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I’ve never experienced something earth-shattering, like Neil said. But I have a feeling that if something happened with us… it might be.
And that possibility is what pulls me like a magnet toward my former nemesis, Neil McNair, who is looking at my mouth like he has just discovered the perfect synonym for a word that doesn’t have any.
And maybe it’s what pulls him to me too.
“Rowan, right?”
A voice shatters the darkness, and Neil and I spring apart before our lips meet.
“Hey, girl, was that you onstage at Bernadette’s?” A girl who looks to be in her midtwenties is standing a few feet from us, a beanie hiding her hair, the lamplight glinting off a septum piercing.
“H-hey,” I croak out. “Yes. Yeah. That was me.”
My cheeks are ablaze, as though I’ve been caught doing something I wanted to be private. If she saw what we were maybe about to do, she didn’t notice or isn’t letting on. I can’t even look at Neil, who’s frozen next to me.
A foot of space has suddenly materialized between us on the bench. Like he was worried about getting caught too.
She breaks into a grin. “I loved your piece. I’m addicted to romance novels, but none of my friends really get it. And there you were, reading a romance novel at an open mic and owning it.”
Wow, I’d love to have this conversation literally any other time.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Thank you for ruining what might have been the most romantic moment of my life.
“I just had to tell you,” she says. “Hope I see you at the next one!”
“Yeah. Hope so.”
She waves and skips off into the night.
The left side of my body is cold, and I’m shivering again. I want that Neil softness from five minutes ago, but now he’s a statue, iron spine and concrete shoulders. We were about to kiss. I didn’t just imagine it.
Finally, Neil comes to life. “We should go,” he says, leaping to his feet, dusting off his pants. “We have to be at mini golf by eleven thirty.”
“Right,” I manage. I stand on wobbly legs.
Neither of us says a word the entire walk to my car.
HOWL CLUES
A place you can buy Nirvana’s first album
A place that’s red from floor to ceiling
A place you can find Chiroptera
A rainbow crosswalk
Ice cream fit for Sasquatch
The big guy at the center of the universe
Something local, organic, and sustainable
A floppy disk
A coffee cup with someone else’s name (or your own name, wildly misspelled)
A car with a parking ticket
