“Red?”
Letting out a loud breath, I opened the door. Caleb was standing there, smiling, his eyes lighting up when he saw me. Even with bed-rumpled hair and a sleep line imprinted on his left cheek, he looked gorgeous. Butterflies swirled in my stomach at the sight of him.
“Do you sleep naked? Is that why you needed two minutes?”
I blushed but retorted, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
His eyes twinkled and easily expressed what he was thinking.
“Can I come in?”
He raised his arms, and I noticed he was carrying a tray of food. There were a plate of deformed pancakes, butter and syrup on the side, a bowl of cut-up strawberries, a steaming cup of green tea, and a glass of orange juice. And a rose was lying on the side.
My eyes flicked up to his when he cleared his throat. I realized I had been staring at the tray for a while, with my heart floating giddily around my ribs.
“I made you pancakes since we didn’t make them last night,” he explained.
Was he blushing?
“But I’m sorry I kind of messed them up a bit.”
He looked so adorable, so sweet. I had an inexplicable urge to kiss him and to scream my heart out, but I held it all in.
“Come in,” I choked out.
He looked at me knowingly and smiled. “Breathe, Red. It will pass.”
He’d never been in my room before, not since I moved in. I gazed around me, wondering what he thought of it now that I had settled in. Like the rest of his place, it was designed in a modern industrial style, with light-gray concrete walls, gorgeous exposed beams on the tall ceiling, and hardwood floors. The huge bed dominated the room, the dark-blue duvet haphazardly thrown on the floor when I rushed to the bathroom. My books were neatly stacked on the nightstand, my backpack on the floor. A wide window encompassed the whole wall to my right, with a round, white table with curved legs and two high-backed chairs tucked beside it. The room had always seemed spacious, but as I watched him walk to the sitting area, it suddenly felt small.
He set the tray on the table. “Come on, let’s eat.” He waved me over. When he drew back the curtains, sunlight rushed in, and the view of the city below made everything perfect.
No, I realized, Caleb made it perfect. Even if we were in a windowless basement, his presence would make it better.
It would be so easy to give in to him, to let myself fall for him, but what would happen when he got tired of me? Where would I be?
These emotions I felt for him were getting stronger and made me feel I was on unstable ground. That made me weary, defensive. But most of all, it made me feel vulnerable. I took a step back.
“Caleb, I don’t have time to sit down and eat. My bus leaves in an hour.”
“I’m driving you to school from now on.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can.”
I glared at him. “No, you can’t.”
“I can and I will,” he countered stubbornly.
I placed my hands on my hips. “Why are you bossing me around?”
He let out a sigh. “Can’t we just eat in peace? I made these for you. I really, really worked hard because…I wanted to make you smile this morning.”
I felt myself softening. He hated cooking, but he’d done it for me. He motioned to the chair he’d pulled out. When I was seated, he positioned the other chair so that we were sitting beside each other.
“Where did you get the rose?” My mouth wanted to twitch into a smile so I bit my lip.
He looked at me from beneath his lashes. “I snatched one in the lobby downstairs. They won’t miss it.”