Page 21

CAM

ONE YEAR LATER

Penn and I moved into a small apartment over summer break. Luckily, we had parents that were willing and able to help us pay for the move. We’d found a small two bedroom and converted the second bedroom into Penn’s office. Because he ended up needing an office after the monster/human relations series blew up. It started small. He’d interviewed a few pairings after the Halloween dance, and began to feature them in biweekly columns. By Christmas break, the columns had started going viral.

He converted the articles into a blog over Christmas holiday and by the time summer came, he had been contacted about a book deal on monster and human relations, how they interacted as friends and romantic partners. He spent the summer working hard on it, though his progress slowed down once classes started. He had to balance out his classes, the book, and his role as junior editor of the Creelin Courier.

I, on the other hand, had quit the newspaper after one year on staff. I’d successfully ruled journalism out as a potential profession, but after spending time with Carly, I’d discovered that I wanted to help improve the life of both monsters and humans. Which was why, that day, I was missing classes and getting dressed in the same tailored suit I’d worn to the Halloween Ball the year before.

“What color tie should I wear?” I asked, stepping into Penn’s office. He’d left the door open, which meant that he was lazily plugging away at his book and didn’t mind the interruptions. When he was going into deep dive or actually making strides on the project, he closed the door and I never interrupted unless it was an emergency.

He turned around in his desk chair to look at me. “I don’t think you can wear that in public,” he said, biting down on his lower lip. “None of your interviewers are going to be able to focus on anything you say. They’ll be too busy trying to keep their hands off of you. Then one of them will give in and I’ll make the front page of the morning paper and not as a byline.”

I laughed. “I don’t have anything else to wear. Besides, it’s a nice suit.”

“It’s too nice of a suit,” he teased.

“Can you just choose a tie?” I asked him again, holding up the two options. One of them was a blue tie my dad had bought me for my high school graduation. The other was a gray tie I’d had for years. I didn’t even remember when I’d gotten it anymore.

If I got this internship, I was really going to have to up my tie collection. I wouldn’t be able to survive on the two ties I currently owned.

Penn looked between the two ties before indicating the blue one. “The blue. It’ll bring out your eyes and it’ll stand out better against the suit. The gray will look too muted. Not at all like you.”

“But it might fit better in a government building.”

Penn looked pensive before shaking his head. “Blue,” he repeated. “You were born to stand out.”

He rose from his chair and crossed the small office. It was only slightly bigger than our dorm rooms the year before. He’d lined the walls with mismatched bookshelves we’d found at thrift stores, and we’d both put our books there. There was an entire shelf filled with our childhood favorites and another filled with the nonfiction books he loved to lose himself in. He plucked the blue tie from my hand and held it up against the black of the suit jacket. “Jacket off.”

“We don’t have time for that,” I reminded him.

“We can always make time for that,” he countered, leaning in to give me a quick kiss before helping me remove my suit jacket.

He took a step closer, and I could feel his warm breath on my lips. I swallowed hard. I could feel it between us, the lust that hadn’t faded in the year we’d been together. The flavor of the lust had changed over the months we’d been together. It had become richer and sweeter, seasoned by the love that had grown between us. It was the most filling energy I’d ever tasted. My mouth watered as it filled the room around me, and I couldn’t resist taking a little taste, tugging at that string and pulling it into me.

“Thought we didn’t have time for that,” he teased with a heated look.

Damn it. I should have closed my eyes, though he’d have known anyway. He could feel it when I pulled at those strings. He didn’t have to look at me to know when I was taking a little energy from our bond.

“I was just getting a quick pick me up before the interview. You want me to be at my best, right?”

He laughed and lifted the collar of my shirt, positioning the tie around my neck. “And you had a full feeding last night so you could be at your best. You can admit that you just love the taste.” He used the tie to pull me closer and kiss me, slow and deep. I felt it all the way to my toes. The kiss didn’t last long enough. He finished tying my tie and soothed my collar. “You look perfect.”

I wrapped my arms around him. “I think another kiss for luck.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well how can I say no. I know how important this internship is for you.”

He gave me another kiss, stepping forward and pinning me against the door. I moaned into the kiss and brought my hands up to tangle in his hair. I lost track of time, of space, of anything other than the feeling of his body against mine and the growing energy between us. I wanted more. The importance of the interview dimmed, because how could anything be more important than kissing the love of my life in our apartment where we were starting to build our future?

He pulled back. “Good luck.”

Our future, which included my future. Which included this interview. The importance began to come back, as did the giant ball of nerves in my gut.

Penn took one look at me and picked up my jacket. “You’re going to do great. And tonight, I’m going to take you out so we can celebrate your interview.”

“What if it goes terribly?”

“Then we’re going to go out and celebrate the fact that you took your shot. Then we’ll spend tonight at our computers, finding different internship possibilities. You don’t even need it until next year. So if you don’t get it, we have time. No matter how this interview goes, we’re going to go out, and we’re going to celebrate you .”

The love I felt for Penn in that moment threatened to overwhelm me. How had I gotten so lucky? I might not have fallen in love with journalism. I might have ruled it out as a potential career path, but it had led me to the most important part of my future: the man in front of me.

Instead, now that I’d fallen in love with Penn Leroy, I couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.

THE END