The Rules of Dating

Is it just me or is the sun shining brighter today?

Colby wanted me to spend the night at his place yesterday, but I insisted he take Saylor home alone and decompress. I’d promised we’d get together tonight instead. Giving him space, even if he didn’t want it, was the right call. What he’d been through—thinking Saylor had been kidnapped—was traumatic as hell. I wanted him to spend quality time with her and not worry about me. Because if I knew Colby, he would’ve spent last night trying to make up for lost time and apologizing for everything.

I was grateful that I’d only found out about the false alarm after the fact. Believing Saylor could have been in harm’s way would have given me a heart attack. I’d been so confused when Maya had dropped her off at my shop. I still couldn’t get over the fact that Colby had to spend those minutes thinking Maya had fled with his precious little girl.

But today was a new day.

With Maya headed back to Ecuador—not far enough, if you ask me—the worst seemed to be over. But I knew there was still a lot looming. We didn’t know whether Maya’s confession would clear Colby of wrongdoing. He was still responsible for trying to deceive the authorities, even if she had been holding a virtual gun to his head. So part of me was still holding my breath.

As I readied to leave the shop and head upstairs after my last client, Deek wished me well.

“Hey,” he said. “You finally made it to the other side of that freaking mess. So try to enjoy tonight, alright? Save the heavy discussions for another time. You guys deserve some peace. Just enjoy each other.”

“Thank you. I’m gonna try.”

“And I called your appointments tomorrow and personally let them know I’m gonna take care of them. Just enjoy the night and sleep in. Take the day off.”

Still on cloud nine, I agreed—which was so unlike me. “I’m not even gonna argue with you, Deek.”

He winked. “You’re learning.”

“Thank you, my friend.” I hugged him goodbye.

As I took the elevator up to have dinner with Colby and Saylor, I felt oddly jittery. It had been a while since I’d been at their apartment. And Saylor still didn’t know the true reason I’d been away. I’d gotten a vibe from her last night that she felt a bit cautious around me, as if she wasn’t sure to trust that I wouldn’t leave them again. She hadn’t been as excited to see me as I’d thought she might have been. It was understandable, but it sucked to have to earn her trust back. Was I supposed to act like nothing had happened? I felt like I owed her more of an explanation for why I’d been gone. But any explanation would be a lie, and I wasn’t comfortable with that, either. Maybe less would be more.

I knocked on the door, but it wasn’t Colby who answered.

Brayden stood there instead, and my first reaction was panic.

“Brayden, what’s going on?”

“Hey, Billie.” He smiled. “You look worried to see me. Don’t be.”

“Is everything okay?”

Before he could answer, Saylor came running toward me. “Billie!”

I knelt and extended my arms wide, so happy that she seemed more excited than yesterday. “Hey, sweetie! How are you?”

She hugged me. “Are you back now?”

“I am, honey.”

Saylor squeezed me tighter. “Good!”

“Where’s Daddy?” I asked her.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, but seemed to be stifling a smile.

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t know?”

She bounced on her feet. “I’m not supposed to tell you we made pizza for you, and Daddy took it with him!”

Now I was even more confused. “Pizza for me?”

“Thanks a lot, Saylor.” Brayden laughed.

I looked up at him. “Where’s Colby?”

“He’s arranged a little private something for the two of you. We already explained to Saylor that she gets to hang out with Uncle Brayden tonight while you and Colby catch up.” He pulled on one of her pigtails. “Which of course makes her a very lucky girl.”

“Oh… Colby said he and I were going to have dinner with Saylor.”

“Yeah, well. Change of plans. He thought you guys should have some alone time.” Brayden winked and handed me an envelope.

I opened it and read the piece of paper inside.

You once implied that you’d like to have dinner on the rooftop. I thought tonight would be nice for that. Take the elevator to the top floor, then turn right to access the stairwell to the roof.

“Oh my gosh,” I murmured.

“Well, you’d better not keep my boy waiting.” He winked.

“Thanks, Brayden.”

“You guys stay out as long as you need to.” He gave me a look.

I hugged Saylor goodbye and headed down the hall. Chills ran down my spine as I got back into the elevator and took it to the top floor. I followed Colby’s instructions to get to the roof, and when I opened the door, the most magnificent sight met my eyes.

Colby was waiting for me. He’d been looking out toward the skyline but turned when he heard the door open. His mouth curved into a smile. He’d set up lanterns, white lights, and heaters—since it was the middle of winter. There were burgundy and red flowers on the table and a bucket of champagne. It was wildly romantic.

