandparents passed away, so I have no idea. My mother has a brother, apparently, but I've never met him. All I have is her email address, but she only responds once or twice a year."
I squeezed his hands gently. "People lose their families in all sorts of ways. But to have them sort of drift off and disappear. That's awful. I'm sorry."
"I can imagine them waving incense and crystals, having the time of their lives," he said, trying to smile. "They know that they can contact us if they ever need help. That's their choice, I guess."
Eric leaned back on the couch, stretching his arm over the back to pull me into his shoulder. "It sounds like you’re pretty close with your family," he said.
I nodded. "I have some friends who have to call their mothers every single day. Luckily we're not that close." I rolled my eyes while Eric laughed.
"We check in o
nce a week or so. I know that I could call my Mom or Eva in the middle of the night and they would drop everything to help me. They're only an hour away, so it's a comfort knowing that I could run away and stay with either of them for a weekend to recharge."
"What about your grandmother?" He asked. "Do you drop in for tea all the time?"
"I wish," I sighed. "My mother's brother Nick lives in Vancouver, and has two little kids. So Nana moved out to Vancouver to live in a retirement community on the ocean and be with her smallest grandkids."
Eric nodded, his fingers trailing up and down my arm lightly. "Well, I guess you and Eva are able to use the phone to keep in touch with her. Kids would find that tricky. Do you fly out there very often?"
"I wish. Flights are expensive. The only time I can take the time off school is when their prices are jacked because it coincides with breaks."
He leaned in and kissed the top of my hair. "Hopefully your Nana knows how to do video calls?"
I laughed. "Uncle Nick said he was going to teach her. But that was a few months ago. My Mom is actually there visiting her now. I’ll text her in the morning to remind her to try."
I saw Eric look over to the giant industrial clock on the wall. "Did you steal that from high school?" he asked.
"Of course not," I said, "Although that would've been cool. I found it in a secondhand store for ten dollars."
"You're naughty," he grinned. "I like naughty. But it's getting kind of late, so I should go."
My hand flashed out, my fingers pressing against his chest. "I don't want you to leave." It was weird that I had spoken without thinking. That was happening far more often around him.
He stared at me, wide eyed. “Eden, are you inviting me to spend the night?"
"I guess so?" I said hesitantly.
My eyes fell closed for a second as his thumb ran along my cheek tenderly. "We just keep mixing everything up, don't we?” he said. “Logically, we know that we should slow things down and just date like normal people."
"You know this doesn't feel normal," I whispered.
Eric nodded. He looked like he was trying to analyze a solution to the problem. "I don't want to be too forward," he said softly. "But I don't want to leave." Leaning in, he brushed his lips against mine, soft as a breeze.
"What if we slept together without sleeping together?" he said with a sassy little grin. "We can snuggle all night, but my shorts will stay on. Deal?"
Just from thinking about him sleeping in my bed with me, my thighs were starting to quiver. But I was fairly certain I could behave myself.
“Deal."
Puttering around my apartment getting ready for bed was a normal routine, but I'd never done it with a man present before. I'd always stayed over at Andy's because he wanted all of his stuff around. Once again I was struck by the fact that he treated me as an inconvenience, whereas Eric was treating me like a precious treasure.
While he was in the washroom, I quickly changed into my pink boy short pajama bottoms, but I wore a pretty camisole instead of my usual ragged gray tank top. I got into bed just before he came out, and he switched off the light, crawling in beside me. It wasn't a large bed, so we immediately spooned.
Twisting over my shoulder, I gave him a kiss. "Thank you for showing me your city block toys," I giggled.