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I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far nothing had.

“How’re they looking?” Riley asked as he picked up a knife to start slicing the gorgeous loaf of soft, white toastie bread he’d brought with him. “’Cos these are nearly ready.”

“About done I think,” I said, shaking off my thoughts and giving one of the hash browns a prod. “Maybe another minute or two.” I pushed the basket back in and reset the timer. “Do you want ketchup? Or brown sauce?”

“Both please.”

I grabbed the two bottles out of the fridge and put them on the counter next to him as he handed me half of the end slice, which he’d already buttered. It was thick and soft and so delicious that I’d happily eat a whole loaf in one sitting if nobody stopped me—which is what I’d done the first time I’d had one of their toastie loaves. “Mmm, it’s so good. Please never stop bringing me bread.”

“What if you get sick of it?”

“I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

“It might,” he said as he began to add crispy slices of thick-cut smoked bacon to the bread. “You wake up one day and decide you hate bread.”

“Not possible.”

“What if you get sick of me?” He was grinning and playing it off, but there had to be a real fear underneath it. Otherwise, why would he have said it?

“I don’t think that’ll happen either,” I said, nudging him gently and leaning against his side. “I know we haven’t been doing this for long but… I really like you, Riley. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about anyone before.”

“Me neither. There’s something special about you, Jace. About this. The way I feel about you, fuck, it’s different from anything I’ve experienced before.”

“Clearly there was a lack of bread-obsessed insomniacs in your life,” I said teasingly. “That was your problem.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, obviously I was just waiting for someone to just turn up and stare at me through the kitchen window at four in the morning.”

“See, you were in luck then, because that’s my speciality.”

Riley tilted his head and kissed me softly. “Good to know.”

I sighed happily. “I’m glad I didn’t scare you.”

“Takes a lot more than that to frighten me. Plus, you nearly fell over when you spotted me.”

“My clumsiness is charming, thank you.”

I kissed him, savouring the taste of bread and butter on his mouth. I had work I needed to do today, but it could wait for a while. First, there were bacon sandwiches and hash browns to eat, and Riley to kiss.

And they were far more important.

I fell in love with Riley slowly and then all at once.

It was like the feeling snuck up on me, but when I finally realised it, it felt like it had been there for a while and I’d just never noticed it. I’d fallen for him so deeply, so completely, that it was impossible to unpick where or when it had begun.

Not that I wanted to, because it wasn’t like I needed to put a pin in that moment. All that mattered was moving forward.

It was nearly Easter before I plucked up the courage to tell him. April had brought endless showers and if it hadn’t been for the blooming flowers and the ducklings on the river and the lure of fresh croissants, I’d never have left my flat. Especially as Riley preferred my place to his, since my bed was apparently comfier and he wanted to make sure I had space to roam when he was sleeping and I was awake, like I was a free-range chicken or something.

The first time he said that I’d laughed, because I all I could think about was getting some sort of ridiculous chicken costume. Then he called me chook, and somehow that’d stuck, and I’d never gotten the costume but he had brought a large pack of those tiny, fluffy, bright-yellow Easter chicks and hidden them all around my flat when I was sleeping one Saturday afternoon.

I was still finding them two weeks later.

“How many of the tiny pricks are there?” I asked as I lined another, that I’d found in a mug at the back of the cupboard, up on the kitchen windowsill with the others I’d found.

“I don’t know,” Riley said, sipping his coffee with a smug smile. “About twenty-four.”

“Fucks sake.” I laughed as I counted. “There’s eighteen here. Where the hell have you hidden the rest of them?”