“Hi, beautiful. You found me.”

Found him. It certainly felt like we’d lost each other, and this moment marked finding our way back again. He opened his arms, and I rushed to him. He wrapped himself around me, and I basked in the feeling of safety and love as he held me.

Finally.

We fell into a warm and passionate kiss. I hadn’t realized just how hungry I’d been for it until our tongues collided. “You didn’t have to do all this…” I breathed after a moment.

He rubbed my bottom lip with his thumb. “It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to be the boyfriend you deserve. I know we have a lot to discuss, a lot to repair in our relationship. But tonight, I want to show you how much you mean to me. I hope it’s the first of many more dinners on this rooftop we get to have together.”

I noticed a table of hot foods set up in the corner. “What did you do over here?”

“Just a few of your favorite things.”

I lifted one of the stainless tops to find little meatballs.

“They’re the IKEA ones you love,” he said.

The other tray contained square slices of all kinds of homemade pizza.

“Saylor and I made the pizzas together.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “She told me.”

“Ah. She did? Little blabbermouth.”

“She tried to keep it in for all of three seconds.” I laughed.

“Do you remember what we ate the night Maya showed up and turned our world upside down?” he asked.

I wracked my brain. “No, I guess I don’t.”

“That was the night we made the pizzas with Saylor.”

“Oh, that’s right! Of course. How could I forget?”

He smiled. “I often think about how that pizza dinner with you and Saylor was the last normal memory I had before my world changed. That day, that pizza dinner, was the last night I was able to exist without living in constant fear of losing everything that ever mattered to me. I can’t tell you how many times I wished I could go back to that night and take up where we left off, before that knock on the door.” He exhaled. “So the pizza is a symbol of picking up the pieces and going back to exactly where we left off—to that simple night when we had so much hope for the future.”

I looked him in the eyes. “I actually don’t wish we could go back, Colby.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“Really…” I caressed his cheek. “I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past several weeks. Being apart from you showed me what I value the most in this life: family—not the one I was born into, the one I chose. What bothered me more than anything was that Maya was getting to spend time with the two people I care about the most, the two people who have become my world. It was never about her or what she got to have. My frustration and anger had to do with what I was missing.”

“I get that, baby.” He ran his hand through my hair. “I so get that.”

“In the end, we can’t definitively say we’d be better off if this whole thing had never happened. We don’t know that. Things happen for reasons we sometimes don’t understand. All I do know is I might not be here on this rooftop with you right now if everything hadn’t happened the way it did. And I’m really grateful for this moment.”

Colby’s eyes glistened. “This night is different than I imagined it would be.”

I tilted my head. “How so? What did you imagine?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. I thought you might still be a little mad at me for that day you saw me laughing.”

“No.” I laughed. “A wise man named Eddie Muscle helped me understand what was bothering me with all that. It was never about the laugh. It was my own insecurities. You deserve to be happy. I just always want to be a part of your happiness.”

“C’mere.” Colby brought me into a tight embrace and spoke into my hair. “I felt like I needed to say so many things to you tonight, but you’ve just said everything I could ever hope for. How the fuck did I get so lucky?”

I reached up to kiss him and patted his shoulder. “Let’s eat before everything gets cold.”

We plated our food and sat down under the beautiful Manhattan night sky. We devoured the pizza and meatballs and broke open the champagne, laughing when it exploded all over Colby’s sleeve. It felt euphoric. And now also a little tipsy.

“Do you want dessert? I made you some spinach brownies.” He smiled.

“Mmm… I’ll definitely be having one. But there’s something I need even more right now.”

His eyes filled with lust. “I wonder if it’s the same thing I want.”

I looked behind me. “Does that door lock?”

“It sure does. And if it didn’t, I’d figure out a way to jury-rig it shut.” Colby took out a key and scurried over to lock the door.

He returned, lifting me as I wrapped my legs around him. We kissed like we depended on each other for oxygen. The wind blew our hair. This felt like something out of a movie: we were about to have rooftop sex under the stars surrounded by magnificent lights. It was so intimate and beautiful.

Colby’s erection dug into my abdomen. “It feels like it’s been forever,” he mumbled over my lips.

“I need you now, Colby.” I panted. “Right fucking now.”

He undid his pants just low enough so his cock sprang out. He lifted my skirt and pushed my panties aside, entering me in one swift movement.

