Romeo woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing underneath his pillow. He kept his phone on silent and used vibrations to wake him up so Addie could sleep in if she wanted to. He begrudgingly groaned and grabbed his phone, turning his alarm off.

“Morning,” Addie said as she still lay beside him.

“Ugh, g’morning,” he yawned in her face.

“Ew gross, you have bad morning breath,” Addie said as she put her hand towards her nose.

“It’s not THAT bad,” Romeo replied. “I'll go brush my teeth in a bit, but can you do me a favor, Addie?”

“Sure babe, what’s up?”

“I’m uh. I’m gonna take a personal day I think. I have something important I wanna do. So can you like, avoid going to my record store for the next couple of days?” he asked.

“You’re skipping work? I’ll probably have to try and find some more clients to make up for it, but, if you say it’s important I’ll trust you,” Addie said.

“You’re the best,” he said before kissing her forehead.

He started calling his boss. He felt bad about using a personal day at the very start of the year, but he wanted to make coming out to Hayden, Reese, and Vaughn special. He could already tell that he wouldn’t be able to focus if he went into work that day, especially wearing a nametag with his deadname on it.

“Hello?” his boss picked up.

“Hi Karen. So I’m sorry this is like, late notice or whatever, but my girlfriend’s SUPER sick right now. She’s like, sneezing and vomiting all over the place, it’s disgusting. I’m trying my best to not get sick myself but I still need to stay home for the next couple of days and take care of her. You know, like, make sure she’s okay and make her soup and all that. So uh yeah, I can’t come in today or tomorrow, sorry!” he said.

“Ugh, you’re really screwing me over with not giving me a head’s up. But I know how excited you were for moving in with your girlfriend, so, fine, whatever. Hope your girlfriend feels better.”

“Thank you!” he politely said as he ended the call.

Addie looked at him. “Wow you really had to include me vomiting everywhere, huh?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Romeo said with an awkward blush on his face.

“It’s fine, it’s kinda funny,” she said with a smile. “Also, your boss is seriously named Karen? That’s such a stereotypical middle aged woman name.”

“Bold words, Adalyn Grace,” he chuckled.

Addie playfully and lightly slugged him in the arm. “Oh fuck off,” she laughed.