"I don't know. The problem is that I don't think anyone knows - it's all just speculation. The landlord might have known something about it, but he's not around to ask anymore." Ella seemed fairly knowledgeable, but even her opinions were just that - opinions, without any real evidence to back them up.
"No, telling anyone outside of the building what goes on here definitely isn't a good idea. When I get asked how my weekend was, it's not easy to put on a smile and make up some average series of events. It's just so... surreal." Cole sighed, deciding that was the right word for it. Like a disjointed dream that lingered even after you'd woken up. He almost missed the normal worries of age differences and anonymous posts that dealt with tame rumors. Now it was getting too real, even though the fact that he could have died still hadn't quite sunk in.
He barely had a chance to answer before her lips were on his, and a far more oblivious man than he would have missed how it lingered. Cole had never had any delusions of being a relationship expert, and he honestly had no idea what 'stage' they were at if anyone would have asked. What he did know was that one crazy Saturday had made him realize that he cared about Ileana more than he'd initially thought - more than he'd cared about anyone in a while, for that matter. The thought brought a slight smile to his lips as he returned the kiss with a hint of something deeper that hadn't been there before. "I think that sounds like a great plan."