Sydney swings open my bedroom door. I’m sitting at my desk, finishing up a website for a client, when she goes straight to my bed and falls face-first onto the mattress.
Rough day, I guess.
It’s probably my fault because I stayed another night at her house last night. Maybe I should give her a night to catch up on her sleep. Outside of her job, we’ve been together almost non-stop since Tuesday. I know it’s only Friday, but we get exhausted being together. In the best way.
I’ll make sure tonight is a little more relaxing than the last few nights. We can take the chill out of Netflix and chill and literally just watch TV shows all night. Then I’ll let her sleep in as long as she wants tomorrow. Hell, I’ll probably sleep in with her.
I walk over to the bed and lie down beside her. I brush her hair out of her face, and she opens her eyes and grins at me, despite looking exhausted.
“Bad day?” I ask her.
She shakes her head and rolls over onto her back. She lifts her hands to sign, but whatever she wants to say, she doesn’t know how to sign. “Midterms,” she finally says.
I tilt my head. “Midterms?” She nods.
“You had midterms this week?” She nods again.
Now I feel like an asshole. I grab my phone and text her.
Ridge: Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have stayed at your apartment.
Sydney: Mine were Monday and Tuesday, so no worries. Your timing Tuesday night was impeccable. It’s just that I work at the library and it’s insane during midterms. The students are insane. The professors are insane. I’m so happy it’s Friday.
Ridge: Me too. Let’s do nothing tonight but watch TV. I need to find out if Ned really gets decapitated.
Sydney: Who?
Shit. Warren is rubbing off on me. I don’t want her to know I just spoiled season one of Game Of Thrones.
Ridge: Oh, nothing. Talking about The Walking Dead.
Sydney stares at her phone for a second, confused.
Sydney: I don’t remember that from The Walking Dead.
She watches The Walking Dead. Great. Now I want to have sex and I already told her we’d be lazy tonight.
Sydney’s attention moves away from me and toward my bedroom door. “Someone is knocking,” she signs.
I climb off her and head to the living room. Through the peephole, I notice it’s a girl with a FedEx uniform on. I open the door, and she hands me a package. Once I’ve signed for it, I walk the package to the bar and wait for Sydney as she walks into the kitchen. I read the label and it’s addressed to me, but there’s no return address.
Sydney leans over me and then signs, “You got a present?”
I shrug. I’m not expecting anything that I can remember, but I open the package and there’s another package inside of it. A poster tube. Knowing Warren, he probably sent me a roll of toilet paper with his face all over it. I start to pull the tape off, but I notice Sydney walk around me, toward the living room. When I glance up at her, she’s holding her phone up, aiming her camera in my direction.
“Are you recording me?”
She nods and gives me a sweet smile. “The present is from me.” “You bought me something?”
Her shy smile is so fucking adorable. Every time I think I’m too exhausted to even think about picking her up and throwing her on my bed, she does something that completely reinvigorates me and makes me feel like I could run a marathon.
I look back down at the tube and feel bad that she got me a gift. I suck at gifts. Shit, what if she’s the type who gives the best gifts? I’m the guy who once bought his nine-year-old brother a hamster for Christmas, but didn’t realize it died in the box. Brennan opened it and cried the entire day.
And this beautiful girl has me as her boyfriend.
Although, this gift is hard as shit to open. I set it on the bar and yank at the lid.
A sudden cloud of dust bursts out of the container and hits me in the face. It happens so fast, I can’t even close my mouth in time. I step back from
whatever the hell was in that container and I start spitting. What the hell just happened?
I walk to the sink and run my hands under the water, then wet my face.
When I pull my hands back, they’re sparkling like a fucking unicorn.
Glitter. Everywhere.
On my arms, my shirt, my hands, the counter. In my mouth. I look over at Sydney and she’s on the floor with laughter. Tears are in her eyes, she’s laughing so hard.
She glitter bombed me.
Wow.
I guess that means the prank war has recommenced.
I wash my mouth out and then calmly walk to the bar where the explosion just happened. I scoop a handful of glitter into my palm. Two can play this game. Her laughter hasn’t let up at all. I think she’s laughing even harder now that she sees me up close. I’m sure I look fantastic in sparkles.
I’ve read the word “squeal” before and know that it’s a form of laughter, but I have no idea what it sounds like at all. But as soon as I tip my hand over and watch the glitter fall all over her, I’m almost positive that’s what she’s doing. Squealing.
She clutches her stomach and falls onto her back. A tear falls down her cheek.
My God. I’d give anything to be able to hear her right now. I spend so much time trying to imagine what her voice and her laughter and her sighs sound like, but there isn’t enough imagination in one person to come close to what I know it probably sounds like.
She sees the look on my face and suddenly stops laughing. Her eyebrows pull together when she signs, “Are you angry?”
I smile and give my head a slight shake. “No. I just really wish I could hear you right now.”
Her expression relaxes a little. Saddens, even. She pulls in her bottom lip for a second as she stares up at me. Then she reaches her hand up and grabs mine, pulling on it. I lower myself to the floor, sliding my knee between both of her legs.
I might not be able to hear her like I wish I could, but I can smell her and taste her and love her. I run my nose over her jaw until my lips reach hers. When I brush my lips against hers, her tongue slips into my mouth, soft and inviting. I return the action, searching her mouth for remnants of laughter.
She’s an incredible communicator when it comes to her kiss. Her kiss sometimes says more to me than anything she could ever sign or text or speak. Which is why I immediately know when she’s distracted. I don’t even have to hear it. She hears it for me, and then I feel her reaction and I just know. I pull back and look down at her, just as her attention moves to Warren
and Bridgette’s bathroom door. I look up, and Bridgette is walking out of the bathroom. She pauses and looks at us, lying on the living room floor together, covered in glitter.
