When Cheryl asks you for all the gory details, you tell her you've been at it all night.
That's a lie.
The truth is that as soon as you reach your hotel room, Ste all but drops dead on the bed. You manage to get him out of his sweater and pants - true, there's a little bit of groping - and you maneuver him into a position that doesn't hurt when looking at it.
You watch him as you strip down as well. He looks so relaxed now. The tension that had been written all over him earlier is gone.
When you climb into bed with him, he turns over and curls up into your arms. And you let him. For the first time in… you can't remember, maybe this is the first time… you let him be close to you without the intention of pushing him away after.
You look at him, his mouth slightly open, nose twitching as he breaths against your chest.
And that's when it hits you.
You are falling in love.
Yes, you loved him before. Long before you ever told him. Long before you actually knew yourself. Thinking back, maybe that feeling has always been there, that bright and pure clarity that you only ever felt when looking at him. It was a fact. A plain and simple truth you chose to bury deep down where no one could ever find it.
He did. He found it. And he found you. And then tonight he found you again when you were so lost.
Tonight, you are falling in love with him.
It's different from that slow burn that made you walk up to him on the bridge.
This feeling is wild, and it's passionate, and it's crazy. It's not that steamy stream inside you, it's fizzy and bubbly and it makes you grin like an idiot for no good reason.
"It's rude to stare, ya know."
You almost flinch as Ste suddenly speaks without steering much.
"Why do you love me?" The question is out of your mouth faster than you could think it.
Now Ste does move to look up at you, searching your face. He looks scared again, scared that you will push him away once more. You hate that you can make him look like that in an instant.
"Nevermind that," you add quickly. "I've had a bit too much to drink." Sometimes you're such a terrible liar.
Ste looks at you, looks for a long time, and you let him do that, too. "Because I can see past this." He dislodges his hand from somewhere between your bodies, reaches up and runs his fingers over your beard.
You smile against his fingers because he makes perfect sense to you.
He rests his head on your chest again, and you know he can hear your heart racing. He better hear it.
"And why do you love me?" Ste's voice is heavy with exhaustion. He is asleep before you answer.
"Because you can, Steven. Because you can."