Page 53 of Nine-Tenths

Oh.

Shit.

Yeah, so that's…

That's a thing that just happened.

"Colin?"

"Hm?" God, his eyes are sogoldenin the early-morning light.

"The Rules?" He tugs on my finger and I realize I've stopped walking.

"Ah! Yeah!" Fuck, am I blushing? I'm blushing. Shit. "It's, um… I make bad romantic choices. Not you! But, uh, I have sort of a history of having bad taste."

"I'm making an effort not to be offended," he says, but his tone is light.

"So, after like, every romantic disaster a bi dude could suffer, and trust me, dating multiple genders means there are multiple ways shit can get bad, Hadi wrote rules for me. She broke into my locker at the school and taped them to the inside of my door. They help me do gooder."

"May I know what they are?"

"Er, yeah, I—shit, it's embarrassing. I've never shared them before," I say quickly, before he can offer an out. But being unconscious together in the same bed is physically intimate, you know? Something like that deserves some kind of emotional intimacy to go with it. And admitting that one is a dumbass when it comes to romance to the guy I am romancing seems only fair.

"Colin, I don't want to push you."

"No, no, I—"I love you, I think again, suddenly.I thought that just now. I looked at you and thought 'I love you'. Fuck."So, ah,One: No assuming interest unless it's spelled out. I tend to, you know, read into shit."

"I believe I've made my interest explicit," Dav says softly, dropping into that rumble-purr from last night. It gives me a sudden sense-memory of the burst of perfectly aged pinot noir on my parched tongue.

Damn.

"Um, Two: no more charming narcissists. I have a habit of falling for charismatic people who are, you know,onlycharismatic and not much else."

"I wouldn't call myself a narcissist, I hope," Dav says with a frown. "And I'm certainly not charming."

"Eeeeehhhn." I make an obnoxious buzzer sound. "The judges disagree. You're charming as fuck." I pat his ass, and he flicks my cheek in retaliation. The cheek on my face, I mean. I'm laughing when I say, "Three: don't mistake lust for love."

The 'L' word makes both of us clam up. I speed through the rest. "Four: relationships are work. So you gotta work at them. Five: not every partner has to be The One and don't stress out if they’re not. Six: Don't give up on the idea of soulmates, but also don't hinge everything on the belief in it. And seven: I'm worthy of love."

Dav goes quiet and thoughtful. This is awkward as hell. I wish I was wearing a scarf so I could hide my face in it, but it’s July.

At length, Dav says: "Ah, I see why you enjoy the literature you do so much. Who doesn't dream of a soulmate who believes they are worthy of the love they share?" He is looking up at the sky, though, as he says it, throat working like he's choking back something. The gooey-caramel hopeless romantic center of me burbles. He lifts my hand to kiss the place where our fingers are hooked together. "I like your Rules very much."

"Technically, they're Hadi's," I crackle out.

He swoops down, right in front of Beanevolence, for a belated good-morning kiss.

It's the kind of kiss that blocks up your hearing, pins your focus on the person whose face is mashed against yours. Or at least I assume it is, because I don't hear my boss until she's close enough to speak right into my ear: "Stop making out in front of my café and open it."

Dav springs back like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I waggle my eyebrows at Hadi. "And good morning to you, too, Oscar."

"Ew," Hadi says, reaching between us to unlock the door.

As much as I don't love getting up early for work, Hadi is theworstat mornings. I have no doubt whatsoever the minute she's sure she can afford another summer employee, she'll be getting someone else to replace her. Oooh, hey, maybe that meansIcan get off opens, too.

I head straight to the machines, and Hadi waits until Dav has retreated to the kitchen before pressing her finger directly over the hickey on my neck.