And then she does the unthinkable.
Bridgette smiles.
Then she steps over us and walks away. When she leaves the apartment, I look down at Sydney, wondering if she’s just as shocked as I am by that exchange. Her eyes are wide as she looks back at me. She starts laughing again. I quickly press my ear to her chest, wanting to feel it, but her laughter fades too quickly. I bring my hand up to her waist and start tickling her. I feel her start laughing again, so I keep tickling her because it’s the closest I can get to hearing that laugh.
Her phone is next to me on the floor, so when it lights up, I naturally glance at it. I stop tickling her when I see the name and the message that appears on the screen.
Hunter: Thank you, Syd. You’re the best.
She hasn’t noticed her phone. She’s still laughing and trying to squirm away from me, so I sit back on my knees and pick up her phone. I hand it to her as I’m standing up to walk away. I try to bite down my anger as I grab a rag and begin wiping the glitter off the counter. I glance at her to see her reaction, but she’s sitting cross-legged now, responding to that fucker’s text.
Why is she talking to him?
Why does it seem like they’re somehow miraculously on good terms?
Thank you, Syd? Why is he calling her Syd, like he has any right to be that casual with her after what he did to her? And why is she sitting so casually like this is okay? I grab my phone.
Ridge: Let me know when you’re finished chatting with your ex. I’ll be in the shower.
I don’t look at her as I head to my bedroom and then my bathroom. I pull open the shower curtain and turn on the water, and then take my shirt off. I swear, I just want to make loud noises. It’s not very often I feel the need to be loud, but in situations like this, I know it probably feels good to be able to groan so that I can hear my frustrations leaving my body. Instead, I toss my shirt at the wall and unbutton my jeans with nowhere for my noise to go.
When the bathroom door opens, I regret not locking it because I really need a minute. Or two or three. I glance at Sydney, and she leans against the doorframe and raises an eyebrow.
“Seriously?”
I stare at her expectantly. What does she want me to say? Does she expect me to be okay with this? Does she expect me to smile and ask her how Hunter is doing?
Sydney hands me her phone and scrolls up on her texts to Hunter so I can read them. I have no desire to read them, but she uses both of her hands to force mine around her phone, and then she motions for me to read them. I look down at the string of messages.
Hunter: I know you don’t want to speak to me. I don’t blame you for driving away the other night. And believe me, I would leave you alone, but I gave you all my financial forms to give to your dad to look over during our company’s merger last year. It’s almost April and I need them for taxes. I called his office and they said they sent them back with you a few months ago.
Sydney: They’re in Tori’s apartment in my old bedroom. Look in the red folder at the top of the closet.
Hunter: Found them!
Hunter: Thanks, Syd. You’re the best. Sydney: Can you delete my number now? Hunter: Done.
I lean against the sink and rub a hand down my face. She immediately starts texting me when I hand her back her phone, so I check my phone.
Sydney: I realize my situation with Hunter is different from your situation with Maggie, but I have been extremely accommodating to the friendship you chose to keep, Ridge. EXTREMELY ACCOMODATING! But you are being a hypocritical tool right now. It’s very unattractive.
I blow out a breath of mixed relief and regret. She is absolutely right. I’m a hypocritical tool.
Ridge: You’re right. I’m sorry.
Sydney: I know I’m right. And that little apology doesn’t really make me any less angry at you.
I glance at her and swallow because I haven’t seen her this angry in a very long time. I’ve seen her upset and frustrated, but I don’t think I’ve seen her this angry since the morning she woke up in my bed and found out I had a girlfriend.
Why did I have to react that way? She’s right. She’s been nothing but patient with me, and the first chance I have to show her the same trust and
patience in return, I stomp out of the room in a tantrum.
Ridge: I was jealous and in the wrong. 100% wrong. Actually, I was so wrong, I think I stretched the limit of 100%. I was 101% wrong.
I look at her, and I’m thankful I can read her non-verbal cues so well. Even though she tries to hide it, I can see her relax a little with that text. So I send her another one. I’ll text her apologies all night if I have to in order to get rid of this tension I caused.
Ridge: Remember when we used to tell each other our flaws so it would help fight our attraction for each other?
She nods.
Ridge: One of my flaws is that I never knew I had a jealous streak until I had you to be jealous over.
She doesn’t smile, but she does lean against the counter next to me. Our shoulders touch, and it’s such a subtle thing, but it means so much right now.
Sydney: My flaw is that I forgive too easily and I can’t stay mad.
She may find that as a flaw, but I couldn’t be more grateful for that side of her. Especially right now. She lifts her eyes and shrugs a little, like she’s already over it. I give her a quick kiss on her forehead.
Ridge: My flaw is that I’m covered in glitter. I somehow even got it…
I pull at the flap of my jeans. “Down there,” I say.
She starts laughing. And I smile because fuck Hunter. I have the absolute best girlfriend there ever was to walk this earth.
Sydney: My flaw is that I kind of already forgot why we were fighting because you’re so cute when you sparkle.
Ridge: We’re fighting because you are perfect and I don’t deserve you.
Sydney rolls her eyes and then sets down her phone. I stand up straight and place my phone on top of hers, pushing them to the back of the counter. I move in front of her, and she grips the counter at her sides, looking at me with glitter in her lashes and her hair. Such a beautiful girl. Inside and out. I lower
my mouth to hers while bringing my hands to the front of her jeans. I unzip and unbutton them and then continue to kiss her as I undress her.
I pull her into the shower with me, and for the next half hour, I apologize profusely with my mouth.
