Because of Haven Beach

bonus b | cafuné

cafuné (v.)

running your fingers through your lover's hair

* * *

(8 weeks after graduation)

THE day before Eli left for college, it was revealed that he hadn't started packing—at all. The only things he had ready were the empty suitcases on his bedroom floor. He was lucky I decided to drop by and check on him.

"Eli, seriously?" I groaned when I walked into his bedroom. He was sitting on his floor in front of the suitcases, surrounded by haphazard piles of wrinkled clothes. "What have you been doing these past few weeks? I thought you said you were packing."

He looked up and grinned at me, "I've been spending time with you."

I sighed and took a seat next to him. "Where's your list?"

"List?"

"Yeah, the list of things you're going to pack..."

"It's up here," he sheepishly admitted, tapping his head.

"You seriously left all of your packing until thirteen hours before you're leaving? You're not coming back to Haven Beach until Thanksgiving. That's almost four months from now."

"Have I told you how much I love you?"

"Many times. I love you, too... So, what's first?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "You tell me, master packer."

I gave him an unimpressed look. "Eli."

"Right. Well, I was trying to put my shirts in, but they don't fit." He motioned to the crumpled piles of clothes surrounding him. "There's too much, and I don't know what to do."

"You are such a guy," I snorted. "You have to fold the shirts, not just shove them in and hope for the best."

"Can you fold it for me?" he asked, innocently batting his eyelashes at me. "Pwease?"

Throwing a balled-up shirt at him, I stuck my tongue out. "I'm not your maid. Do it yourself."

"But I don't know how to," he pouted. "Can you do it?"

"You're turning nineteen in two weeks, and you still don't know how to fold your clothes?"

He slowly nodded his head with a guilty half-smile on his face.

"Who folds your clothes for you?"

"My mom?"

"Lemme guess, she does your laundry too?"

His face turned bright red, telling me that I was correct.

"Aww, Baby Ewi is going off into the real world," I cooed, mussing his hair. "Between you and Ben, your dorm is going to be a pigsty."

"Well, it's a good thing that pigs are cute. Right?"

"Yep," I sighed. "It's a good thing you're cute." I grabbed a shirt and gave him a quick demonstration of how to properly fold shirts. My three years of working at a clothing boutique in Chicago finally paid off. "Do you think you can handle folding the rest? Or is that too much for your tiny athlete brain?"