Rosie

I’ve been noticing something peculiar about Jude and though we’d settled into a routine where Jude and I spent nearly every evening together, study sessions and walking me home or riding on his bike that he called ‘Baby’ which made me roll my eyes at the cringy name every single time, those moments felt sweeter than any dates I’d only imagined before. Just staying together without doing anything felt peaceful and worthy and right.

But I wasn’t blind to some hints that were happening and Jude was terrible at masking them, whatever was going on with him.

It started small and I almost didn’t notice at first.

One day I muttered that I was craving Thai food under my breath, barely a whisper while I was reading my textbook, but somehow Jude heard me from across the library table and looked up immediately. “There’s a good Thai place on Main Street, we could go after your shift if you want?” he’d offered and I’d stared at him because he wasn’t even close to me, there was no way he should have heard that.

Or whenever I just murmured his name quietly, not even calling him really, just saying it to myself, he would immediately turn and look at me with this attentive expression like I’d shouted. I brushed it off as a coincidence at first because what else could it be?

Then there was his temperature and that was harder to ignore.

He always ran warmer than normal. Sometimes when he touched me his fingertips were almost warm against my skin but instead of pulling away I found myself leaning into that warmth, craving it like I was always cold and he was the only thing that could heat me up.

And there was the scenting and sniffing thing that I didn’t even have a name for.

I noticed, he mostly didn’t realize he was doing it, I was sure of that because if he knew how obvious it was he’d probably be embarrassed. Whenever I was near him Jude would lean slightly closer and inhale softly near my hair, my neck, my jaw like he was breathing me in. Sometimes he made this low quiet sound that wasn’t a hum or a sigh but something deeper, something that came from his chest like a rumble, and that made my stomach flip every single time.

I pretended not to notice because I didn’t know what to do with it, and didn’t know how to ask “hey why do you keep smelling me?” without sounding completely insane.

But the moment that really got me, that made me start seriously wondering if something was different about Jude, happened in the library yesterday.

We were studying quietly, both of us focused on our work when I dropped my pencil and it rolled away across the floor. I watched it disappear under and groaned because of course it did, nothing could ever be simple.

I knelt down to look for it, getting on my hands and knees to peer under the table in the dim light, frustrated because I couldn’t see anything.

Jude stood behind me and said casually, “It’s behind the far leg of the table, on the left side.”

I froze and turned to stare at him because there was absolutely no way he could have seen that from where he was sitting, the angle was completely wrong and it was too dark under there. “How did you—”

“Lucky guess?” he offered but his voice came out strangled and nervous.

I reached under and sure enough, there was my pencil exactly where he said it would be and I grabbed it and stood up slowly, studying his face. “That was a really specific lucky guess.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I just, uh, saw the direction it rolled?”

“Jude,” I said and grinned at him, deciding to just ask outright because curiosity was killing me. “Are you secretly an alien or something?”

He froze completely, his whole body going rigid and his eyes went wide with what looked like panic. “What? Why would you—what do you mean?”

“Nothing,” I shrugged my shoulders, still smiling because his reaction was kind of adorable in how obviously guilty he looked. “Just wondered. You know, super hearing, running hot all the time, knowing things you shouldn’t be able to know. Very alien-like behavior.”

“I’m not—” he started then stopped and laughed nervously, the sound coming out too high. “I’m not an alien, Rosie.”

“Okay,” I said easily and dropped it because as soon as I did his shoulders dropped and he sighed in relief. But I filed it away in my mind because there was definitely more to it, more he wasn’t telling me.

Well, I didn’t mind if he was an alien honestly, aliens were cool and I’d read enough sci-fi romance to know that aliens made excellent boyfriends. And books always said sex with aliens was always top-notch with their weird biology and—

I immediately shoved that thought away from my mind, my face flaming hot. What the heck was I thinking? Where did that even come from?

Stop it, brain!

After my shift at the café that evening, Jude was waiting outside to walk me home like he always did. He’d said his bike was back at the dorm getting some maintenance done so we walked instead and I didn’t mind because walking meant more time with him. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The evening was cold and crisp and our breath came out in visible puffs while we walked side by side through the quiet streets. Jude’s hand brushed mine for what had to be the seventh time and each time it happened I felt sparks shoot up my arm and my heart would skip.

The air between us felt warm despite the winter cold, thick with something unspoken.

I stopped walking suddenly and turned to face him, my heart pounding because I couldn’t take the tension anymore, couldn’t take the almost-touches and the heated looks and the way he kept leaning into my space like he couldn’t help himself.

Jude stopped too and looked down at me, his amber eyes catching the streetlight and the way he was looking at me stole my breath completely. Intense and soft and hungry all at once, like I was something precious and desired and necessary all at the same time.

For a second it felt like he was going to kiss me, like he was finally going to close that distance that had been driving me crazy for weeks.

Instead, he quietly said my name like a prayer, just “Rosie” in this rough broken voice that made my toes curl and my stomach flip. Then he stepped back like it physically hurt him to do it, like he was struggling with something I couldn’t see, some internal battle I wasn’t part of.

“I should get you home,” he said quietly and his voice was strained. “It’s getting late.”

I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice and we walked the rest of the way in tensed silence, his hand brushing mine twice more before we reached my cottage.

“Goodnight, Rosie,” he said at my door and his eyes were still burning with that intensity that made me shiver.

“Goodnight, Jude,” I whispered and watched him walk away, his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders tense.

I went inside and lay awake that night staring at my ceiling, my mind racing with questions I couldn’t answer.

The way he always knew where I was, he could find me in a crowd without looking. The weird moments where his eyes seemed to flash a different color in certain light.

What was he? What was Jude hiding?

And why did it feel like I should be afraid, should be running in the opposite direction, but I wasn’t? Why did the mystery of him just make me want to know more, want to get closer instead of protecting myself?

I’d wait till he was ready to tell me but a tiny part of me was secretly hoping he was an alien.

And I fell asleep with his name on my lips and warmth spreading through my chest, wondering what secrets he was keeping and knowing that whatever they were, they wouldn’t change how I felt about him.

Nothing could change that now.

***

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