“Good morning.” He chimes as he pours himself coffee. I grab a cup from the cabinet and pour myself some. “Are you usually up this early?” I ask as he sits down on the counter stool. 

“Yeah. Why? Are you surprised?” A little bit but also not really. He’s completely unpredictable and I don’t have a read on him. You can usually tell how someone acts or reacts to things within a couple of weeks of knowing them. With him, it’s not like that. If he told me he was an early bird, I’d say yeah that makes sense. If he told me he slept until 2 pm every day, I’d say yeah that makes sense. Everything about him is an enigma that draws me closer to him and leaves me wanting to know more. 

I can’t remember the last time I was up past 1 am. I have a strict sleeping schedule. In bed by 10:00, asleep by 10:45, and up by 5:30. Unless I have a shoot that lasts the entire day, I haven’t deviated from that in years. Until last night.

After the movie, we spent the next 2 hours talking but I still know less about him than I’d like. I’d ask him questions about himself but all of his answers were one sentence. When I tried to pry a bit, he’d ask me something about myself and then have 10 more questions on top of everything I said. Whenever I circled the conversation back to him it’d repeat. One sentence reply, 10 questions about me. His questions were thoughtful and he seemed interested in every word I had to say so I don’t think he was entirely doing it to divert attention from himself. Eventually, I stopped asking him questions and he spent the rest of the time asking me all about my childhood. 

He has a wall up but I can tell he has a vulnerable side. And that’s the side I want to see. But I don’t want to pressure him for it. If he wants to open up to me, he will. 

“No, but our shoot isn’t until noon. You could’ve slept in a little.” I let him know that the designers expedited a whole new set of the clothes we lost which arrived this morning. 

He gives an innocent shrug and walks over to the couch. “I was lonely up there all by myself.” His loose shirt hangs partially off of his shoulder, exposing his collarbones. On impulse I find myself following him but then pivot down the hallway towards the showers after realizing I probably smell like a wet dog. 

——

Our shoot goes off without a hitch. Mother Nature finally showed mercy on us because an hour before, it stopped raining and the sun came out. 

He’s modeling clothes for a streetwear fashion brand and this was the first time I took photos of Leo outside. I wasn’t sure how he would be but he was as confident as he usually is, even more so. I can tell he’s starting to feel more comfortable even though when we started he was already a natural. 

But today felt different. I can’t remember the last time I felt like this. I’ve never been tired of my work, don’t get me wrong. But over the last year, I’ve started feeling less excited. It’s as if I’ve already done everything. That’s why I was considering taking the job that was offered to me after the exhibition.

Now I can confidently say that Leo reignited that passion in me.

The way he moved on the sidewalk, glancing back at me, turning around, posing, walking again, doing another pose. I could barely keep up. 

He jumped up on raised barriers along the walkway, striking a pose with every movement. I was smiling so hard I thought my cheeks would stay permanently raised. When he asked me the art direction I told him to just have fun and he knocked that out of the park. We finished before sunset and got dinner nearby before heading back. Leo was dozing in and out of sleep the entire ride home which made me feel bad for staying up so late with him. 

——— 

The patio door clicks as I shut it behind me. I scan the backyard and spot Leo wading in the pool. Taking the ladder down two at a time, I lower myself into the water, ripples of waves spreading out around me as I swim closer to him. 

“I didn’t take you for a swimmer.” I say as I rest my back against the wall next to him. His hair is damp, water droplets dripping from the tips.

He cocks his head. “No? Yeah, I love being in the water. Sucks it’s getting cold now though. This is the only thing I actually like about summer.” I also didn’t take him as someone who preferred the cold over warm but it makes so much sense when I think about it.

“There’s a pool in my building if you ever want to use it. It’s heated.”

His face lights up. “I just might have to take you up on that.”

He watches me for a few moments, scanning my face.

The corner of my lip starts to rise. “What? Whenever you look at me like that it’s because you have something to say.”

He furrows his brows to feign confusion, but his smile gives him away.

“You caught me,” he starts. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while but I’m surprised you’re not dating anyone. I mean I know you’re super busy, but I can’t believe someone hasn’t tried to lock you down yet.” 

I could say the same about him. I’m sure he has a laundry list of people tripping over their feet to ask him. 

“Well, every girlfriend I’ve had has broken up with me so,” I answer as I rake my hair back. “Can’t say I have a great track record.” 

He’s quiet for a moment. “Why do you think that is?”

Good question. My longest relationship was my Sophomore year when I dated Amber’s cousin, Jasmine. We dated for 6 months until one day she broke up with me out of nowhere. ‘I want there to be no hard feelings between us.’ That is what she said. We both agreed on a mutual breakup. Later I found out from Mason that she told Amber I was emotionally unavailable and distant and that I was spending too much time on my work than with her. I don’t tell Leo that though. Instead, I tell him maybe I haven’t met the right person yet. 

He slowly nods before facing forward. 

“I think-,” I start but before I finish, Leo suddenly swims over to the other side of the pool. He hoists himself up the stairs, his speedo fully visible, exposing the bottom half of his ass cheeks.

“I’m gonna shower.” He says without turning around. I watch him until the patio door closes. The moment he’s gone, it starts drizzling.