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Is that the thump I heard?

You heard that?

Yep, woke me up

And yet you didn’t come see if I was okay?

Didn’t want to disturb Clive

I can’t believe he’s been sleeping on your side Traitor cat

We’re friends noell, alain

HA! I have to get back to work, cat stealer

We still watching a ht?

If that’s what you want to call it

Makes it seem like we actually have plans

I have plans Ohyour apple pie…think about that

That’s all I can think about now…hating you

You don’t hate …

Text between Mi Saturday?

Nah, Sophia is bringing drinks,

and we’re taking care of the rest

So good to hear you in a we again

Yes, I’ the we

And the e?

What are we, 7? Yes, the e is good

Good to hear it So have you slept in the bed of sin yet?

No, we see at my place

I think I’d feel weird in that bed

Many walls were banged froe

Maybe it would be nice to irlfriend, new banger?

I don’t knoe’ll see…I know at some point

I’ll sleep there, just not yet Besides,

he’s having too uys! Except gy guys

They’ve co I’ it

It’s like a neorld order

I know

Want et into anized…

Co all was quiet Si a holiday concept for someone’s ballroom Yep, ballroom This was the world I visited Just visited, not lived in I was still invery much at home He said it would be easier since we’d just end up atClive up onto the counter so he could "watch" I put that in quotes because the actual as spoken by Sio, buddy This way you can watch! You can’t see too well froht?"

And Clive answered I knoas technically impossible, but theIt was nice

So here we sat,his travel plans for Peru online He had so like seventy billion frequent flyer miles, and he loved to flaunt the of e and his clickety-clack on the keyboard And the clicking fronail in the free world

Si his ar his happy trail I ainst the back of the couch, eyes closed Within a few rinned silently I continued

Ten minutes later I felt his hand reach out across the pillows, and graspafter all

"Holy shit, Caroline, these prawns are sick!" Mimi moaned in a way that ht, and ere all gathered aroundroom table, full of Spanish food and Spanish wine I’d had a blast trying to recreate all the wonderful food Siood certainly, but pretty close And of course ithout the coastal a in foggy San Francisco can provide The city lights twinkled through the s, a fire crackled in the fireplace, courtesy of Benjahter filled the apartment

I sat in hed with our friends I’d been a little nervous that we’d be subjected to soether had been the topic of conversation for so long But it was good, everyone settled into the evening with only ether , but I could already tell ould morph into one of those couples that didn’t need that

I never wanted to be that couple, the one that was entirely codependent and in constant need of reassurance I loved Sioodness sake, so we needed to roll with it And I thought ould I felt him next to me, and I moved just a little closer He slipped an ar and just ertips traced little circles around hed as he pressed a quick kiss to my forehead

I would never need the Honey and the Baby I just needed him and his little circles Just needed to feel hiht my eye from across the table and winked

"What was that for?" I asked, sippingto have no trouble getting s worked out well, didn’t they?" she asked, looking back and forth between Si your apartment tointo Si me your number so I could text you from Ireland, now that’s the best decision she everat Benja I didn’t know your ood decision too," she said, a hed into his brandy

"Wait, what? You knew all along I was the one living next door?" he asked, sputtering as I handed him a napkin "But you’ve never even been to my place!"

"She hasn’t, but I have," Benjalass with his fiancée’s

Siratulate themselves

Well played…

"Okay, that’s the last of it Nothe dishwasher After everyone finally left, we decided to clean up the rest of the oodness I’ ood housewife" I just barely sidestepped his grabby hands

"Just callthat fantastic ass back over here," he fired back, snapping a dishtowel in ht here?" I asked, proppingforward on ht you were beat," hegled as he promptly swept me up over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold and headed for the bedrooainst his bottoet away His feet stopped at the bedroo so I could see inside: stripped bed, no sheets

"Daot to put the sheets in the dryer They’ll still be soaked!" I grumbled

"Proble open htie"

"You want to stay at your place tonight?"

"Yeah, why not? We’ve been sleeping here since we got back froh piles of lace and peekaboo

Hmm, his bed was probably lonelier that it had ever been before

"So, pick one" He gaveyou like I’llht in his bed Could be fun I saw a fa pink and lacy make its way under his ared to kick his door on the way in, so pretty hard to do while upside down