“Babe?”
I heard Roque’s deep voice rumble through my cluttered apartment, a hint of wariness in his voice, probably because he’d found the door open and I was nowhere to be seen. I could imagine how he’d linger at the door, hand sneaking under his shirt to rest on his abdomen, awkwardly hovering as he wondered whether or not to he wanted to know what on earth I was doing.
“’m ’ere,” I mumbled against my hand, which was squashed right up against my mouth. Currently, my other arm was being tugged down by a force greater than gravity, and one of my legs rested way high up whilst the other struggled to keep my whole body afloat.
“Um,” I heard Roque mutter to himself, “you are here, right?” He started to wander about the apartment, looking through various cupboards and such by the sound of it. That struck me as silly; I wasn’t that thin, so as to fit in there. “I know you’re nervous about meeting my famalam, but there’s no need to hide.”
I sucked in as much breath as I could against the palm of my hand, then called out relatively loudly, “I’m here!” It was still somewhat muffled, but I knew he heard me from the sound of skidding shoes against the floor. A mere few seconds later, my closet doors were flung open and Roque was staring at me.
He burst out laughing almost straight away.
The sight of me, caught by various hangers and handbags in my closet, utterly stuck with my limbs pulled in all different directions, was apparently too hilarious to my boyfriend for him to bother helping me. For a good few minutes he just guffawed, and by the time he’d relatively calmed down, he was wiping tears from his red eyes.
“ ’ou’re a li’le ’hit,” I told him, but that just set him off again, as he gasped with deep laughter. He sounded like a hissing kettle as he rasped. I sucked in another huge lungful of air. “Dumbass.”
When he had finally calmed down, he taunted, “That’s what you wasted your breath on? To call me names?” as he was now able to speak like a normal human being. He smirked. “I know if you move, you’ll rip your favourite cardigan, so I’d be careful, honey.”
I glared at him, omitting chuckles as he moved forward to help me. First, he carefully untangled a thread from my jumper from a hanger, then glided a warm hand up my leg before moving it to the floor of my closet in a gentle motion. I was able to unwrap my other sleeve from a stray handbag myself.
“What were you even trying to get?” he asked, looking at me like I was crazy.
“Oh, that dark green tote bag I chucked towards the back,” I said.
“You mean the one I bought you?”
“Yes.” Then, waving him off, I added, “But I only threw it for safe-keeping.”
“Oh, of course.” He sat down on my bed, tugging me by the hand in the process so that I sort of fell into his lap. I didn’t mind. “Y’know, someone told me about this new thing the other day. It’s where you kind of, I don’t know, move things. To get to other things. Said it made it easier not to launch yourself into wardrobes?”
I gently threaded my hand into his thick, black hair, whilst my other rested on his arm; the curls were a bit tighter since he’d obviously just washed it. “Shut up, smartass.”
I had just been about to kiss him when he said, “I thought I was a dumbass?”
I huffed, standing up. He tried to encase his strong arms around my waist but I merely stepped back, having none of it. “We could’ve had sex before we left,” I told him with my eyebrows raised. “But you just ruined it, right there.”
