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She led me further along the path, under a quiet archway a little way away from the crowded park.
In the sudden silence, I became keenly aware of Hayden’s perfume, of the lingering scent of strawberries on her tongue as she spoke.
“That’s better,” she murmured, brushing a few stray curls from my face. “To be honest with you, I’ve never really cared about labels, even before all that bullshit with my ex. It wasn’t something I ever thought about when I was with someone.”
I nodded in understanding, even if my heart wilted just a little.
“However,” she emphasized, cupping my face in her palms, “if it means something to you, anything at all, I’d ask you out in a heartbeat. We can even change our online relationship status.”
“You don’t even do social media.” I chuckled.
“I would, though.” She shrugged. “For you.”
Her eyes shone with sincerity, even in the darkness of the archway, and I knew she wasn’t kidding around. And she wasn’t just saying it to end the conversation. Hayden meant every word she said. I felt it in the softness of her fingertips along the apples of my cheeks, and in the gentle, steady pulse of her heartbeat under my palm.
“I believe you,” I said truthfully, hoping she understood how much I meant it. Every word. “And I think that’s why as long as you’re mine, and as long as I’m yours, nothing else really matters to me.”
Hayden’s hands slid from my face to my shoulders and pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug.
“Can you stop?” she breathed into the shell of my ear, a little shaky. “I can’t think straight when you’re saying things like that.”
“It’s just the truth,” I mumbled from the spot my face was mashed between her neck and shoulder.
“I know.” She laughed. “That’s the problem. You’re so honest that I can’t help but wonder if you’re real. If you’re really mine.”
I pulled away to see the glimmer in her bright green eyes, burning despite the lack of light in our little archway.
Our own little world.
“I am.”
And that was that.
She kissed me sweetly before we left our little bubble and joined the real world again, her hand somehow a little warmer in mine.
We bought food from every single stall and every single truck, gorging ourselves on what was probably the unhealthiest dinner possible. But, as we walked back to the main street to call a cab, and Hayden smiled at me under the clear moonlight, it wasn’t the food that filled me up.
I snickered to myself, internally scolding my own thoughts for being as cheesy as Hayden.
We spent the night at Hayden’s place, wrapped up in each other’s arms.
We’d let the future come, and we’d grow with it. With each other.
But we’d be together, and that was all that mattered to me as I fell asleep with my head pillowed on Hayden’s chest.
