Page 22 of Never Been Shipped

“I didn’t know you were a Batman guy.”

“I’m not.”

“But you—”

He punched his pillow, rolling over until he was facing her. It was too dark to make out any details of her expression, but he could hear her breathing.

“My housemates gave them to me,” he said. “One of them, anyway.”

“Your housemate?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I share a house with some other people—Elliot, Kiki, and then Asa and Lauren. Asa gave me these, and knowing him it was some kind of joke, although I have no idea what the punch line was supposed to be. Just that I look goofy in them? No clue.”

“You’re kinda mysterious like Batman,” Micah said. “You have an alter ego. I don’t know. I don’t think you look goofy.”

John didn’t know what to say to that.

“So that’s…who you watch your TV shows with?”

She must still be half-asleep, because she wasn’t making much sense. “My housemates? Yeah, we watch TV together sometimes.”

“Ah,” she said. “That’s nice.”

Itwasnice, not that John thought about it much. He supposed it was the kind of thing you took for granted after a while—having people you could hang out with, share things with even if they were as superficial as a dating reality show you were all invested in watching together. Somehow it didn’t feel superficial, when you had people who looked forward to you coming home and wanted to hear your opinions on whatever had happened. It was friendship, in a way that John realized he hadn’t had since those days of hanging out with Micah in herroom, going to shows together, talking late at night after everyone else had gone to bed just like this. That had felt so comforting then. It felt dangerous now.

“Let’s get some sleep,” John said. “You said it yourself, tomorrow’s a big day.”

Chapter

Twelve

When Micah wokeup, it took a minute for her to orient herself to her surroundings. For one thing, it wasdark. For another, there was a strange sound in the air, almost more an absence of sound than a sound itself. It was like being inside an echo.

But the main thing was that she’d woken up next to a man. And not just any man, she realized as everything came rushing back to her at once—John. Her onetime best friend, her bandmate, her biggest regret. She’d shared a bed with John last night.

And this morning, he had an arm casually draped over her shoulder, his hand palming her bare breast.

She could control the amount of touch just by breathing. Inhale, and she swelled to fit his hand, the contact warm and all-encompassing, feeling like hemeantit. Exhale, and it was barely a tickle, her nipple hard and wanting against his palm, begging for more.

And speaking of hard and wanting…she could feel him against the back of her, the ridge of his erection unmistakable where it pressed against her ass through the thin fabric of hispajamas, her underwear. She wanted to press back, to push against him just to see what would happen. She wanted to take his hand and close it around her breast, give it a decisive squeeze that saidYes, this is real.

But she knew that none of that was a good idea. If John woke up now, no doubt he’d be mortified to be caught in this kind of position—it wasn’t like hewantedit. They’d just drifted toward each other while sleeping, and then his body had taken over…

God, his body could take her all the way over. She suddenly wanted John to fuck her with a desperation that was almost painful.

This wasJohnshe was having these thoughts about. It had to just be the shock of being near him again, after all those years, the way he felt like the same boy she’d always known and like a man who was a complete stranger to her. Even the weight of his arm felt different, the ridges of veins over the muscle of his forearm, the light dusting of dark hair. She wasn’t meant to be noticing all of these new details about him.

She had to get out of his room. She had to get out of hisbed.

Micah slid out from underneath his arm, listening to hear if she’d woken him. But he was still breathing the heavy, deep rhythm that told her he was out. She felt along the carpet next to the bed until she came across her bra, then shuffled carefully forward until she was able to grab the rest of her clothes and disappear into the bathroom to freshen up. He’d helpfully looped her bag on the handle of the door leading back out to the hallway, and she double-checked to make sure it had everything inside, including her phone, before opening the door to make her escape.

The strip of light from the hallway illuminated John on thebed, his tousled black curls spread out over his pillow, the covers pushed down to where she could see the back of his elbow. She wondered if he’d notice that she’d left, if there was a chance he’d been dreaming of her. All fanciful thoughts, and she shut the door before she could get lost too far down a labyrinth of them.

—

By the timeMicah was due to the Starlight Theater for rehearsals, she’d gotten herself back under control. She’d found someone to let her into her room—to locate her room in the first place. She’d showered, changed into new clothes, and sat out on her balcony with a cup of tea just in time to watch the sun rise. It really was incredible, that this time yesterday she’d been sleeping in a Miami hotel and now here she was, on a ship in the middle of the ocean watching the first light of day come over the horizon.

The ship seemed to have stabilized from the night before, which she was grateful for, and although it was still a little chilly, it had been pleasant enough for her to enjoy the balcony with her cardigan on.

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