Boyfriend for the Summer

My eyes blur with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry, Eric.”

This kiss is soft, and he starts to move. Healing us both with the pleasure that he brings. “You don’t have to apologize, Seph. We both made mistakes. And we both are here now. Let’s not make those mistakes again, okay?”

“Never,” I promise. “Honesty only from here on.”

He tangles a hand in my hair as he drives deep, pushing in harder and faster, excising all of the pain that we’ve both felt through this and replacing it with pleasure. With love. I love him so fucking much that I can’t contain it. So much that the whole sky would not be enough space for it.

Our climax hits together, a pure white blazing star. A nova that seals us together in a bond that cannot be broken. Not anymore. No matter what happens, we will weather it together.

“I love you,” I say as we’re shaking together. “I love you. I love you.”

He laughs softly. “And I you.”

“I feel like I’ve been waiting so long to say it, that now I need to say it more.”

For a moment Eric’s eyes shine, and I think that he’s as moved as I am. “You can tell me whenever you want,” he says. “I’m going to be saying it too.”

“There is no space for anything else in me but love.”

He gazes down at me. “Tell me you’re still writing, Seph, because sentences like that need to be in the world.”

I sigh. We just promised honesty. “I try, but I struggle. I’ve always wanted to write about the world I see, but I can’t afford to do the traveling I want to do. I’m still hopeful though.”

“I’m glad. If you had stopped writing because of me, I would never forgive myself.”

I shake my head. “No. It’s just…hard to find the time.”

“I will help you find the time,” Eric whispers against my lips. “And maybe the travel. Come back to New York with me at the end of the summer. Be with me.”

My heart leaps, and I’m nodding before I even register that I am. “Yes! Yes of course, yes. But you never told me why you’re not there now.”

Eric closes his eyes. “My dad is sick.”

“What?” I gasp.

He nods. “Cancer. He didn’t want anyone to know. The prognosis is good, but the treatment kept him from doing his normal camp thing, and my mom is taking care of him. So they asked me to take it on.”

“Oh my god, Eric I’m so sorry.”

He smiles thinly. “It’s okay. He’s in good spirits and the treatment seems to be working. But I couldn’t say no to that. And as terrible as the reason is, I am very, very glad that it brought me here.”

“Me too.”

He glances out the windows. “We should get back for the generator,” he says, pulling out of me and helping me fix my clothes and fixing his own. “But there’s one more thing that I want to ask you.”

“Sure.”

“I will take care of the arrangements, but I want you to move into my cabin.” He cups my face and puts his forehead against mine. “I don’t think I can survive another night when you’re not in my bed.”

“Yes,” I say immediately. “I think that we’ve both waited long enough for that.”

The kiss he gives me for that is almost enough to make me pull him back down and tell him to fuck me again. But he’s right, we need to fix the generator, and a couple counselors are waiting in the parking lot when we get back. “You two okay? We were about to send out a search party.”

Eric laughs. “Rain slowed us down, but we got what we needed. Should be up and running soon enough.”

I lock the car and follow along to help him. I feel settled and happy, but there’s one more thing that I’m going to have to face, and I have no idea how to do it. What the hell am I going to do about Leena, now that I know everything?

25

Persephone

Present

When I wake up and stretch in my brand-new bed in the director’s cabin—our bed—and am alone, there’s a sense of déjà vu. But this time I know why I’m alone. Because Eric is already up and about, doing the rounds for the camp. I’m taking the day off from counselor duties, and Mabel was more than happy take over my responsibilities for the day. I’m not exactly sure what Eric said to her, but she was beaming.

When I turn over, my hand brushes something hard, and I sit up, finding a gift on Eric’s side of the bed. Which brings another wave of memories. I’m sure that the significance is not lost on him either. It’s a notebook. Not like the ones I had before. This one is much nicer. It’s leather, blue gilded with gold and thick, creamy paper that makes me want to write everything and keep it perfect all at once.