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I didn’t have to look to know he was talking about the folks at the other table.
I clinked my bottle to his. “Still do not care. As long as they leave us alone.”
And they did leave us alone.
Maybe they’d be doing us a favor by posting pics all over the internet of us together. Not that we were doing anything overtly couple-y. We were just hanging out.
But I could see the stupid headlines already.
Blake joins Luke in Mexico
Is it to help heal his broken heart after splitting from Vana?
Where’s Blake’s girlfriend?
Bluke is real: witnesses say they looked too cozy to be platonic
Romantic walks on the beach and dinner for two
I sighed and Luke chuckled. “Still not bothered?”
“It’s better here than back home,” I replied. “The fact we could go to the market, we can walk on the beach, make out on the lounge chair. No one cares here.”
“Still don’t wanna go back home?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about that,” I admitted. “It’s not the place I don’t want to go back to. It’s me. I don’t wanna go back to the old me. I’m not that guy anymore. Who I was. Me, the house at Malibu. That’s not who I am. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I like this version of me. With you. No worries. No problems. Just us.”
“No Atrous.”
“Exactly.”
He stared at me, and maybe I’d replied to that too quickly. But it was the truth.
I looked him right in the eye. “It’s not who I am anymore.”
He nodded slowly, his brow furrowing. “Okay? So, then what?”
“I’m gonna sell the house in Malibu. And buy something here with you.”
He couldn’t hide his surprise. “Oh, you are, are you?”
“Yep. It was your idea before and it’s perfect. And we’ll have our own studio. Where we can make our own music. And do what we want. Make what we want, release what we want. No Arlo Kim, no schedules running us into the ground, not caring if it almost kills us.”
“No dance practice,” he added.
That made me laugh. “Fuck no. Never again.”
“I haven’t missed that.”
I shook my head. “Me either.”
He was quiet for a moment. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
It wasn’t a question. “One hundred percent. Do you not want that? New house, new music. New life. With me?”
“Of course I do. That sounds perfect.”
I kinda got the feeling he wanted to say more, but the waiter slid our pizza on the table and our conversation was forgotten.
