Page 77 of Bloom

“One hundred percent adding that to my list.”

“Waking me up?”

“For sex, yes. Not because I’m being loud at four thirty in the morning.”

“You can be loud during sex.”

I sighed. “This list is getting longer and longer.”

He laughed, then pointed the remote at the TV. “Ooh, I haven’t seen this. It’s about gay pirates. Should we watch?”

“Gay pirates? Absolutely, one hundred percent.”

Linden spentthe night at my place. It was always the plan, though I thought that might change after the condom incident.

But nope. He wanted to stay. He wanted to sleep in my bed, wake up for a casual breakfast, and then spend the morning at IKEA.

It seemed while nothing between us had changed, everything had.

Being somewhat pessimistic by nature, I was inclined to assume things would change for the worse.

But maybe things had changed for the better?

I was afraid to admit this out loud, of course. But we’d talked. We’d discussed what-if scenarios and we’d talked about our expectations moving forward.

Like grown-ups. Like people who were serious about making this work.

Was the condom breaking ideal?

Absolutely not.

In fact, I wished it hadn’t happened at all.

But out of a bad situation came something good. A silver lining to a rather dark cloud.

I dared to think we’d be okay. Better, even.

Was it still too early for declarations of love and forever?

Realistically, yes.

But something inside me knew this was real.

“You okay?” Linden waved his hand in front of my face. “Ready to go shopping? Or still need more coffee?”

I laughed and nodded out the windscreen to the entrance of IKEA. “I’m ready. Not sure my bank account is, but I am.”

He laughed. “You don’t have to buy anything. We can just look. It’ll be fun.”

We got out of my work van and he held his hand out for me to hold. Was I the hand-holding-in-public kind of guy? Not before him, no. But now? Hell yes, I wanted to hold his hand.

He grinned as I threaded our fingers and he did a little happy-bouncy walk as we went through the doors. He was such a ball of energy and fun, and I swear it was contagious.

He made me happy.

“Sooo,” he said as we reached the first room. “New couch, or other furniture?”

I grimaced. “Uh... Do I need a new couch?” I probably did. My couch was old...