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“Everything. The summer showcase going better than I could have dreamed. My dad showing up. You telling me that I’m gonna be your boyfriend whether I like it or not.”
“That’s … not exactly what I said …”
“And our little night time stroll right now under the stars.” He takes my hand suddenly, then cuddles against my side as we continue walking. “I just don’t know how I could be happier.”
I smirk at him. “I know a way.”
He looks at me. “What do you—?”
He doesn’t get to finish the sentence before I scoop him right up into my arms. He lets out a shout of surprise as I race down the rest of the street with him in my arms, as he clings to me for dear life.
Soon, my shoes are kicking up sand. Artist Row leads straight to Sugarberry Beach, so the more I run the closer to the water we get. “Stop, stop, stop!” he cries out through his laughter, but I don’t stop. I race across the sand to the shore, and soon, my shoes slap into water, sending droplets over our heads like diamonds. “Adriaaan!!”
I stop just before going too deep, holding him in my arms above the water. He’s clinging to me much tighter now, the bouquet I gave him pressed between our bodies. The waves rush over my knees, mist spraying us in the cool and peaceful darkness.
He gives me a challenging look. “Adrian, you’d better not drop me.”
“I won’t,” I promise him.
“Because if my phone gets wet and I ruin these pretty flowers you got me …”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to you.” The waves roar all around us. I hold him close, cradling him against my body. “I’ll make that promise to you right now, right here, in front of the ocean gods and the big moon and all of those stars up there. I won’t ever drop you.”
Quin gazes into my eyes.
For the first time, I think he truly believes me.
“Set me down.”
I lift an eyebrow. “But I just said I’d never drop you.”
“You aren’t dropping me. You’re setting me down.”
“Your shoes and pants will get wet,” I warn him.
“So? Yours already are.” He brings his face close to mine, smirking with his dimples. “Maybe I just want to get wet and messy with my boyfriend.”
A smile finds my face. I oblige him, gently easing him out of my hold, his feet finding purchase under the water with mine. Then we stand there as the waves tug and pull at our shins, holding each other in the salty night air.
“I know you might think you’ve got me to thank for saving you that first night …” he tells me.
“What do you mean?”
“But really, it wasn’t me saving you from a horny guy in a jockstrap …”
“Oh, right. That.”
He brings his face closer. “You were saving me from the rest of my tedious, uninspired life. You may not have realized it,” he admits with a shrug. “Maybe neither of us could have known. But I know now the fate that awaited me, had you not cut in line at that bathroom … and had I not come to your rescue on that porch.”
“And what fate is that?”
“Never finding my spark. Never realizing I had it in me to create art like I did tonight. My dad convincing me to come back home, give up all of my dreams, and become a lawyer. It terrifies me to think of that possibility … to think of how fragile the courses of our lives are, what seemingly little effort it takes to completely alter our futures.”
“Your mind is so … fucking vast,” I tell him, inspired. “I wouldn’t have thought of it that way. I just let things happen in my life, from weekend to weekend, wave after wave of tourists, sun up, sun down … You see life in such a special way, Quin, you make me want to see more in the world than what’s just in front of me.” I cling to him even tighter. “I want to see everything as deeply as you do.”
“In time, it’ll start to happen. Then you won’t thank me. It’s an artist’s burden, to see too much.” He kisses me, then pulls back with a smirk. “Unless, of course, what you are looking at is the beautiful face of your boyfriend, and his bottomless blue eyes you can just dive into all day long like your … your favorite swimming grotto.”
I grin. “Your Forbidden Grotto,” I correct him.
His eyes twinkle in the moonlight when he smiles. “If you’re as lucky as me to have you in my life, then I guess seeing too much is a gift.”
“I’m falling for you, Quin.”
He puts his lips to mine. My heart feels like it melts in my chest, casting a warm and happy energy to every end of my body. His kisses are like food on my lips.
