Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It(89)
“Change of plans.” He shrugs again. “It’s your birthday, we should get out of the apartment!”
“But I love our apartment,” I reply, pouting. “Matthew, tell Jonathan how much you love our apartment.”
“I love your apartment,” Matthew says before turning his attention to me. “But I agree that we should go somewhere to celebrate.”
I feign offense. “Wow.”
“It’ll be fun!” they insist.
“If you say so.” As long as I get to spend the night with them, Meg, and Alex, I guess it doesn’t matter too much where I spend it.
Jonathan leaves to take a shower, and I throw myself on Matthew the second we’re alone. “I missed you,” I tell him. I’ve had a hard time focusing at work these past few days. And I haven’t been able to shut up about Matthew to anyone who’ll listen. Finn and Cheryl have gotten the worst of it.
“I missed you, too.” Matthew pulls me closer and I take a deep breath of him. He smells like my soap.
“Well,” I sigh into him, “I guess I’ll take my present now.”
He shakes his head back and forth. “Nope. Not after the bookshelf. I’m not following that.”
“Oh, come on.”
He sighs, walking over to his bag and rifling through its contents until he finds what he’s looking for.
“Here.” He hands it to me reluctantly.
I notice that the envelope is different from the one I picked up a few days ago. The Phoebe scrawled across it is in red ink this time, not black. “This one’s different.”
“I remade it,” he admits. “I worked on it while you were gone this week. It’s better now. I mean, it’s still not a bookshelf, but…you’ll see.”
“You made it?” My fingers tremble with excitement as I tear into the envelope. I rake my eyes over the piece of paper inside. My jaw drops when I realize what it is.
“You made me a crossword.”
He scratches his neck. “Yeah.”
I grin from ear to ear while scanning all the clues.
7-Across: Total number of hours that make up Phoebe’s Broadway Hits playlist
11-Across: Airplane items that Phoebe collects
2-Down: Gear that Phoebe left her car in when she got out of the car to greet her invited guest at the airport
14-Down: How many inches you have to be to ride the roller coaster at the Santa Monica Pier
23-Down: Number of times Matthew wanted to kiss Phoebe and chickened out before she had to put him out of his misery
“What’s the answer to that last one?” I ask.
He looks over my shoulder and squints down at the crossword. “Somewhere in the hundreds.”
I am so completely obsessed with this and him that I’m having trouble finding the words. I hug the paper to my chest. “This is bookshelf level.”
“You don’t have to say that.”
“I’m serious. I’m going to frame it and put it right there.” I point to the empty spot on my nightstand. “I love it so much, Matthew.”
His cheeks turn a light shade of pink as he smiles. “I’m glad.”
I was planning to wait until tonight to have the following conversation, but with his crossword in my hands and the speech I rehearsed earlier in the car, it feels like the opportune time.
“Also”—I clear my throat—“no pressure, but I just want you to know…” My heart begins to pound. “I won’t be doing any crosswords with anyone else. Not that I ever really was to begin with, but…yeah.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Even Jonathan?”
“I think he’s just been pretending to like them this whole time.” I smirk. The metaphor is surprisingly fitting.
He smiles. “I have no interest in doing the crossword with anyone besides you.”
“Okay.” I nod feverishly. “Cool.”
“Cool,” he agrees.
He reaches out and grabs my hips, pulling me into him and leaning down to kiss my neck. I suck in a sharp breath. He swipes his thumb back and forth across my hipbone, right under the waistband of my jeans.
I run to my open bedroom door, slam it shut, and then run back to Matthew.
“Oh, come on,” I can hear Jonathan whine from the other side of the door. “We have to leave soon!”
“Give us ten minutes!”
“Ugh,” I hear Jonathan groan.
“Fifteen,” Matthew whispers into my ear.
“Give us fifteen minutes!”
30
Jonathan paces ten steps ahead of us on the walk over to Jeffery’s. “What’s the rush?” I project my voice so that he can hear me. “It’s just Jeffery’s.”
“Yeah, but Meg and Alex are already there,” he responds. “I don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“I think they’ll be okay,” I mumble.
Matthew is uncharacteristically quiet next to me. “Is everything all right?” My heart sinks as I let myself jump to conclusions. “Are you having doubts about just doing the crossword with me?”
“What?” His hand shoots out to grab mine. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you being so shy?”