Snapshot

by Kay Cove

I breathe him the fuck in and let my legs go completely numb. Just one tiny moment. This moment belongs to me.

“Wait,” I say with a chuckle. “You’re not giving it back? I could use ten dollars. You clearly don’t need it.” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “No. Sorry. You can have literally any bill in my bank account except that one. It means way too much to me.” It only takes one line. Just like that, my fate is sealed.

“You’re going to call my mom?” I nod. “Yes. I’ll take the heat. And anyway, there’s the matter of your dowry we need to discuss. I’m not greedy. I don’t want their money. Just a few cows, an ox, and some grain will do.” She rolls her eyes. “You ass.”

“Trouble…my heart stops every time you walk into a room. I am fucking obsessed with you. I have been from the very first moment you showed up at my bedroom door and gave me that ten-dollar bill.” He reaches out to cup my cheek, running his thumb along my bottom lip. “But how do we make sense? My destiny is everything you despise. I didn’t know how else to keep you close except with…lies.”

“What are we now? Married? Friends? Dating? All of the above?” His body is a playground I finally get to explore. After taking my time running my hands across his lower back, then tracing his hard abs, I place them flat against his pecs. Leaning away, looking for his eyes, I allow myself to get fully lost in the green and honey-colored patches. “I don’t know. We said, ‘I do,’ and then you pecked me on the cheek.” “I was trying to maintain boundaries,” he answers defensively. “I didn’t know what you wanted.” I grab his shirt and tighten my fist, pulling him closer. “You. For three fucking years, Dex. You.”

“I shouldn’t have to say it, Dex. Don’t you know by now? I’ve been yours.”

If my grandparents bought me a labor-intensive small business for my birthday, we’d have some words.

The way he sweettalks Zeus is going to cause that poor fish lots of problems.

“So, in this scenario, are we just going to throw Denny some noise-canceling headphones and ask her to cover her eyes for a few minutes?” He scrunches his face. “Excuse me, a few minutes?” “That’s your takeaway?” “I tend to have a one-track mind around you, Trouble.”

I put my hand over Lennox’s stomach. “That’s not my kind of love. There’s no goodbye for us, Len. You’re stuck with me forever.” I wink. “Make your peace with it.”