Free The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs by Sheralyn Pratt

feet for impact.”
    He set her down lightly before opening the door for her to slide into the seat. Her feet didn’t even touch the floor mat before her shoes came off and Grace gave a sigh of relief.
    “ Ay, mis piecitos,” she muttered under her breath as she leaned against the headrest. If the awkward silence between her and Phillip continued there was every possibility she would doze off on the way home.
    Phillip said nothing as he started the car, then stayed silent for several minutes as they made the journey. Grace rested until they were nearly to her place.
    “So, I don’t see you again until next Tuesday?” he asked, pulling onto her street.
    Grace opened her eyes and nodded. “That’s the next time our schedules line up, yes.”
    “Yeah… that seems to be happening less and less often these past couple of months, hasn’t it?”
    It was a question that wasn’t a question. It was a reference to the elephant in the room, and the very problem Esme had been harping on the night before.
    Grace felt herself tense and she turned to look at him. “Are you saying that’s on me?”
    “No,” he said. “It’s on both of us. I’m busy. You’re busy. We’re both busy. I’m not playing a blame game here. I’m just saying it would be less of an issue if I wasn’t taking you to your own place tonight. It would be easier if, at the end of the day, you and I came home to the same place.”
    She looked back at the road. “You know how I feel about that.”
    “I know, I know. We’ve had the conversation a thousand times. You don’t believe in living together before marriage, and I don’t feel comfortable proposing until I know we can live together.”
    Grace laid her hand over his and gave it a light, playful squeeze. “As long as we have separate bathrooms, everything should be fine, papi .”
    He shook his head. “There’s more to living together than separate bathrooms, Grace.”
    “But that’s near the top of the list,” she said playfully. He didn’t bite.
    “I just feel like the longer we’re together, the farther we drift apart and that’s backwards of how things should be.” He glanced away from the road to meet her eyes for a moment. “I want to be with you, babe. Every night.”
    Grace let go of his hand. “So I should just move in and be the woman that’s handy?”
    He let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
    “Then what are you saying? I’m listening.”
    Phillip put both hands on the steering wheel and out of her reach. “I’m saying meet me half way here, Grace. Move in with me. Let us be together at the end of the day.”
    She folded her arms. “And how is that ‘meeting you half way’?”
    “Because you’ve never lived with a boyfriend before, and I think you’ll like it.”
    “Uh-huh,” Grace drawled. “But you’ve lived with women before.”
    He nodded. “Yes.”
    “And how many times have you been married?”
    Phillip shook his head. “That’s not the point.”
    “Isn’t it?” she shot back. “You’ve lived with three women, Phil, and married exactly none of them. How does that not prove my point that living with you brings us no closer to marriage? All it does is make me more sexually available to you.”
    He laughed out loud at that. “Well, it’s not like you could be less available. We haven’t had sex in three weeks.”
    “Again, not entirely my fault,” she pointed out. “You’re the one scheduling our nights so that business always comes first. That’s not on me.”
    “The fact that we’re not living together is.”
    Grace felt her blood start to heat with temper. “Do you hear yourself right now? It’s my fault that I’m not just lying in your bed waiting to be woken up when you get done at the restaurant? I have work, too, you know. You get home between 12:00 and 1:00 a.m., and I get up at 5:00. I think it’s completely reasonable that we sleep in separate beds.”
    “We used to make it work,” he pointed