I briefly shut my eyes in ecstasy as he wrapped his hand around the back of my neck. His eyes sparkled under the white lights as he gazed at me while he moved in and out. I threaded my fingers through his thick hair, loving the look on his gorgeous face while he fucked me. I bucked my hips, and my clit rubbed against his lower abs. I could’ve come at any moment if I’d let myself. It had simply been too damn long.

Still carrying me, he walked over to a leather couch at the far end of the rooftop and sat down with me on top of him. I began to ride him hard and fast—angrily. Angry not at him, but only for the time we’d lost. While everything had ended the way it was meant to, time lost together was one thing we could never get back.

His eyes were hazy as he looked up at me. “I was so fucking scared to lose you,” he whispered.

“You own me, Colby,” I said, bearing down harder on his cock. “You never lost me.”

That seemed to set him off, because almost as soon as I said it, his eyes rolled back.

“I love you so fucking much, Billie.” He groaned as his body shook beneath me. He pumped harder as his hot cum filled me.

“I love you, too.” I clenched my muscles and let my orgasm rocket through me. “I missed feeling your cum inside me.”

“Keep saying stuff like that, and I’ll be ready for round two in three, two, one…” He paused. “I’m ready again.” He slapped my ass.

He wrapped us in a blanket he’d brought, and we lay together for a long time, sated from that amazing sex, which was fast and furious—exactly what I needed after so much time apart.

As we looked up at the stars, I wasn’t sure what compelled me to risk ruining the mood. But I had to ask. “Did she ever try anything on you?”

He took a couple of seconds to process. “Maya, you mean?” He shook his head. “Not directly. There was one night, though, when she asked if she could watch me brush my teeth to get a feel for my nighttime routine, so I went along with it. Then she wouldn’t leave and suggested she spend the night in my room…you know, to learn more about my sleeping habits.”

Ugh. I stiffened. “What did you say?”

“I told her to get the fuck out.”

I smiled. “She listened?”

“Yup. And she never tried anything like that again.”

“She probably figured men are weak and she could get you to fall for it.”

“I might have been a weak person when she met me, but I’m nothing like that now. You couldn’t have paid me all the money in the world to sleep with that woman.” He looked at me. “Since we’re asking the uncomfortable questions, I should ask you about your date with that Eddie guy.”

Colby was only half-smiling, so I couldn’t tell if he was mad or not.

“It wasn’t a date—I promise you that. Eddie’s just a friend and always will be. He helped me get over my anger after running into you at the subway.”

“He may be your friend…” Colby rolled his eyes. “But there’s no way he’s not trying to get into your pants. I don’t care what you say.”

I shrugged. He was probably right. “Anyway, I felt bad that Brayden saw me saying goodbye to him. I was afraid you’d get the wrong idea.”

“I knew deep down that you wouldn’t cheat on me. But like you said, it reminded me of what I was missing. When Brayden told me he saw you, I punched a hole in my bedroom wall.”

I covered my mouth. “Oh my God.”

“Yeah. Holden was pissed. He said I’m only allowed to wreck the walls again if it’s during sex.”

“I’m sorry you got upset.”

“It’s all good now.”

Colby’s phone buzzed. He looked down at it for a few seconds. “Jesus,” he muttered.

“What’s going on? Who is it?”

“Brayden.” He turned the phone toward me so I could read it.

Brayden: I know you guys must be “busy,” but Saylor keeps asking if she’s gonna get to say goodnight to Billie. I think she’s still a little paranoid about Billie not coming back. Not sure if you guys want me to keep her up or not so you can say goodnight. Also, everything is fine, but we had a little incident where Saylor grabbed my phone while I was in the bathroom and started looking through my photos. She happened to come across a nude selfie this chick sent me. So, I lied and told her I was taking a medical school class and had been studying anatomy. She didn’t question the fact that I am not in medical school. But as a result of our discussion, I am now desperately in need of a stiff drink, so if you feel like putting me out of my misery, I’d be game.

“Oh, Lord.” I shook my head.

“Well, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been Holden’s phone.” Colby laughed.

I sighed. “That’s very true.”

“What do you think?” he asked. “We should probably go save him, huh?”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “I think we should go tuck Saylor in together. I want to read her a story.”

“She’ll love that so much.” He smiled.

“And then I want to tuck you in after that.” I winked.

He kissed my neck. “I definitely have something to tuck inside you.”