50 Shades Of Claire Bear (Andrew's POV)

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Our kiss runs through my mind, over and over and over. Claire has always occupied my mind rent-free—she owes me a shit ton of money at this point—but now that I've kissed her and I know what it feels like...

I never want to go a second without kissing her.

And we haven't gone many seconds without talking, whether it's on the phone or through texts.

"What are you up to, Claire bear?" I ask her a few nights after that remarkable kiss.

"Eating ice cream and watching Hollie fail miserably at Candy Crush," she laughs.

Please laugh again.

I hear a thumping sound and a faint "Ow."

"Did she just hit you?" I snort.

"You better stop laughing," she says. "Let me guess what you're doing. Eating peanut butter disgustingly out of the jar and imitating Gollum?"

I'm so lucky to have her. "Only one of those is right. I'm eating the peanut butter and reading."

"Are you almost finished?"

"Almost," I say, "two short chapters away."

"How do you know they're short?"

"I checked." I got in the habit of checking how long the chapters in this book were before choosing to keep reading. Some of the chapters were unnecessarily long. Still good, though. "So are you coming over or what?"

"I'm on my way." I hope she's smiling. Based on the tone of her voice, I think she is. "You better have the book finished when I get there," she adds.

"Oh, shit, Claire bear!" I need to get reading...now.

I get the last two chapters finished in fifteen minutes—a personal record. I will admit that I skimmed some of it, though. Claire is more important. She's always more important.

The second I finish, I run down the stairs, getting a frightened look from Dad, and slide into the kitchen. My socks stop me at the fridge, where I grab a few sodas to bring upstairs with me.

"What is the rush?" Addie asks from the table. She's halfway done with a piece of cheesecake.

I point to the cake. "Where did you get that?"

"It's the last piece," she says through a smile.

"Damn it."

Mom looks over her shoulder. "What are you doing with all those sodas?"

"I'm bringing them up to my room for Claire and I—"

Addie chokes on a bite of her cheesecake. "Whoa, Claire's coming over again? You two are dating now, right?"

I wish sometimes she didn't invade every aspect of my life.

Mom puts her hands on my shoulders, excitedly nodding her head at Addie. "Yes, it's finally happening!"

"Mom, will you stop, please? It's not that big of a deal."

Fuck, I'm such a liar. It is a big deal. It is the biggest of deals.

They both laugh. "Yeah, like we believe that. There's no way you're so calm about his after all your pining," Addie says.

Is pining the right word?

Yeah, it probably is.

I sit in the chair across from Addie. "Please, do not ruin this for me. Don't overdo the questions or the 'oh, I can't believe you're dating now, Andrew's been in love with you forever' shit, okay? I finally got her. Please, do not do anything to jeopardize that."