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“Where the heck are we going?” she whispers excitedly.
“You’ll see.”
“You and your surprises.”
“You said you love ‘em.”
“I do.”
We’re going to have the planetarium to ourselves tonight, the same way we had that video arcade to ourselves the other night. The only hiccup this time is that I couldn’t figure out how to keep the surveillance cameras off indefinitely. At least, not in the amount of time I was willing to devote to the project. That’s why Hannah and I will need to skidaddle from the place by ten sharp. I think that’ll work out just fine, though. Almost two hours should be plenty of time for me to show Hannah the folded piece of paper in my pocket and maybe even tell her I love her, if the timing feels right in the moment. When I thought tonight would be our last night together for a while, I planned to say it tonight for sure. No matter what. But now that we have several more nights together, my plans are more fluid. Either way, we’ll gaze at the stars while enjoying Hannah’s favorite brand of fancy cupcakes, and it’ll be yet another happy memory of our amazing week together.
When we’ve reached the service entrance, I release her hand and quickly enter a six-digit code on a metal keypad, causing the door to unlock with a soft buzz.
“Hannah Banana Montana Milliken, the universe is all yours.”
I hold the door open for her, and Hannah takes two tentative steps inside.
“The planetarium! Oh, Henny!” She throws her arms around my neck and peppers my face with kisses. “Are we acting out the planetarium scene from Lala Land? Am I Emma Stone tonight?”
Aw, fuck. I forgot about Hannah’s obsession with Lala Land. We haven’t gotten around to watching that one together this week, so I’ve still only seen it once, years ago. Fuck me. If I’d actually thought to bring Hannah somewhere to perform a re-enactment of that planetarium scene, I’d do it at The Griffith Observatory in LA—the actual filming location. I would have dressed the part, too.
Shit. My fate is sealed. It’s too late to contradict her. Her face is positively beaming with excitement. “You guessed it,” I say, making Hannah squeal.
“You know me better than I know myself!” Hannah says happily. “Here I thought I didn’t have any fantasies, but you knew all along I’d get crazy-turned on dancing with you in a planetarium in the moonlight.”
Well, well, well. That’s a twist I didn’t see coming when I hacked the planetarium earlier today to arrange this little surprise. “I figured it might get your motor running,” I reply with a wink.
Hannah puts the cupcake box down on a ledge. “I need to run to the restroom before we get started.”
I have no idea what that means. Before we get started with what? “Yeah, me, too,” I reply.
“I’ll meet you right back here, Sebastian!”
Fuck. I think that’s the name of Ryan Gosling’s character in Lala Land, but for the life of me, I can’t remember Emma Stone’s. Which means, all I can reply with is, “Can’t wait.”
We head toward the bathrooms and through our designated doors, and the second I’m alone, I pull up the planetarium scene from Lala Land on my phone. Well, fuck me. Hannah thinks we’re going to dance around the planetarium like that? I can certainly free-style dance like a fool, but I’ve never had a single ballroom dancing lesson. If I’d actually meant to re-enact this scene, I certainly would have taken a lesson or two to pull it off. But even then, I wouldn’t be able to defy gravity and dance on the walls and ceiling, the way the actors do in the scene. Fucking hell. Can I deliver even a semblance of this dance routine for Hannah? I don’t think so, but maybe with some false confidence, I can at least deliver a vibe.
Luckily, there’s an orchestral song playing throughout the scene, and since Hannah’s seen the movie many times, she’ll surely recognize it. Hopefully, when Hannah hears the song, it will transport her imagination and plop her straight into the movie, even if my clumsy feet aren’t doing the trick.
I leave the bathroom and return to our designated spot, and a few minutes later, Hannah appears.
“I have an idea,” she announces, as she waltzes toward me with a sly smile on her face. Thanks to the video I just watched, I recognize that comment as the line Emma Stone says to kick off the planetarium dancing scene, so I press play on the video in my hand to start playing the song from the scene.
“Oh, Henny,” Hannah says on an exhale. “You’re such a romantic.” She whirls around gracefully on her way toward me, so I walk toward her, slowly, with my arms behind my back, the way Ryan Gosling does at the beginning of the scene.
