Upside Down(41)

“I couldn’t believe it was you,” I said with a laugh. “Standing there all cute and shit with your clipboards in that meeting.”

“You looked scared as hell,” he whispered.

“I still am.” I let out a puff of air. “To be honest, right now I’m about five seconds away from freaking the fuck out, just so you know.”

He shot me a look and put his coffee down so he could take my hand in both of his. “You don’t have to worry or be scared when it comes to anything with me. I will never pressure you for sex. You mentioned cuddling on the couch and watching movies or hugging and kissing?”

I swallowed hard and somehow managed to nod. “I like those things. I want all the romantic things. I like holding hands and I love kissing. I love it. It makes my heart do some pretty weird shit and I get butterflies. And hugs are… well, a good hug can fix a wounded soul.”

Hennessy grinned at that.

“So I want all that,” I admitted. “But I don’t want anything else. I see all the naked pics on Twitter and Grindr, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they don’t put clothes on. Like I have zero interest in that. And the random gifs of porn are like, Jesus, is that really necessary? Not one part of it appeals to me. I think I can honestly say I’ve masturbated like twice in the last twelve months, which is probably far too much information than you ever needed to hear, but one of those times was just to see if I could even get aroused and the other time was, well, more of an attempt at stress relief, which evidently had the opposite effect. But I just want a boyfriend who I can sleep in with on Sundays, whom I can cuddle with or touch just because he’s close, and I want all that without him wanting more. And that’s probably selfish, I realise that. But I can’t be in another relationship where I’m walking on eggshells and praying he doesn’t want sex.” I shuddered at the thought. “I just can’t.”

Hennessy smiled and let out the mother of all breaths. He looked up at the sky and shook his head, and I thought for sure I’d blown it.

I’d crossed a line and said I wanted something he won’t do… I pulled my hand away and stood up, wanting to leave but not sure my feet would take me. “I’m sorry. Was it the kissing? Do you not like that? Or the idea of sleeping in on Sundays? I mean, not the actual sleeping in part, but the sleeping in the same bed part.”

He stood up too and grabbed my arm. “God no. Jordan, everything you said, all those things, it was like you read my list of what I want. Everything, exactly as you said it.”

“You like kissing?”

“Very much.”

“And hugging?”

“Can fix a wounded soul.”

For some stupid reason, my eyes got all watery and my heart was trying to trample its way out of my ribcage. “Really?”

He nodded. “Can I kiss you right now? Because I sure would like to kiss you.”

I could barely nod, and he put his hand to my cheek and slowly cupped my jaw. His thumb scraped along my scruff and he smiled before he leaned in real slow. It was that moment before the kiss, where you’re sure your heart will pop or your lungs will squeeze too hard, and the butterflies are in a flurry. That perfect pre-kiss moment, where he’s close enough that I can see just how beautiful his irises are, and the warmth of his palm on my cheek is keeping me from floating away. His lips, so close they almost touched mine, the barest hint of touch made me gasp, and my heart rate kicked it up a gear, and then he did it. He pressed his lips to mine, soft and warm and slightly open, and his other hand cupped my jaw, and he kissed me so perfectly, all I could do was melt into him.

The most perfect kiss.

He pulled away all too soon and I almost fell forward. He caught me and chuckled. “You okay?”

“I’m um… that was… wow,” I put my hand to my forehead, then took Hennessy’s hand, and sliding it inside my coat, I held it over my heart. “Can you feel that?”

My heart was hammering so goddamn fast he had to be able to feel it.

He sucked back a breath, his eyes grew dark and intense, his pink lips parted, and he nodded. “I can.”

“That’s what you do to me.”

He smiled then and leaned in again, pressing his lips to mine one more time. Chaste and sweet and so utterly perfect. “I’m so glad we’re on the same page,” he said, his hand still to my chest, he slid it up to my neck, his thumb tracing my cheekbone. “It’s a relief I can’t even describe.”

“Me too. Merry will be over the moon, and Angus will be pleased too. Though I will admit, he said if I found out today you weren’t into the same things as me, that we would spend all day tomorrow watching Pride and Prejudice, eating pizza, and drinking beer. And I’m not gonna lie, that sounded pretty damn good.”

Hennessy took my hand and we started to walk again. “There’s no reason we can’t do that.”

“Really? You would do that? Pride and Prejudice? I mean, I’m almost certain it bores Angus to tears, but he said he’d do it if it made me feel better.”

Now he laughed. “Well, Angus sounds like a helluva good friend, and yes I would totally watch it. I do prefer Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, though Matthew Macfadyen gets an honourable mention for his voice alone.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “Okay, you win. All the awards. All the points. This date is now a full ten stars on a scale of one to the best second date ever in the existence of dates.”