“No.” I shook my head, taking a step sideways and blocking his way to the door. “I can’t let you do that. I’ll be the one leaving. This is your cousin’s apartment. You even have a key. You… can’t go spend the night at a hotel.”
His smile turned warmer. “That’s sweet, Rosie. But unnecessary.” He walked around me, making me turn around on my heels to keep track of him. “Plus, it’s easier this way. I only have a backpack with me, and you have…” His gaze jumped to my big, messy pile. “You have a lot more than that.”
“But—”
He met my gaze again, and the way his brows bent into a sort of frown was so at odds with his easy grin that I lost my train of thought.
“Listen,” he said very calmly. “I’m a blunt man so I’m just going to say it, yeah?”
I swallowed.
“I’m under the impression that me being here is making you very uncomfortable.” A pause. “I’m actually sure that’s the case. And it’s okay, we’ve just met.”
What? Oh my gosh, and that was why he was leaving? He— “I’m not uncomfortable,” I countered in the most not comfortable way. “It’s not for the reason you think.” He tilted his head and my mouth opened again to give him something else, anything else. But nothing came out. Only a stammered, “It’s— It’s not—”
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said, cutting me off, and for some reason, I had the feeling he’d done that to save me from myself. “You stay here for the night, get some rest, and tomorrow I’ll be back. We’ll start over. Forget tonight happened. Then, we’ll figure out what to do in terms of accommodation.” A careful pause. “What do you think?”
We’ll start over. Forget tonight happened.
What I’d give for that to be something we could do. “But there’s nothing to figure out, Lucas. Lina promised you the apartment. You should be the one taking it.”
“Okay,” he said simply. “But not tonight.”
This wasn’t right. This was so not okay. Everything about it had gone wrong and I… I only realized I was blowing air out of my mouth when I heard my mouth releasing it.
Lucas’s chuckle was deep, masculine. “I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise.”
My lips parted, ready to fight him some more, to tackle him to the floor and make him stay if I had to.
But then he said, “It will be fine, Rosie.” And his expression turned serious. Earnest. “Everything will be okay.”
And all my determination to fight him back loosened up, letting the exhaustion in. The toll from years and years of trying to keep everything together, contained, always on my own, washed right over me. Head to toes, like a wave. And for once, just for this one time that I was being told those four words, Everything will be okay, instead of being the one using them to comfort someone else, I felt the need to let go.
“Okay. Thank you for doing this,” I murmured, and I meant it more than Lucas would probably ever know.
He nodded slightly, then took another step away. “See you tomorrow, then. I’ll knock this time, I promise.”
I tried to think of something clever and funny to say, but what was the point anyway? I’d already ruined this. First impressions were like words penned with permanent ink. Once etched on paper, there was little one could do to change them. So, I simply stared at him as he turned the knob and threw the door open.
“Hey, Rosie?” he called before crossing the threshold. “It’s been great finally meeting Lina’s best friend.”
Finally.
He’d said finally.
Just like I had a while ago. But probably for a completely different reason.
“Likewise, Lucas. This was all… great.” A great freaking disaster.
A small smile turned his lips up. “Do me a favor and lock up after I’m gone, yes?” He turned around, giving me his back and striding away. “You never know who might try to break in.”
And just like that, I watched Lucas Martín disappear down the stairs as swiftly as he had landed right on my doorstep—or Lina’s doorstep.
As if this had been nothing more than a dream, all of it a product of my imagination.
A silly and bizarre dream about a man I had spied on through the screen of my phone for months and months, all thanks to the magic of social media.
A man I had somehow harbored the biggest, stupidest crush on, even when I hadn’t even meet him in person and even when I’d thought I probably never would.