No one really did need to know. It wasn’t their business.

It wasn’t their business how Connor always smelled like warm smoke and cheap cologne, the kind that clung to him long after he’d stepped out of a room.

It wasn’t their business that tonight he was leaning back on the frayed couch in his dim apartment, one leg stretched out, a lazy grin tugging at his lips as soon as you slipped through the door. The music playing from the old speaker wasn’t loud, just a low R&B pulse that seemed to roll off his skin.

I wasn’t their business how He didn’t ask why you came over so late. He never did. Connor just looked at you with that half-lidded high stare, the kind that felt like it knew things he never said out loud. “You didn’t tell anybody you were coming here, right?” he murmured, voice thick and smooth, like he’d just woken from a dream he wasn’t done enjoying. “They’re so nosy. They don’t need to know so much.”

When you sat beside him, Connor shifted automatically, the air between you tightening with something warm and secret. Everyone else in your lives seemed to have opinions—friends teasing, asking, poking around, like they had some right to know where you disappeared to at night and why Connor always smiled at his phone when your name lit up the screen. But here, in the soft hush of his apartment, none of that mattered.

After a while of passing a joint and giggling, he placed his lips on yours like the usual routine.

The song shifted, bass deepening, and Connor leaned back again, arm resting behind you as the two of you kissed slowly on the couch, drawing you into his gravity without ever actually pulling. He never pushed, never rushed. just created space like he was inviting you into a secret only the two of you were allowed to know.

It was just Connor, the dim light, the slow beat of the music, and the way his voice dropped lower when he looked at you like you were the one thing he didn’t want to share with anyone.

“You wanna stay awhile?,” he said softly, a lazy smile curving his mouth.

“I told Maddie I was at-“ you started, but he interrupted politely.

“Nobody needs to know where you are tonight but me.”