“Closer to the coast. Outside the city. I figured we’d just drive until we found a place that lets us park overnight. There’s a cliff nearby that I think will be good.”
I blink a few times. “Overnight?” I ask, looking at his pile of belongings differently now. Is that why he was packing everything?
“We might have to be out all night to try to see them.”
“We have a flight tomorrow,” I remind him.
“It’s not until three. Which means we can sleep in or just sleep on the plane.” He looks up at me. “What?”
I shake my head, but I feel my face shift into a grin. It feels good to be playful with Luke again. “I think you’ve officially lost it, but if it means I get to see the northern lights, then let’s do it.”
Luke’s face lights up with a huge, genuine smile that makes me go a little weak in the knees. Maybe going out with eachother in the middle of the night, cuddled up under the stars, isn’t my best move of self-preservation, but oh well.
He hands me a stack of blankets. “We’ll have to go out the back door. I don’t think the hotel will appreciate us taking all their blankets and pillows.”
I blink. “What?”
“We’ll bring it all back in the morning. We’re just borrowing it all.” He starts walking out the door, his arms full of all the pillows. When I linger, he gives me a wink. I move along, a little more eager to walk into my heart’s demise.
§
We pull upto a dirt parking lot. We’re not the only ones here. There’s a camper van that makes me cringe until I remember that Cassie’s already flown home. The van is closed up for the night with its lights off, and they’re probably already asleep, seeing as it is almost midnight by the time we get there.
Luke parks the rental car on the other side of the lot from the camper van.
Supposedly this place has a view of a massive cliff, but in the dark, it just looks like we’re sitting in an abyss of black. The sound of the ocean crashes around us, water slamming into the cliffs surrounding the parking lot.
Luke gets out of the car first, moving to the back to open the hatchback on the trunk, and starts messing with the blankets and pillows. He pulls the back seats down until they’re flat so we can both lie side by side in the back.
“Ready?” Luke asks, peeking up at me. I’m still sitting in thefront seat, turned around to watch him. He motions for me to climb forward, so I do. I stretch across the center console until I’m on the large bed he’s made for us. He pulls one side of the covers up, and I climb under, clothes and all. It feels a little silly to be bundled up, but when the ocean breeze cuts through, I’m thankful for the excessive blankets.
Once I’m lying down, Luke tucks me in, making me feel like a little kid at bedtime. He climbs in beside me, the car moving a little as he struggles to get under the blankets.
I laugh, watching his shoes get caught on the fabric. In hindsight, we probably should’ve taken our shoes off, but I didn’t want to struggle with cold feet all night. It takes him another minute to get situated. On our backs, we look up at the sky through the hatchback’s open trunk. Not ideal, but it works.
“Comfy?” Luke asks, turning to me. He’s so engulfed in blankets that he looks ridiculous. He has them pulled up all the way to his chin. Between that and the beanie he’s wearing, the only exposed bit of skin I can see is his face.
I have to stifle my giggle.
“Sure,” I agree. For making a bed in the back of a car without a mattress, it isn’t too bad. I’m caught between wanting to go back into the warm hotel and wanting to stay out here with Luke, pretending that this situation that feels very romantic actually is.
Luke is satisfied with my answer and looks up to the sky, which is just stars.
Now that we have settled in, the awkwardness from the events of the past couple hours hovers in the air between us.
“Harper?” Luke says, his voice calling out in the darkness. We’re both lying on our backs, a lump of blankets between us. I can see Luke’s breath in the air. “I’m sorry about the song if it made things awkward.”
There’s a sadness in his eyes as he speaks, and his words stir everything inside me even more.
“Why that song?” I say, the words from the song and the words from our conversation at the canyon jumbling together.
He shifts onto his side until he’s facing me. It’s like we’re on the beach again, just the two of us. His eyes are soft, and he keeps his eyes on me as he speaks.
“I just wanted you to know how I feel about you and that... there’s sparks.” He smiles awkwardly, quoting the song. “But if you don’t feel that way, I can let it go. I can be just friends. But I needed to ask, or I’d always wonder if there was more.”
I open my mouth to speak, but I’m like a fish out of water, gasping for air. “I’m confused,” I finally say, because what he’s saying can’t be true.
Why go out with Cassie then?
