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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ELLIOT

“ A -plus snack choices, El, seriously. I bow down. The Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Oreo, gummy bear combo is inspired. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you’re stocking my favorite candy. Any particular reason you have ten pounds of gummy bears just sitting in your kitchen?”

Amelia grins at me and tosses a handful of cereal into her mouth.

She’s sitting on my bed facing me, one leg bent under her and one stretched out next to me, wearing one of my T-shirts with nothing on underneath.

Her eyes are sparkling, her hair tumbled and messy, and her face flushed.

She looks adorable and freshly fucked, and having her here in my room, swapping stories and eating post-sex snacks, is making me feel things it’s entirely too soon to feel.

Things like love and always and the burning desire to beg her to stay here with me in my apartment forever.

I mentally shake those thoughts away because absolutely, definitely, too soon. “I got into the habit of eating them after the plane. They reminded me of you.”

Amelia reaches out and runs a hand over my bare leg, smiling when goosebumps break out over my skin at her touch. “You’re a secret romantic, aren’t you?”

I shrug. “Nothing secret about it, but only with you.”

“No ex-girlfriends out there pining for the romantic professor who got away?”

“She’s definitely not pining,” I mumble, suddenly very interested in the bowls of snacks between us.

She lays her hand back on my leg. “Did I hit a nerve?”

I look up at her concerned face and lay a hand on her calf, stroking absently. “Definitely not, just bad memories. There was someone, a few years ago. A serious someone. We met in grad school and dated for a long time. For a while, I thought she was the one.”

Amelia runs her thumb over my leg in a soothing rhythm. “What happened?”

I shrug. “She didn’t understand depression.

Didn’t understand that even though I’m one of the lucky ones who found the right combination of medication and therapy and mostly lives a normal life, my mental health is always something I have to be careful with.

When I had a bad day or needed to disappear into the darkness for a while, she took it personally, so then I felt like I had to comfort her, and that’s hard to do when my brain is spiraling, so it was an exhausting cycle.

I can’t even tell you how many times I explained it to her.

I offered to bring her to one of my therapy appointments so my therapist could explain it to her.

She just didn’t get it, and that meant she didn’t get me.

Not the whole of me, at least. It’s a part of who I am, for better or worse.

She’s not a bad person; she was just the wrong person for me. ”

I didn’t realize quite how wrong until the person who I’m almost positive is one hundred percent right sat down next to me on a plane.

Amelia blows out a breath. “I’ll say. I’m sorry you experienced that, but I can’t say I’m not glad she wasn’t the one. Because if she was, I wouldn’t be sitting here, half naked, after three bone-melting orgasms, eating the best snacks in the world with the hottest man alive.”

I grin at her, wondering if anyone has ever been this happy in the history of ever. “Hottest man alive, huh?”

Amelia scoffs. “Please, you know what you look like. You have mirrors. Why do you have so many amazing snacks anyway?”

“The Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a personal favorite, and my brothers and I are very serious about snacks. Unless we’re doing disaster movie night at Jordan and Jo’s, my brothers all tend to gravitate up here at least a few nights a week. I got into the habit of stocking everyone’s favorites.”

“Disaster movie night?” Amelia reaches over and grabs her mug off the nightstand, taking a sip of the Dr. Pepper inside.

Turns out her second favorite soda is my first favorite soda, her mug drinking extends to every drink, and she’s very picky about the mug she uses.

She actually got out of bed to study my mug collection to see which was the best one for soda consumption.

The way she peered into my cabinet with her scrunched up nose, studying my rows of mugs, lifting them up to test them in her hands, had me spinning her around and kissing the breath out of her right under my bright kitchen lights.

Learning all of her little quirks is my favorite thing.

I grab a couple Oreos with one hand and run my fingers over the soft skin under her knee with the other.

“Jo is weirdly addicted to disaster movies, and she got Jordan addicted to them last summer when they first got together. Every couple weeks, we watch one together. I’ve seen The Day After Tomorrow an unreasonable number of times since she moved in with Jordan. ”

“I mean, it’s one of the best. Who can beat the Statue of Liberty encased in ice?”

