2.8 | Miles Away

28 | twenty-eight

A/N

A huge thank you to those of you who nominated Miles Away in The Fiction Awards! I am very flattered just to have you think of my book worth a nomination. As a thank you, here's... well, you'll see.

x Noelle

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28

twenty-eight

the one with all the sex

"YOU DID NOT!" I took my eyes off the road to shoot Miles an incredulous stare.

Ever the gentleman, he'd offered to send me back after dinner. I'd insisted on driving and he'd good-naturedly agreed. Through the evening, we spoke about things we knew about each other and things we never did. Now we were on the topic of 'Biggest Fuck-ups in our Relationship that the Other Person Never Knew About'.

To my horror, I'd found out that my Valentine's day gift to him six years ago turned out to be a curse.

"I did," Miles said, his lips lifting in a wry smile. "I knew from the first bite that something was wrong."

"And you still ate it all?"

"You made it. I didn't want to throw them out."

I let out an incredulous laugh. "So you threw them up?"

"All night. My dad found me hugging the toilet, with the empty box of cookies beside me. And he said, 'You must really love this girl, huh?' I think that was the moment my dad started to support our relationship."

I beamed at him, until I realized I'd basically given him food poisoning on the most romantic day of the year. "I'm sorry about the cookies, by the way. And I've improved a lot since then. Chocolate fudge cookies for the New Year's Eve party? That was me. You didn't get sick from that, did you?"

"Fortunately not."

Was he teasing? I shot him a sideway glance and noticed his lips twitch. I parked the car in the driveway and turned, ready to thank him, but he insisted on walking me up. I bit back a smile and climbed out of the car.

Miles slowed his pace to match mine as we headed to the lobby. "To be honest, I messed up one other occasion as well."

"Did you?"

"Yeah. It was your twentieth birthday. Remember how I told you I'd forgotten to bring your present and later gave you this blue anklet?"

"Remember?" I lifted my foot a little to show him the silvery-blue cord around my ankle. "I still wear it often."

I could almost feel the heat of his gaze burn into my skin. His eyes flicked back up to mine, a wordless question in them. I knew what it was he wanted to ask—Why do you still wear it? My cheeks burned and I lowered my foot.

Thankfully, the elevator doors opened just then. He placed a hand on the door to let me through before he stepped in himself. I hit the button for the top floor and watched as the doors slid close.

Miles cleared his throat and continued, "Right, so, I'd originally had this other present planned. You wanted a hamster, remember? I'd bought you one of those—a winter white dwarf, barely a few weeks old. I parked several streets away to stick a red ribbon on the little guy, when he...ran out on me," he finished, with a wince.

My eyes widened. "No."

"It was a very busy street."

"No!"

"Good thing I didn't name him, right?"

"Are you sure?"

He bit his lip, looking adorably boyish for a moment. "Sir Cotton Fluffbutt," he muttered at last.

A bubble of laughter escaped me. I didn't know whether to be horrified that he'd indirectly killed a baby hamster, or amused by the name he'd given to it. "We're really bad at special occasions, aren't we?" I mused. "I gave you food poisoning and you let my birthday present be roadkill."

He gave a low chuckle as we stepped out of the elevator. "I don't know. Presents aside, those days turned out to be pretty great in the end."

"Oh, yeah. You drove me to the park where we had a picnic. The food was good and you got us a Merlot even though I wasn't legal yet. And then afterwards..." I trailed off, my cheeks pinking again as a vivid memory surfaced in my mind.

Miles shot me a sideway glance. "Sex in the car?"

"It was hot, wasn't it?"

"One of our bests."

"I'll say this—you really do your research. And you're great at the practical stuff too."

It was his turn to blush. "The one on Valentine's day wasn't too bad, either."

"In the library?" I asked, as we came to a stop outside my apartment. He nodded and I laughed. "Oh, yes. I think that was when I began to really appreciate books. And remember the last week of summer?"

"Sex on the beach?"

"Yeah, that one. It was..."

An awkward silence fell between us, until he broke it. "That one wasn't great, was it?"

"It was so bad!" I exclaimed, relieved that he'd thought the same. "I mean, not you, you were great. But sex on the damned beach? All my life, my old friends told me how fantastic it'd be, but it wasn't!"

He grimaced. "It was pretty rough on my knees..."

"Not to mention the fact that I got sand everywhere, and I do mean everywhere."

"Mostly, I was just worried about any sea creatures that could bite my bits off," he admitted.

I let out a peal of laughter at that. He did as well, a low and husky one that turned my insides to liquid. Just recalling those times had opened a floodgate of memories I hardly ever let myself think about. Because to think about them was to remember a time that had long since passed.

My smile faded and so did his. I studied him—his blue eyes darker than ever under the dim light; his expression closed-off even though his cheeks were flushed. I let out a slow breath and looked down at my feet. Anywhere but at him.

Because if I did, I knew I'd be lost.

Still, I couldn't stop the words from bubbling out of my mouth. "We were great together, weren't we?"

A slight pause followed my words. But then his shoes crossed my line of vision and I looked up, startled to find him so near to me. He stood close enough that I had to lift my head to meet his gaze, and he surprised me when he brought his hand up to my cheek.

My heart leapt to my throat; it felt like all the oxygen had been ripped right out of me. He brushed his thumb gently along my jaw and lowered his head. His lips were a hairsbreadth away from mine as he whispered, "We still are."

Then he kissed me.