Stupid Love (Stumbling into Love 1)

“Thank you, for tonight,” he finally said.

“No problem. It was fun. Even though I suck, and don’t expect to ever hear something like that from me again unless we’re talking about the fun type of sucking.”

He chuckled. “Because of course you had to go there.”

“Of course.”

“You know, I realized I didn’t ask you if you wanted to keep taking the class. I was excited and assumed.”

He had, but I wasn’t going to call him on it. I also had no plans to say no. “Do you really think there’s a chance in hell I’m going to let you continue to be better at this than me? We’re absolutely continuing this class, and we’re doing that gala. Everyone will feel sorry for me because I have to dance with an amateur. I will be better than you.”

He smiled. “Obviously.”

“Since she hasn’t taken the money yet, Liar McLiarson, we split the cost, though. I’m sure they have those options.”

“Okay,” he answered, but I could tell by the way he paused that he wasn’t finished, that he was trying to find a way to say whatever he needed to say next. “This has made me want to look into a ballet class again. I miss it.” His eyes darted away, then toward his bowl as he dipped his spoon in for another bite.

“You should.”

“What do you love?” he asked, the question hitting me square in the chest.

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.

“You should figure it out.”

Yeah…yeah, I definitely should.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Elijah

The following day, the first thing I did was look into ballet lessons. I was really racking up the extra expenses, so I decided I’d have to slow down on eating out to keep up with it all and maybe start using MARTA, the local public transportation, more often than car services. It wasn’t that I made bad money, but I wasn’t what I’d call totally comfortable either. Luckily, our apartment complex was fairly priced compared to most of Midtown.

Really, though, I spent the next couple of days thinking about Shaw much more than I should have. It was like he’d worked his way into my head, and now that he was there, I didn’t know how to evict him, or why I didn’t mind him hanging around.

We’d had fun the other night. At least I had, and that shit was so fucking tangled in my head that I didn’t know how to unknot it, or even if I had the energy to try.

We were also still texting multiple times a day, stupid little things like, Ugh, I slept like shit last night, or I don’t wanna go to work, or Oooh, did you see that new protein-bowl place that opened on Slauson?

It was Saturday now, and I’d had several back-to-back classes to teach that morning. I was walking home when I got a text from Danny and realized I hadn’t spoken to him in a few days. This was an off week for dinner. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened, which made discomfort slide down my spine. How could I not have noticed? How could we not have spoken? At the very least, we always checked in with each other.

Instead of replying, I hit the Call button. Only half a ring sounded in my ear before he said, “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Heading home from work. What are you doing?”

“Missing my bestie and thought I’d see what you’re doing.”

I smiled. “I miss you too. I’m not doing anything. Do you want to hang out for a bit? I’m trying to be careful with cash, so I can’t do too much.”

“We can go to the aquarium. My treat.”

Excitement sizzled beneath my skin. Danny knew I loved the aquarium. It was a little silly, as I’d been a hundred times, but it was still one of my favorite places. “I don’t want you to have to pay.”

“Please. It’s not like you’ve never paid for shit for me. This is us, Eli. What’s yours is mine and all.”

He was right, of course. Who paid for what was never something Danny and I worried about with each other; we bought each other stuff all the time, or paid for each other’s meals and such. We never worried about it because we knew we’d always see each other and return the favor. “Okay. I’m almost home. Let me run in and clean up.”

“I’ll head over.”

I got to my building and took the elevator up. My eyes lingered on Shaw’s door for a moment, and I wondered if he was home or what he was doing that day. I unlocked my door and went inside, turned on the shower, and grabbed some clothes. I brushed my teeth, stripped, then got in and cleaned up real quick. I was drying off when I heard a noise from the living room.

“It’s me,” Danny called out.