Until You (Until #1)

by Briar Prescott

That you never get to say goodbye to most people. They’re there, and then they’re gone, and nobody cares that you’re left behind with all those words you never got to say that are now trapped inside you for good.”

“What were you doing?” I ask. “Rearranging the furniture for better sex feng shui?” “I hid your shoes,” he says and starts to kiss me, but I rear back. “What the fuck?” “I hid your shoes,” he repeats patiently and tries to kiss me again. “Why?” “If you don’t have your shoes, you can’t run out on me in the middle of the night,” he says.

“Stay?” he whispers into my skin. “You stole my shoes. I kind of have to stay, don’t I?” I glance at him, gaze catching his. “Stay because you want to,” he says softly. In the end, the decision isn’t that difficult. “I’ll stay.”

“Blake?” I murmur softly. “Hmm?” he mumbles against my neck. “Remember how you said you weren’t really the dating type?” He lifts his head and studies me curiously before he nods. “Well, I was wondering,” I say. “If, maybe… you’d make an exception for me?”

“Okay.” “Yeah?” I ask. His smile grows even wider. “Yeah.” He looks down at where his thumbs are playing on my skin and then up again. Serious now. “You already are my every exception.”

You’re finally here! I’ve been waiting for you. Just you. Nobody else fits, but you do.

And I don’t expect him to look at me and feel like my heart is going to burst out of my chest when he says, “I like us.”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “I like us, too.”

I’m starting to think my love language does not come in the form of beautiful words and candlelit dinners but well-placed sarcastic remarks and exasperation. Blake has clearly mastered both.

He made me love him. He turned himself into my home. Now he’s gone. And I’m homeless. But life doesn’t stop for a broken heart. So somehow, I keep going.

He sends me a small smile. “I’ll get a ride,” he repeats. “Because when you let me inside, it’s going to be because you choose to do it. Not because of rain or because you feel sorry for me. I want you to want me here. And I want you to be sure.”

“What will make you stop?” I ask. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Don’t do this.” “What will make you stop?” I repeat. I have to wait an eternity for the answer. “If you ask me to stop,” he eventually says. Another eternity passes. “Then I’m asking you to stop.”

I was in freaking tears… sobbing my heart out because whyyy…..