With a full-throated laugh, I followed him out of the car, quickly buttoning up my pants before sliding into the driver's seat.

"Alright, alright. Hold your horses," I said, starting up the car and carefully turning us around on the gravel lot. We were both a mess, but there was a shower waiting for us back at Elio's place.

It was hard not to think of that cramped little apartment as home.