I chuckle. “You and Jo are really going to get along.”

She smiles, but when she speaks, her tone is a little wistful. “I like her so much. It’s nice how you all are together. What you guys have here. You got really lucky to find this place.”

“Not that lucky. We own this place.”

“Seriously? Like the whole thing? I didn’t even think Back Bay brownstones could be bought. I figured they just passed from dead family member to dead family member until the end of time.”

I shrug, laughing a little. “You might be right. We inherited it when my grandfather died five or so years ago. Cece’s parents owned it along with the one next door.”

“Clara?” Amelia asks, eyes sharpening, and I know she’s thinking about the letters.

I nod. “Clara. And my great-grandfather. Cece inherited them when her parents died, and they transferred one into my grandfather’s name.

Some tax thing. They lived in the one next door, and when he died, this one passed to us.

Cece rented it out for years, so it had already been converted into five apartments. We each chose one.”

“What about the fifth one?”

“Ah, the one and only stipulation of the inheritance. Cece made us promise to leave it vacant. She never told us what we’re leaving it empty for, exactly, but it’s a general rule in the Wyles family never to question Cece when she makes a proclamation like that, mostly for our own sanity.”

Amelia snorts out a laugh and eats another Oreo. “I just fucking love your family. So, Cece lives next door?”

I nod, trying to keep from showing her how much it means to me that she already likes my most important people.

“Sure does. And she kept a key to the front door of this house, so she comes and goes as she pleases. It’s her natural state.

It’s not unusual for her to show up here at any time of the day or night.

She does what she wants, when she wants. ”

Amelia shakes her head, a look of awe on her face. “That’s iconic behavior. I want to be her when I grow up.”

I grab a handful of gummy bears and separate out the red ones, handing them to Amelia. “Yeah, she’s pretty great, even when she’s driving me batshit crazy.”

“You know you don’t have to give me all the red gummy bears anymore. You’ve been inside me. I think we know each other well enough to share the best flavor.”

I shake my head. “Uh-uh, Mystery Girl. I mean, yes, I have been inside you, and I really hope to be inside you again as soon as possible because, wow.”

She laughs and tosses a handful of candy into her mouth.

“But when you’re in my house, naked in my bed, you get all the red gummy bears you want. Everything you want, really. Those are the rules.”

She smirks at me. “I can get behind that, but I’m not naked. At least not yet. But I can be.”

She reaches down and grabs the hem of her T-shirt to pull it over her head, but I lay a hand on hers before she can finish the job. “You will be. Really, really soon. But I think you have something to tell me first, so you should probably stop stalling.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “You knew I was stalling?”

I pass her another handful of red gummy bears, grabbing her hand and kissing her palm before she takes them.

“Yep. But talking to you is my favorite thing on earth, so I’ll let it slide.

Besides, I was the one who got distracted first by your perfect tits and your perfect pussy and the sounds you make when you come on my tongue and my fingers and my dick and you just generally being the most perfect woman in the entire world. ”

Amelia’s face flushes the most beautiful red color, and she stares at me. “Okay, no, but seriously, how are you real?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, but here I am, and here you are. Tell me your secret, Amelia. I promise I’ll keep it safe.”

She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “I know you will. I trust you. Okay, so you know Genesis?”

I nod. “Yeah, the app I’ve been using to find information on Clara and Henry.

It’s fucking amazing. It’s crazy that the beta stage only lasted like a week, but it’s not surprising.

It’s one of the best designed and most stable apps I’ve ever seen.

I heard it rocketed up the charts in the Redwood Store faster than any app in the history of the store.

It’s in the top…” I trail off as the pieces snap together in my brain.

Then all I can do is stare at the woman sitting across from me. “No fucking way. Genesis is yours .”

Amelia nods, sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“Ames,” I say, admiration shining through.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” she says quickly.

I swing around so I’m sitting next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders, tugging her closer to me and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Want to try that again?”