If I die coming up the stairs, I’m suing you from the grave.
I made it all the way up the steps and knocked on the door.
“You made it,” he said, his face splitting into a smile that made my knees feel like I was still climbing the dangerous steps.
“And I brought socks.” I didn’t know what kind to get, so I’d brought three bags. White, multicolored and a bag of knee-high argyle socks that were too cute not to buy.
“I see that. Come on in.” He moved aside and I walked in.
“This isn’t nearly as shitty as I was expecting. You made it sound a lot worse.” Granted, it was no Yellowfield House, but it wasn’t that bad. We stood in a tiny kitchen with room only enough for the appliances on one side and a small table and two chairs on the other. A narrow hallway led to what I assumed was the rest of the house.
“Want the tour?” he said.
“Sure.” I put the bags of socks down on the table and followed him down the hall.
“Bedroom, bathroom.” He pointed to the rooms on the right and left of me. “And living room slash study slash library slash storage room.” The apartment was shaped a bit like an hourglass, but it was adorable. All the furniture was old and patched, but it wasn’t dirty.
“And this is Napoleon. He thinks he’s going to take over the world.” Dusty reached behind the couch and pulled out what looked like a black ball of fuzz. On further inspection, I realized it was a kitten with huge blue eyes. Dusty cradled him like a baby in his arms and Napoleon meowed and I died, right there, in the middle of Dusty’s living room.
I’d always heard about the appeal of guys with babies, and I’d never really gotten it. But Dusty holding a kitten and scratching its belly as it purred like a little tank? Pantie-meltingly sexy.
“Here, you want to hold him?” I’d never had a pet before. My parents had always said no when I’d asked for one every single birthday and Christmas. A lot of the time it was because we were renting in a place that didn’t allow them. I’d always wanted a dog, but now I was seeing the cat appeal. Big-time.
Dusty passed him over to me and he mewed at me.
“He’s just saying hello. If you scratch him right here, he’ll be in love with you forever.” He put his fingers under Napoleon’s chin and scratched, which made Napoleon close his eyes and start purring again. Dusty moved his hand and mine took his place under the kitten’s chin.
“I didn’t know you had a cat,” I said as Napoleon snuggled closer to my hand.
Dusty sat down on the couch that took up much of the limited space.
“I didn’t plan on it, but then the woman downstairs found a litter of kittens and she asked me if I wanted one and I couldn’t say no. Could you say no to him?”
“Never.” I sat down next to him, making sure I didn’t jostle the sweet little kitty. “This really isn’t that bad, Dusty.” He had it organized at least. There was a bookshelf in one corner with quite a few worn paperbacks on it and an ancient television, one of those with the big wooden box around it, across from the couch with a DVD player that looked very out of place on top of it.
The walls were pretty bare, but here and there were a few pictures. It wasn’t what I’d expected, from the few times I’d been in guys’ apartments and dorm rooms. Usually there were more than a few posters of half-naked girls, or at least a Playboy or two hanging around, and lots of beer cans and chip bags.
“It’s not much, but it’s mine. And Napoleon’s. It’s really his place and I just live here.”
Everything was quiet except for Napoleon, who was still purring away.
“So are you still mad at me?” he said.
I couldn’t lie. “I’m not happy about it, but it’s not completely your fault. I’m going to have it out with Renee and the rest of the residents of the house when I get back about it.”
“Do you have to? I mean, they don’t have to know that you know.”
“But they lied to me, Dusty. I can’t just let that go.”
“You’re right.” He stroked Napoleon’s head and sighed. “So I have something for you. Something to say I’m sorry. Or at least start saying I’m sorry. Do you want it?”
“Does it have anything to do with the socks?”
“Nope.”
I had no idea what this could be. Dusty took the now-sleeping Napoleon from me and placed him gently in a little kitten bed on the floor beside the couch.
“Be right back. Oh, and close your eyes.” I gave him a look and did what he said. He left the room and went into his bedroom. I listened as he came back and placed something on the floor in front of me.
“Okay, open.”
I looked down to find a clear plastic bucket with a huge bow on the lid. It was absolutely filled with...
“An equal ratio of Skittles and M&M’s. I actually counted them out. Did you know they don’t put the same amount in each bag? I learned that around five this morning when I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“Do you mean to tell me you sat and counted all of those?” There must be thousands of them in there.
He put his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, it took a while.”
I looked down at the bucket again and shook my head. “You are so weird, Dusty Sharp.”
“Is weird good?”
I stood up and stepped over the bucket and pulled him toward me.
“Yeah. Weird is awesome,” I said before I tilted my face up and kissed him. He took his hands out of his pockets and wrapped them around my waist, pulling me up so I was on my tiptoes. I pulled away from his mouth, which tasted like chocolate.
“Did you eat any of them?”
He grinned.
“They were uneven, so I had a few left over.”
“Oh.” I shrugged and went back to kissing him. It was a little bit slower than last night. Softer. Like a tentative first kiss. Like we both knew we could take our time. I let the taste of him flood my senses as his hands slipped under my shirt and set off every nerve ending. He pushed me back, and we nearly tripped over the bucket on our way to the couch. He laid me down and got on his side so he wasn’t on top of me.
He pulled some hair loose from my bun and twirled it around his fingers. “Want to try it slower this time? We have all day.”
“What do you mean by slow? I think I need to see a demonstration before I commit to it,” I said with a serious face.