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I’m still holding his hand, my arm stretched out behind me as I charge down the hall, into the elevator, where I don’t meet his gaze, and over to the main entrance. I hope he can’t hear how loudly my heart is beating. It’s like the tell-tale heart, ratcheting louder and louder the closer we get to my car.
It’s nearly dark, and the air is crisp, almost cold, but I’m hit again with how beautiful the area surrounding the lake is.
We near my Corolla and that’s when I start to second guess myself. I’m not sure if I can do this. Is it too late to go back to the office? Maybe I could just ask him to fix the gas cap or something. It hasn’t been closing tight lately.
Or maybe I can suggest we get in the back seat and make out? My stomach drops to my feet at that thought, but then I realize there are probably security cameras out here.
So that idea is pretty much out.
No. I summon my resolve. Oliver’s asking how I feel? He’s gonna get how I feel, once and for all.
I open the passenger side door and lean over so I can open the glovebox.
“The ritual of making out in one’s car is traditionally carried out in the backseat, but whatever…” he says.
I straighten just in time to see the shrug of his shoulders, a wicked smile playing me.
“You are just…” I smile, shaking my head. I have no idea how to finish that sentence. I don’t mention that I was just thinking about kissing as well. Still, my head grows warm.
Clutching the silver spoon behind my back, I lean against the open car door frame.
Am I ready for this level of vulnerability? It’s a risk I didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to take and now that it’s here, my thoughts and feelings are everywhere.
I take a deep breath. “You keep saying you don’t know how I feel about you and it’s true, I haven’t been very good at showing you. It’s hard to put into words. I get tongue tied and then I start going on and on and…” I stop myself and clear my throat.
I pull out the spoon from behind my back and hold it up in the air. Waiting, I say nothing.
“It’s a long spoon.” Oliver nods and gives a nervous smile. “Okay! And you keep it in your car because…?”
I flip it over and show him the engraving. His eyes widen. He grabs it from me and pulls it closer. “Shake, Shake, Shake. Thirty-year anniversary.” He glances at me before studying it again. “Wait. Is it still on here?”
He runs a thumb over the rough spot before he sees it. “I remember this,” he says. “I painted this heart on it with your nail polish.”
“It used to be bright red, but it’s faded.”
“I bought this on a whim one night when we were working.” His grin stretches wider. “Mostly it was customers buying these commemorative spoons, right? You kept making fun of me about what a waste of money it was.” He chuckled. “But then you were waiting for a ride from your grandpa, and you had some nail polish for some reason.”
“It was in my purse,” I feel a little defensive. “You never know when you’re going to get a chip! I was trying to quit chewing on my nails. It worked for awhile.” My nervous laugh seems to make him smile. “Anyway, remember? You finally handed it to me when I was painting my nails at a table outside after the shop closed. You said you wanted to give it to me. And then when I wasn’t readily accepting of your gift, you grabbed my nail polish—”
“And had to fight you off for a minute because you kept trying to get it back,” he says with a laugh.
I massage my forehead at the memory of our antics. “But then you painted a heart on the handle, right here. You blew on it until it dried and that was that.”
“You still have it.”
“Oliver, this might sound lame, but as soon as I got my own car, I put it in the glovebox.” I pause, fighting the fear. “And that’s where it always is. I can’t get rid of it. And I guess what I’m trying to say is—my feelings for you are only growing stronger over time. I want this with you.”
He leans in closer to me, his gaze intense, and I take in his bounteous, rolling hills of cedar scent.
How can the way he smells be both all-consuming and so subtle that I crave more?
“Sophie,” he breathes.
Right as he begins to cup my cheek to draw me in to kiss me, I hear a woman’s out-of-breath voice behind him.
“Oliver, I finally found you.”
He stiffens in my embrace. The magic is gone.
