Page 71 of Paint Our Song

“The new song you’re letting literally everyone but me listen to. I want to know about it.”

Calvin runs his hand through his hair. “No.”

“Seriously? No fair.” He rolls his eyes and flicks Calvin’s ear. “You’d think I’d get some privileges after what we did, but no.”

“You can ask me anything except that,” Calvin says. Then he furrows his eyebrows and adds, “You also can’t bring up the stupid note.”

He racks his brain. Even with all the time they’ve been spending together, Miles’s list of things to learn about him is still way too long. “Okay, how about… what’s your favorite thing about your job?”

Smiling, Calvin’s gaze flickers. He seems to think about it for a good moment, continuing to play with Miles’s hair. When he runs his fingers across his nape lightly, Miles closes his eyes and lies his cheek against Calvin. It’s soothing and he can’t complain.

“I like making songs,” he says. “I told you before how I do most of the lyrics, but the band does a little of everything because we allhave our own strengths, and I like listening to the final product and seeing how everything snaps into place.”

“What about when you play onstage?” Miles asks. “Do you like that, too?”

The fingers threading through his hair pauses. “Yeah. I like performing, too. It’s probably my second favorite thing about the job. Some people think I’m not into it as much as I should be and that it shows—that I owe more to the crowd—but I actually do enjoy it a lot. Hearing hundreds of people enjoy what we’ve made is exhilarating. I guess… Yeah, I just need to work on how I act onstage and how I talk to our fans.”

“You don’t look like you’re not into it. You always seem at ease and completely in love with what you’re doing. It’s addictive to watch.”

Calvin exhales, and next thing Miles knows, he’s being tugged up for a long, deep kiss. He’s stunned, but then he relaxes into it and kisses him back.

“Thank you. Needed to hear that,” Calvin murmurs against his lips, and Miles promises himself that he needs to keep telling Calvin about how perfect he is, because, for some reason, Calvin keeps forgetting.

Chapter Nineteen

“Miles,” Gabby says. There’s a glint in her eyes, and her lips are curled into a smirk. She’s got a hand on her hip, and Miles has seen her several times like this before—like when she admitted she cheated on their math finals. It’s all mischief. “I can sense something new about you.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” He knows he sounds unconvincing. This isn’t what he wants to deal with during breakfast. She’s ruining waffles for him.

“You tell me.”

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” A lie.

“C’mon. I already put two and two together.”

“Uh…”

“You’ve been weirdly happy since yesterday, and you’ve been smiling like a dork for no reason. Something happened. Tell me.”

He hooked up with Calvin yesterday. That’s what happened. “Nothing.”

“You hooked up with Calvin.”

Even if nobody else is near enough to hear her, it still shocks him. “Shhhh!”

“Well?”

“How could you even tell? This is really weird!”

“Well, Chase came asking where you were yesterday; he said you and Calvin went to his room and disappeared.” Gabby shrugs. “Then I saw you come down the elevator right before dinnertime, and you had this lovesick look on your face. And you’ve had that same lovesick look since then.”

“Jesus.” Miles’s face heats up.

Gabby smiles smugly, as if his response was all the confirmation she needed. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, then we don’t have to… I’m just happy for you, okay?”

Miles deflates. Sheepishly, he anxiously fiddles with the bottom of his shirt. This is Gabby.She knows everything about him. “I’m not going to tell you details.”

“Ew, I don’twantdetails.”