He shook his head, taking a sip of the wine. “No, they’re Titus’s friends. I’m his platonic plus-one. I’m his drinking buddy, largely because I never turn him down. I’m reliable as a Toyota, right? Knew a dude in college who put two hundred thousand miles on his Camry.”

With an odd tightness in her throat, she touched the back of his hand, and that moment felt more significant than fucking in Danica’s downstairs bathroom, somehow. “But you’re not worried about putting me off? Letting me see the real you.”

“I should be,” he whispered. “But…I’m not. It feels like…”

“What, sweetheart?”

“That you’re my person. That no matter what I say, you won’t judge me. I…trust you.”

***

Before Leanne pulled away, Trev caught her hand where it rested on his and lifted it to brush his lips over her knuckles.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t crack a joke because he might never work up the nerve to say something like that again. But her gaze stayed on his, quiet and steady as a rainy night. “I’ll do my best not to disappoint you,” she said.

“That’s not possible. Everything we’ve done together has turned out, like, a thousand percent better than I expected…or frankly, than it should have, all things considered.”

“I was thinking that too,” she admitted.

“Like, about what?”

“Grabbing business class seats on such short notice for instance. Getting a discount on our gorgeous hotel room. Finding a vacancy at such a pretty chapel and then lucking into same-day tickets for this show. Just…all of it, really.” She cocked her head, a flirty little gesture that never failed to make his heart flutter, and added, “It is pretty magical.”

Trev didn’t quite get why she was smiling so much, and he couldn’t stop staring at her mouth. “Could not agree more.”

If he leaned over the table to kiss her, he’d likely spill the wine. So he contained the urge and just admired how gorgeous she was as the restaurant served their meal in courses. Freaking courses. He thought about how he used to subsist on whatever he could microwave or make on a hot plate. The show started as their dessert arrived, and he loved that too.

Trev had never told anyone that he preferred old music or that he’d gotten into it in a big way after hearing a variety of songs in games like BioShock and Fallout. It was easy to talk to her, a level of comfort he’d never achieved with another partner. He’d never put too much thought into what he wanted from a relationship, but now, one unshakable certainty coalesced:

It shouldn’t feel like work.