Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)(49)

“Busy.” He gestures to the bubbling frying foods. “I can’t take a break for a while. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s totally okay. Just, I have this thing I have to do with my parents, is all, so I can’t hang around too long.”

“It’s fine,” Ted says. “I’ll call you when I get off. I have to go home because it’ll be late, and I was out late last night, but—”

“Yes, call me.” I don’t know how to say good-bye, because I really want to kiss him and of course I can’t. So I wave, and he waves back, and then I go home, where I’ll try to act enthused about dinner, even though really I’ll just be counting down until Ted’s off work and can call me.

*

On Monday morning I’m not sure how I can act like a normal person when Ted walks toward my locker. We grin at each other, and I hug him because I’m so washed over with happy Ted thoughts I forget I don’t want Reid to see us. Of course, I’ll end things with Milo when I get the chance, but I’ll worry about that later. There’s nothing but Ted I want to think about today.

Still, I pull it together and act like my usual self for the rest of the day. After seventh period I wait by Ted’s locker and force myself not to tackle him as he walks up.

“Hi, Riley.”

“Hi.” I grin like we are in on the best inside joke the world has to offer. I get why Lucy and Nathan are so annoying. “Do you want to hang out?”

“Now?” he asks.

“Yeah, now,” I say. “Do you have work?”

“I’m free, yeah, we can hang out,” he says.

“My little sister’s going to be home,” I say.

“No one’s home at my apartment,” he says. “Not for a while at least.”

“Okay.” I wait as he takes almost every book out of his locker. It seems like Ted is taking twenty classes instead of seven. “Do you really have that much homework?”

“Yeah?” He laughs like I’m funny, which I love. “I just want to make sure if I want to study I can.”

He is dedicated and nerdy and it’s awesome.

I drive to his apartment, and as he lets me in I think about how this is the first time I’m going inside and not just dropping him off at the door. It’s crazy that not long ago he was just a guy I obsessed over and now this is a real thing. We’re a real thing.

“Do you want soda or something?” he asks as soon as we’re through the door. I’m too busy looking around to think about beverages yet. Everyone else I know lives in a house and not an apartment. But now that I’m inside it seems just like anyone else’s place: cozy, with family photos and certificates of achievement framed on the walls.

I sit on the overstuffed green couch while Ted gets us Cokes, and he sits down next to me and turns the TV on to Blind Love.

“This one is great.” Ted points to the TV. “He falls in the hot tub at some point. His blindfold gets all wet and stuck to his face, but he can’t take it off.”

“Oh my god, I haven’t seen it.” I love that he watches this show and remembers I watch it, too.

The episode is as good as Ted promised, but of course I’m also thinking about sex and if it’s going to happen again and how I’d really like it to happen again. And then as soon as the episode’s over Ted kisses me and it’s like I Just Know.

We stay on the couch kissing for a while, but once the clothes-coming-off stage arrives, Ted leads me down the hallway to his room, and this time is way better. Last time was amazing in that it was amazing that it happened, but right now is less awkward and uncomfortable, and of course it’s nicer being in Ted’s bed versus the guesthouse. And I planned ahead today; my underwear is plain and black and normal! It still came in a three-pack Mom bought me at Target, but it’s a move up from the Tuesday frogs. The condom also flummoxes us way less this time, and we seem like we’re lined up better or something.

Also somehow I like Ted even more than I did only three days ago.

Afterward we get dressed right away just in case we lose track of time and his mom gets home. Ted wants to go back to the living room and watch TV, but I have to be nosy and look around his room first. He has an FYF Fest poster tacked up, and a framed old-fashioned drawing of trains. I notice then there are also a couple of miniature trains on top of his bookcase, which is full of classics and graphic novels and essay books by smart-ass people.

“What’s with the trains?” I ask.

“I don’t know—I used to be into trains,” he says. “It’s geeky, I know.”

“Everyone’s geeky in some way.”

“My dad used to buy them for me,” he says. “When I was little. Our house had this small basement, and he set up a track to run around the whole thing. It was pretty cool.”

I haven’t ever asked anything about the pronounced lack of a dad in Ted’s life, since there are things like Reid’s dad living in Chicago and having that be no big deal because he calls a lot and they FaceTime while watching the Cubs play on TV. But I guess sometimes it can be a big deal.

“Sounds cool,” I say in a voice I hope isn’t sarcastic. “Where’s your dad now? If it’s okay I asked! Sorry if I shouldn’t have—”