Between Us Novels & Stories

By the third day, I could feel his presence everywhere, the hotel entrance, outside my office building even across the street when I picked Leo up. On the fourth evening, he finally spoke again. “I just want five minutes,” he said quietly when I crossed paths with him in the parking spot. “Five minutes of honesty.” he said as I met his gaze coldly. “You already had three years of my honesty.” I said boldly. “This is different,” he said. “Ava please it feels like I’m losing my mind.” he said and I studied him really well now.

She helped. She reached for the hem of her own shorts and slid them off too. And then it was just skin and the duvet and the quiet of the house around them. They moved together. Slow at first. Learning. Kisses that turned deeper. Hands that didn’t shake anymore. Whispered names. The sound of breathing that matched. It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t about forgetting the beach or the grief. It was about choosing each other in the middle of it. After, they didn’t let go.

I didn’t move away. Neither did he. The room stayed still. Except for the sound of our breathing. And the space between us… slowly closing.

I add. Gage's face looked appalled as if he had seen a ghost. He was left pushing his hair off from his face and licking his lips looking troubled as fuck. His eyes looks at the floor and then back at me. "What about us?" He asks. Us. My heart aches hearing that word coming from Gage's lips. "We only use us when a man and a woman are together, Gage. But we're not together. We're just fucking each other." I say breathlessly.

"Be nice to each other, I'm not going to change this pair even if your parents themselves complained on your behalf. "Now have a good day." He stated and we got up leaving.

We walked together again, brushing shoulders once or twice, not speaking, but not needing to. I didn’t know what we were yet. Strangers? Classmates? Something else?

They walked slowly, neither of them quite ready for the day to end. When they reached her building, they stood on the sidewalk for a moment, the city moving around them, people passing by on their way to evening plans. “Thank you,” Anne said. “For today, for checking on me this morning, for… for being here when I needed someone.” “Always,” Jeff said, and there was that word again, that single word that seemed to carry so much weight and meaning. He reached out and squeezed her hand gently, then stepped back, respecting the boundary between them even though Anne could sense him wanting to do more.

We wrap around each other like if only we stay close enough, we might be able to put an end to this. Then, we start walking.

Something that contains both of those things and is larger than either of them. Home. She is my home. And I am never letting anything separate us.

"Among other things." "I'm aware," he said, and there was something in the way he said it, low and amused, that made the warmth crawl up the back of my neck again. I hated how easily he did that. He started walking back the way I'd come, and after a second I followed, falling into step beside him instead of behind him. "That man today," I said. "Edward." "What about him?." "Is he going to die?" Caelum glanced sideways at me. "Would that bother you?"