Page 26 of Mostly My Boss
“Afraid?”
“Of you?” I laughed. Because, literally, the idea was funny.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
Hard question to answer.
“We’re sleeping, Julia. That’s all.”
Yeah. I wasn’t going to sleep. Still, this seemed like one of those moments. A snippet from my life where I could, see the choice and where that path would lead:
a) Julia left and walked home alone in the cold. Ethan and her slowly drifted apart as friends once the semester ended and he found someone else to take his notes.
b) Julia stayed and their friendship grew even stronger based on mutual trust.
I made my way to the end of the bed and sat. I pulled off my coat and took off my boots.
I lay down on the bed next to him. He got up then, grabbed a sleeping bag off the floor, and stretched it over both of us. As if sensing I might be more comfortable with this arrangement than if we were under the bedcovers.
“Night,” he said, rolling over with his back to me.
“Night,” I said, thinking how strange it felt to be saying those words to someone in the same room with me.
* * *
I woke up thinking it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes since I’d put my head down. I must have drifted off. When I looked around the room, I saw Ethan was up and had showered and changed. Behind him I could see the morning light shining through the window.
“What time is it?” I croaked as I sat up.
“Just seven. Enough time for you to get back and ready for class.”
I’d slept. The whole night. With Ethan?
Pushing the sleeping bag off me, I started toward his bathroom then stopped. “Can I?”
He chuckled. “Unless you prefer peeing your panties.”
I scowled at him and he laughed harder. I peed, washed my hands, then stole some toothpaste to rinse my mouth.
When I came back into the room, he was holding up the Nordstrom bag.
“You saw it last night so you can’t accuse me of using it as a bribe to gain your forgiveness. Here.”
He pushed the bag at me, so I took it.
“I don’t get it. What is it?”
“For you. I didn’t like how you didn’t get anything when we shopped so I went back and tried again. If you don’t like it, I saved the receipt. We can return it and keep looking until we get it right.”
I pulled the soft midnight-blue sweater out of the bag. It was simple with a straight cut along the front, but the back dipped in a gentle scoop. It looked like it would be loose on me, even though, when I checked the label, I saw it was a medium.
Maybe not.
“Try it on.”
I thought of a thousand reasons to protest. I didn’t want him to see my expression if I didn’t like the way it looked. I didn’t want it to be too tight over my boobs so I’d have to feel self-conscious about them.
“Jules, just do it.”
