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We had been chatting about our weekend, when he asked, out of nowhere, “Do you want to do something with me tomorrow morning?”
I blinked. Usually he spent a while circling around what he wanted to ask me. “What were you thinking?”
“The leaves have been changing, and soon all the trees will be bare. I wanted to go see some before that happened.”
“You want to go to a park tomorrow?” He went on runs sometimes, so maybe he was inviting me on one?
“Not quite.” He worried his lower lip nervously. “I was thinking of going to the Chicago Botanical Garden.”
My heart flip-flopped. I tried containing my excitement.
“They have a wide variety of trees. It’s too late to see some flowers, but they have greenhouses.” He knew.
“That sounds.” I swallowed, struggling to keep my excitement in check. “That sounds fun.”
The next morning, I got dressed in skinny jeans, a nice cream sweater, and one of my blue wool coats. It was cold,but not uncomfortably so. He was wearing something similar to what he usually did when he was at home, but with a thick jean jacket that looked older in style but amazing on him.
While we drove, there was a stunning reversal. I was quiet, while he occasionally mentioned the different gardens they had there and what we should see.
“We should go back in the spring,” he murmured as we pulled into the parking lot. “They have an orchid garden.”
I nodded. Every part of that idea made me want to lean over in the car and shake him, kiss him, or yell at him.
I didn’t do any of these and instead followed him to the counter to get tickets absently grabbing a map while he paid. We walked out into the main area where all the paths led to different gardens.
“Where should we go first?” He asked me.
I was crumpling the map in my hand. I smoothed it out and glanced through and picked one at random. “The native plant gardens.”
“Sounds good.”
We walked over there and seemed to be some of the only people around. There were a few older people sitting on benches admiring the scenery and some parents with young children who were talking animatedly in the distance. From where we ended up sitting, we had a good view of plenty of trees, but we were pretty much alone. The orange, red, yellow, and some dark purple leaves were good to look at. They reminded me why I wanted to be a designer, to make something as beautiful as this. But even with how breathtaking it was, I kept glancing over at Taylor. I knew he was looking at me too, even though I couldn’t catch his eyes. I just felt him looking at me as I admired the bramble around us.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I stood up from the bench and moved in front of Taylor. I instinctively started playing with thewedding ring on my finger to stop me from pulling at my hair. “What is this all about?”
A saw a slight blush rise to the tip of his nose. I didn’t think I would ever see anything like that from Taylor. But he still wasn’t telling me.
“You knew what this place meant.” I gestured to the trees and the leaves floating to the ground in the wind.
“Is this still business to you, Lydia?” He said my name like it was a prayer I’d say what he wanted.
“God Taylor.” I was still standing over him, so I leaned forward until I was against him and reached for his wrist, tapped it twice, and moved closer to him. I pushed him back to the bench and kissed him like I needed to. He had his hands on my hips and I had one on his chest and the other on his cheek, cradling it as our lips explored like they hadn’t before. This was the first time we kissed without it being a show. This was a kiss for us. My heart soared. I felt empowered to bite gently at his bottom fuller lip. He seemed to respond well to that: arching his neck back for me. I gently moved to kiss down his neck. Slowly, knowing I was teasing him. I heard a low growl in the back of his throat making me smile against his Adam’s apple. I kissed my way back up, teasing more with the scape of my teeth against his sensitive skin. When our lips met again, I think he wanted to take back some control and pushed his tongue against my lips until I let it inside. I let out a small whimper. Not to be out done, I moved my hands to his hair and started running them through it. Every part of me touching him seemed to burn sweetly at the contact.
“Lydia.” He gasped out my name as we broke for air. I collapsed further onto him. He whispered near my ear, “How long?”
“Since the gala. Maybe even before then.” I wasn’t sure when I had fallen in love with him. Maybe it was right now.Maybe taking me to the botanical garden to show me what he had trouble saying was when I fell in love with him. “How long?” I wanted to know too.
“The soup.” He said and I saw his blush spread even further.
“The chicken noodles?” I giggled a little and he smiled crookedly.
“No one’s ever,” he paused like he was having trouble saying the words, “cared for me like that.” He admitted, suddenly serious.
“Oh Taylor. You deserve to be cared for,” I said softly as I gently played with his hair.
“Excuse me?” We both startled at the voice.
I untangled myself from Taylor and stood back up to see a person in a uniform and name tag looking very uncomfortable. My face grew hot.
