by M. A. Innes
But it hadn’t meant that he’d approved. Nope. Gabriel had very strong feelings about lots of things like that. I thought it was nice that he worried so much about me. Allie had walked in one time on a conversation where he was calmly reminding me just how important sleep was and pointing out that I hadn't had enough so I shouldn’t stay out too late.
I thought it had made sense. I’m easily distracted if it doesn’t involve work. Allie didn’t think it was sweet. She was actually kind of weirded out. She said it was clingy and that he had no boundaries. She might have kept going but I tuned out after that and started making sure I kept them all more separate.
Hadn't I read somewhere, though, that it was a sign of like an abusive boyfriend or something when you started keeping friends away? That wasn’t how it felt. Gabriel wasn’t mean to me. He just had different ways of showing I was important. I liked that.
So I kept Allie and everyone away from the house and made sure we hung out at other places. We didn’t stop going out and Gabriel never gave me any indication that he thought I shouldn’t go out. He just made sure when I was coming home, reminded me not to stay out too late, that kind of stuff.
What had we been talking about?
Gabriel must have seen the confusion on my face. He got this lopsided smile and just shook his head. Leaning down he grabbed my hands and hauled me off the couch. Oh, sleep. That’s right.
“You were sending me to bed. Now I remember.”
He just coughed a little and shook his head again. “Come on. Bedtime for you.” He kept one of my hands as he walked me down the hall, towards the stairs.
“I’m not a kid.”
“The last time I sent you to bed when you were this tired I ended up finding you on the bathroom floor. You’d sat down for just a minute, God only knows why, and had forgotten to get up. We’re not doing that again. You scared the hell out of me. I thought you were dead or something.” He was giving me the no-nonsense look again.
“Oh. I forgot about that.” I had the ability to fall asleep anywhere when I was tired. The bathroom floor hadn't been that bad. We had heated tiles, so they were warm. “Maybe you have a point.”
“I know I do.” He gave me another funny grin. “Now off to bed.”
We made it up the stairs and stopped at the bathroom door. “You have five minutes, then I’m coming in to find you.”
I went in without arguing. Allie would say boundary issues, but he had been really freaked out over the whole bathroom sleeping thing. It was just his way of showing me he was concerned. It was kind of sweet. I realized that most people wouldn’t think so, but I wasn’t planning on telling anyone.
Having Gabriel outside the door kept me on track and I was done in just a couple of minutes. Nothing like my usual ten to fifteen. He gave me a funny grin when I came out of the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure what I’d done to make him so happy.
I’d figure it out when I wasn’t so tired.
“Come on, Nate. You’re exhausted.” Gabriel took my hand again and led me to my bedroom. “If I leave you here to finish getting ready by yourself, am I going to find you sleeping at your desk or on the floor in the morning?”
“Of course not.” But that wasn’t a believable answer and we both knew it. Another time I’d been on a crazy deadline, he’d found me the next morning sleeping on the floor by the bed. The next day I’d come down with the flu. So maybe he had a point. “I’ll try not to.”
That was a more realistic promise.
It evidently wasn’t enough. Gabriel just shook his head like he thought I was absurd and gestured towards the bed. “Where are your pajamas?”
I didn’t like sleeping naked so I wore cotton sleep pants. Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t like sleeping naked, it just seemed like something you shouldn’t do when you had a roommate. Gabriel was the first roommate to last a long time. I was still working out some of the social rules, but I think that had to be one of them. Right? It must have taken me too long to answer because Gabriel just went over to the dresser and started opening up drawers.
“They’re—”
“Here we go.”
He found them before I could say anything. I could hear Allie talking about boundaries in the back of my head but I just ignored her. Bossy and judgmental in my head but not that bad in real life. Honest.
It didn’t seem to occur to Gabriel to leave and let me change by myself. It was probably the bathroom thing again. And I was too tired to care. So I just started stripping off clothes and getting ready for bed. It was all routine at this point so I didn’t even have to think. In minutes I had my sleep pants on and was climbing into bed.
For just a moment, as Gabriel was watching me get under the covers, I almost wanted to ask him to tuck me in. It just seemed right but I managed to stop myself. See, I had some common sense. It was probably just some leftover thing from childhood. Like when parents get you ready for bed. He wouldn’t have said no anyway. He was understanding like that.
But I wasn’t going to press my luck on it. At some point, he had to get tired of taking care of me. Right?
Gabriel watched me lay down and then walked over to the door, turning off the lights. “Night, Nathan.”
I had a thought. “Oh, my alarm.”
He chuckled, “Nathan, tomorrow is Saturday.”
“That’s right.” When did I forget it was Friday?
“Go to bed.” He sounded like a frustrated parent telling an overtired kid to go to sleep. It made me giggle a little.
“Okay. Night.” He was right. I needed sleep.
Too many random thoughts and worries. Tomorrow my head would be clearer and I wouldn’t be concerned about things that didn’t matter. Like labels and weird relationships without boundaries. I didn’t need a label and I didn’t want a normal relationship with Gabriel.
Flawed Perfection
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ96GHM/
Release Date May 1st 2017