I stumble home about two hours later, after eating a bunch more cookies in the parking lot of Taco Bell, then taking a mind-clearing drive. There’s so much to think about, it helped to cruise along the empty streets, letting my mind wander.
I try to fit the key into the lock to our front door, but it doesn’t go in. I try a second time, but it still doesn’t seem to fit. I get a flutter of fear in my belly. Did Elliot change the locks while I was gone? Is this his way of telling me we’re through?
But then the door swings open and Elliot is standing in front of me.
His dark brown eyebrows knit together. “April, are you okay?”
I hold up my keyring, the offending key between my thumb and forefinger. “My key won’t fit.”
He smiles crookedly. “That’s because you’re using the mailbox key.” Oh. “Oops.”
“April,” he says, “have you been drinking?”
“No.” I slip past him into the foyer. Bobby is clearly in bed, because the living room is completely silent. “I haven’t been drinking. I’ve been thinking.”
He raises his eyebrows. “What have you been thinking?”
“About you, mostly.” My words come out flirtier than I intended. But I don’t regret it.
“Oh?” His smile widens. “And what have you been thinking about me?”
I open my mouth to answer, but before I can get any words out, I find myself throwing my arms around his shoulders and pressing my lips against his. He stumbles backward, shocked. But after that initial surprise wears off, he pulls me closer to him and kisses me back. It’s a long lingering kiss that guarantees we’ll end up in the bedroom.
“You’re incredible, April,” he breathes in my ear. “Don’t you forget it.”
He squeezes me tight to his body. “I didn’t think you’d be up for this anytime soon.”
“Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” “Is there now?”
“There sure is.”
Elliot shakes his head at me, and then we’re making out again. And for the first time in a very long time, we can’t even make it up to the bedroom. We do it right on the couch, ripping each other’s clothes off like when we first got together.
