He sings along to the refrain, his voice soft and sweet—fully living up to his promise to having me falling head over heels by the end of the night, doomed to be insufferably love stricken.
Another song starts next, and Liam continues swaying me along the Seine, lit golden in the setting sun. My own Gene Kelly, here, dancing with me.
“Thank you for this.” I sigh into his shoulder.
“Anytime, Peaches.” He half steps on my foot and winces. “I’m sorry I’m not the light-footed Kelly you dreamt of.”
“You are, though. You were always everything.”
Liam’s hand pulls me in tighter. “Happy birthday, Evie.”
I don’t know how long Liam and I stay swaying along the Seine, my head resting on his chest. Maybe it’s five more minutes, or maybe it’s an eternity, and we’re now ghosts of a fleeting, perfect moment. However long we linger there, Liam finally tugs my hand and brings me along back alleys and side roads toward the Latin Quarter andanother surprise.
“It’s—” I pick up my gaze, and it lands on the storefrontI stopped at along Luxembourg Gardens on the day everything changed. “A storefront?” I rub my forehead in a phantom memory.
“I found a few for my master’s project, but I thought this was worth showing you. The traffic here is a good mix of tourist and Parisian, and it’s not that far of a walk for you either, just one Métro stop.”
“You mapped out my commute? How is that helpful for your project?”
“It’s not.” He breathes out. “But I was looking over your numbers, and I got so excited about your idea to pair everything with cheese and rosé that I wanted to show you it was something you could do.”
“I’m sorry. What’s this about my cheese and rosé?”
“Pairing it with the desserts?”
I blush. “I wrote that?”
Sometimes I zone out when I look at all those facts and figures, but I feel like I should remember writing something like that.
“Yeah, in a margin.”
I tilt my head back and laugh. “That was definitely just a grocery list reminder.”
“Oh.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I thought it was a good idea, though. People would go to a place like that.”
Cheese and rosé are always a good idea.
“It is, actually.”
I stare back at the storefront. Dreams I told myself a month ago I should keep buried bubble up to the surface at a dangerous not-easy-to stamp-down level. It’s hard to tell them to stay quiet after a day like today, after this week, really.
Maybe some dreams really do come true.
Liam rubs my shoulder, staring at me in the window’s reflection. “I always loved that you were a dreamer, Peaches. No matter how much crap I gave you for it, I want you to keep dreaming, about the silly things, about dancing with Gene Kelly, about real-life things, about the shop. You deserve to fall asleep with thoughts like that dancing up here.” He presses a kiss on the top of my head.
“You sound like me now.” I laugh and turn to meet him.
His thumb brushes a tear that broke rank off my cheek. “I know, and seventeen-year-old me would be upset, but if he knew I got to do this now—” Liam gently cups my face, bending and laying a whisper of a kiss on my lips. “He’d get it.” He winks.
I smile against his lips. “I’ll look over everything again. Thank you.” With his hands still bracing my face, I close my eyes, curling my fingers around his wrists, and revel in the warmth radiating off him. “I haven’t had the heart to move forward with anything for a while. I think I was worried another disappointment might break me. But with you I feel like I could take on anything, and if it didn’t work out, that’d be okay. Like my heart will be happy regardless.”
“I like making your heart happy,” he says, brushing his lips lightly against mine before pulling away and lacing his fingers through my hands. “Which is why we’re going to get donuts now.”
“Gene Kelly and donuts? I hope you know what you’re doing because I’m about to become pretty freaking insufferable.”
“It’s a burden I’ll have to bear.” He shakes his head and alters our path toward the café.
We cross the street, nearing American Press and the chairs where Liam took care of me. My mind flashes to his disappointed demeanor I swore I was imagining, and it tugs at my heartstrings. I wish I had been kinder that day.
