His arms trace slow, soothing lines across my back. I do the same.

“I know. I feel it too,” I whisper. “It’s like we were chasing each other this whole time without knowing it.”

Nathaniel lifts his head and looks into my eyes. His wet hair is a mess and somehow still sexy as hell. I run my fingers through it, pushing it back.

“So, what are you going to do now that you’ve caught me?” he asks with a crooked smile.

I pretend to think for a second, then shrug. “Never let you go.”

He chuckles, then pulls me in for a soft, lingering kiss.

one year later

34

nathan

“To the left! Pivot!” Tony shouts. Caleb and I move the bedframe, tilting it into the service elevator.

We manage to fit it inside and stand back, panting.

“You know, since this is your bedframe, you could help a little,” Caleb shakes his head. He’s wearing a black bandana to keep his hair out of his face and no shirt. It’s taking everything in me not to claw at his sweaty body. I’ll have to deal with it later.

“I am helping. You need a director; you can’t just go flinging things down the hallway every which way,” Tony huffs. Caleb rolls his eyes at me, but all I can do is laugh.

These two bicker like brothers, but I know the love runs deep. This move is going to be hard for both of them.

Tony’s moving upstate to rent a place with his buddy, who’s in a tough spot and needs a roommate, while Caleb and I are moving in together. From uptown and downtown, we’re meeting in the middle, literally and figuratively. Luckily, we found a small two-bedroom apartment, and we’ve decided to use the spare room as an office for my digital marketing agency.

Honestly, I’m really excited. This past year with Caleb has been more than a dream. He’s my best friend, so getting to spend more time with him without worrying about things like being too loud or walking around naked will be amazing.

Of course, I’m a little nervous about decisions like what to make for dinner every night or splitting the bills—yada yada yada. All that not-so-fun stuff. But we’ve talked about it all during our nights together leading up to this. I mean, we’ve been traveling non-stop to each other’s apartments since we got together, so we’ve had the chance to test it out. And the things we haven’t discussed? It’s just part of the fun of figuring it out.

I lean against the elevator wall as it carries us down.

“So, did I hear correctly that Theo’s going to visit Sarah in Australia?” Tony smiles, looking back at me.

I shrug and laugh. “She caught us up on their long-distance ‘friendship’ last night, yeah.”

Caleb smiles at me. “How long do you think before he’s buying himself a ring?”

“I’d give it another month,” Tony smiles at both of us.