AllFreeNovel
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“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.” Lily’s gaze falls to the floor, dropping a boulder of weight onto my chest.
“It’s okay. I haven’t been in a rut like this before. I thought I’d have an idea in Brazil so I could spend the rest of the summer developing it. I actually miss being behind my screen, creating something.”
“Am I distracting you?”
“Only in the best way, beautiful.” I trail along her jaw, tilting her chin toward me.
“I hate that you’re feeling down.”
“I lo—” The words get stuck in my teeth like saltwater taffy.I love that.Harmless. Not at all crossing the line. “I—I’m losing the motivation to stay positive.”
Not a great save, but a save, nonetheless.
“I don’t know how you stay so upbeat and cheerful all the time. I’m more of a glass-half-empty gal.”
Her doses of reality are some of my favorite things because they make us mesh so well.
“Yeah, I guess I can thank my mom. She’s the most positive person I know.” I do miss my parents a lot. They know not to expect to hear from me when I’m traveling, but I kinda want to give them a call later. MaybePapiwill have some words of wisdom to help me get out of this creative hole.
“I didn’t know that was even possible,” she jokes. “You’re the most optimistic guy alive.”
“When me and my brother would fight, Mom would sit us down and tell us it’s a waste of energy to have petty spats with people you love.” I tap the pad of my pointer on her nose, and she smiles. “Then we’d have to list all the things we liked about each other. Luca hated it, but I don’t know. Her ability to see the positive in any situation really stuck with me.”
Things we like about the people we love.
Lily.
My heart tumbles like a skipping stone.
If I tell her about any of the confusing things I’ve been feeling, I risk pushing her away. This is bound to end poorly; she’s said so herself. I’ll wait until the end of the summer if it doesn’t go away.
“That’s really nice, Nico.” Lily fumbles with her fingers. “Maybe fear doesn’t have to be negative. It can be a part of the experience.”
“You’re right.” I tug the hair cap down to cover the stray hairs she missed. I open the tap behind her and thoroughly wash the dye off my hands with soap. We switch spots, and Lily runs her hands under the water, scrubbing off stray clumps of dye. “If I hesitated each time I felt afraid, I would’ve never dropped out of college to travel, I wouldn’t have built Flight Falcon, I wouldn’t have gone on the gondola ride…maybe I’d never have met you.”
What a tragedy that would’ve been.
“I wish I were as fearless as you.”
“I think,princesa, you’re as fearless as I am. You just gotta get comfortable taking more risks like you have this summer.”
“Maybe.” She gives me a half-hearted smile. “I haven’t been this rash for over a decade.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t been this creatively stuck before. We can figure it out together.”
Lily gently grabs my hand, pressing it to her cheek. Our friendship bracelets from Brazil hang between us. “Can I do anything to help?” She connects her lips to my palm. A gesture that would typically be overly affectionate for her standards. For me, however, it feels likeeverything.
“I can think of a few things,” I tease, blurring the tenderness between us by connecting my body to hers.
“I meant with your work,” Lily clarifies, but she doesn’t pull out of my grasp. My heart beats slow and steady. I melt into the seconds between us. “I’m a creativity expert,” she finally says.
“How so?”
I drop my hands to the counter behind her, closing her in. Is tonight the night she decides to stop hiding her little secret?
“Getting myself out of sticky situations involves serious imagination,” she answers.
“What kind of sticky situations have you been in?”
