Page 340 of His Virgin Romance Series

“You want to marry him?” Leah asked incredulously.

“Not right away,” I said. “Not immediately obviously… I mean Seth and Mom haven’t even met him yet. Well, Seth’s met him, but he just doesn’t know that he’s my roommate.”

“Um, what?”

“Seth doesn’t know that I met Miles at the fire station,” I explained. “He has no idea that my new roommate is actually his colleague. Well, Miles’s not technically his colleague anymore. He quit today.”

“He’s not a firefighter anymore?”

“Nope.”

“Why did he quit?”

“Well, he wants to transition into the art world and being a firefighter doesn’t give him much time to focus on his work,” I said, realizing how proud of him I was.

“But… how did you even manage to keep this from Seth? Didn’t you visit the station?”

“Not really,” I said. “I mean I dropped off those cupcakes for Mom, which is when I met Miles, but I rarely go around the station. I don’t want to get in their way. Plus I just don’t have the time. Between school and my part-time job, things get a little crazy.”

“I can imagine,” Leah said. “But why haven’t you told Seth yet?”

“Well, at first, it was because I just didn’t want him to freak out on me,” I said. “I wanted to figure out how I felt about Miles without everyone else’s opinions clouding my judgment. Now I actually want to tell everyone and Miles’s nervous. He thinks that Seth won’t approve of us being together.”

“That’s odd.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah… I mean if they’ve worked together and they’re friends… why would Seth have a problem with it?”

“He wouldn’t,” I agreed. “It’s probably just Miles overthinking… he tends to do that sometimes.”

“Now I really want to meet him.”

“You will,” I said, just as Miles came back to the living room. “Ah, Leah… can we finish talking later? I’ve got to get back to my celebration.”

“What are you celebrating?” Leah asked.

“Oh… the ends of finals.”

“Fuck, already?”

“Yep.”

“Nice,” Leah said. “Congrats, hon.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I promise we’ll talk soon.”

“Of course.”

After I’d hung up with Leah, I settled in on Miles’s shoulder. “How did the call go with your mother?” I asked.

Miles sighed. “I couldn’t talk to her.”

“You didn’t call?” I asked, sitting up and looking at him.

Miles hung his head low. “No, I called,” he admitted. “I just… heard her voice and then hung up.”

I smiled sympathetically and pulled him towards me. I kissed his head gently and rubbed his shoulders. “It’s okay,” I said bracingly. “You can try again later when you’re readier.”

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