Page 47 of Inevitable

“For a supposedly smart person, you can be overwhelmingly dumb sometimes,” Ezra said. He moved his hand until his pinky was touching the back of Bas’s hand. “For the last two weeks, I’ve watched Drew stare at the front door every few minutes like it’s a magical portal. Whenever somebody moves in the hallway, he gets this hopeful look on his face. He misses you.” He took a deep breath. “I miss you. So whatever stupid notion you have that somebody could replace you and make Drew’s life perfect, just drop it. Because nobody can. You’re it.”

“You underestimate yourself,” Bas said.

“Don’t.” Ezra looked away. “This is not about me or what I could be. This is about you being stupid.”

“You know, with the amount of times you’ve told me how dumb I’m being, I’m going to have self-esteem issues.”

“Then stop behaving like an idiot,” Ezra said.

Bas chuckled. He shuffled closer until his toes were on top of Ezra’s toes. He leaned forward, forehead pressing into Ezra’s shoulder. Ezra wrapped his arms around Bas. They stood still for a long time.

“I’ve missed you, too,” Bas confessed. “But it’s not that simple, is it? I don’t even know what we’re doing here. Are we doing anything? How is this ever supposed to work? Can it even?”

Ezra wasn’t used to Bas sounding so uncertain. He wanted to say yes. That whatever this thing between them was shaping up to be would definitely work out, and no, they would definitely not end up in pieces. He couldn’t, though. Even beautiful lies were in the end just that—lies.

“Maybe we don’t have to have a plan figured out right away,” he said. “Maybe for now it’s enough if we take things day by day. And maybe we should try and stop hiding,” he added gently. “Both from each other and from ourselves.”

Bas nodded, and Ezra figured he’d step away, but he didn’t. Instead, Bas turned his head to the side. Ezra’s breath hitched when he felt Bas press his lips against the soft spot underneath Ezra’s ear. They stood frozen like that for a long time. Ezra’s heart was threatening to beat out of his chest, and he was sure Bas could feel the erratic pounding.

Bas inhaled deeply before he relaxed against Ezra as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

“How did we ever manage without you?” Bas’s lips moved against Ezra’s skin, and the butterflies in his belly all took flight at once.

“You did fine.”

Whatever Bas was going to reply was cut off by the alarm in Ezra’s phone going off. He pulled away from Bas, who was looking all kinds of startled and adorable as he blinked in confusion.

Ezra groaned. “Shit. I’ve gotta run. I’ve got class in thirty minutes.”

“You set an alarm to remind yourself that you have school?” The familiar teasing note was back in Bas’s tone.

“It’s a precaution. I have an exam. I can’t miss it.”

Bas laughed softly.

“Can I…” He hesitated. “Can I come with you?”

“To take my biomechanics test?” Ezra asked with a chuckle. “I don’t think the professor will welcome you with open arms.”

Bas smiled and dragged his hand over the back of his head. “I was thinking more like can I walk you to class.” He looked bashful all of a sudden, and Ezra found that he liked that version of Bas, too. He liked every version he’d seen so far.

“You want to take the T with me to school?” Ezra clarified.

He forced the excitement down. He had to be more careful if he was going to survive Bas and Drew.

Bas shrugged, still looking a bit shy and a whole lot sexy. “I’ve missed you, too.”

There was nothing that could stop Ezra’s heart from going haywire after hearing that.

“Sure,” he managed to say.

Bas smiled like he’d just been granted the greatest gift he could have imagined.

“Cool,” he said. “I’ll just grab my keys, and then I’m ready.”

Ezra nodded mutely.

The subway car was practically empty, but that didn’t stop Bas from standing so close to Ezra that every time the train jostled, their shoulders bumped together.