Tamika nodded, serious for once. “Yeah. That’s what happens when it’s real.”
Jordan leaned forward. “You can’t go into it scared about losing it. You have to just… live it. Enjoy it.”
“Exactly,” Jada said. “One day at a time. Don’t start overthinking.”
“I’m trying not to.”
Tamika smiled. “I’m so happy for you Alyssa. You two been dancing around this for months. It’s about damn time you stopped pretending.”
I leaned back in my chair, the smile still stuck on my face. “Yeah, I’m happy for me too.”
“Good.” Jada winked. “Now drink some water, stretch, and be prepared to thank that man properly again later.”
“Goodbye!” I said, hittingend callbefore they could say anything else. But I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face if I tried. I was happy. And it wasn’t just the sex, though, Lord knows, that man made me forget how to spell my own name. It was the way he made me feel safe and understood. That made me more nervous than I wanted to admit. Because I knew now what it felt like to be cared for like that, and that meant if I lost it, I’d reallyfeelit.
I took a deep breath, looked at my smiling reflection in the dark screen of my phone. “One day at a time, girl. One day at a time.”
Weeks later,the newness had not worn off. The shower kicked on down the hall, and Julian had me immediately backed against my kitchen counter before the pipes finished knocking.
“He just got in,” I said, already losing the thread of why that mattered, my hands curling into his shirt instead of pushing him off.
“He’ll be in there twenty minutes.” His mouth was at the corner of mine. “He’s discovered acoustics.”
About a month ago Micah had discovered that the bathroom made him sound like a stadium act, and now every shower came with a concert. The same forty seconds of the same song, the only part he knew, performed at full volume. Right on cue, his off-key wail started up, and Julian smiled against my mouth.
“See? He’s committed to his set. We’ve got time.”
We weren’t going to really do anything with the time. This was the thing we did now. Make the most of the window, kiss like we were getting away with something, his hands finding my waist, mine finding the line of his back under his shirt, both of us half-laughing into it because we were two grown people who ran a company and courtrooms, and had been reduced to making out against a counter while a third-grader murdered a song down the hall.
The water cut off suddenly and we both froze. The singing had stopped.
“That was not twenty minutes,” I whispered.
"It wasn't." Julian's forehead dropped to my shoulder, and he was already laughing. "Give him the sniff test. He might have taken a faux-shower. Runs the water, never actually gets in, comes out dry as a bone telling you he bathed.”
“He would not.”
“He’s a boy, Alyssa. He absolutely would.” He straightened up and fixed my shirt, kissed my forehead, then turned to the stove like he'd been standing there cooking the whole time.
Micah's door banged open and he came down the hall already mid-sentence. "MOM! Is Zhaire still gonna sleepover here tomorrow?"
"We'll see."
Julian didn't even turn around. "Come here a second, lil man."
Micah detoured over and Julian crouched down to his level, took his forearm, turned it over, and ran a thumb across the back of his hand. Then he leaned in andsmelledhis shoulder.
Micah's whole face fell. “What?”
“Mm-hm.” Julian nodded slowly. “You turned on the shower and stood by the sink, didn't you?”
"I gotin!" Micah protested.
"Your skin is dry, your hair's dry, and I don’t smell any soap.”
“Micah!” I said in disbelief.
Micah looked between me and Julian, deciding whether it was worth it to keep denying it, then stared at Julian, genuinely perplexed. “How come you evenknowthat?”