AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I chuckle. “What’s a swoon?”
“You know. To be overcome with emotion. To go weak at the knees. To get butterflies.” She places the back of her hand over her brow and leans against me, lashes fluttering. “Destroyed by desire… leveled!”
I wrap my arms around her and pull her in, so she’s standing in front of me.
Her body feels so warm and right, up close to me like this. She’s laughing, and I tickle her gently. “How are those weak knees now?”
“I was acting, Nick.”
“Butterflies?” I ask, as I tickle her some more.
She laughs and wriggles, like she’s trying to get away from me. But she doesn’t try too hard.
I know we both like this.
And I know she was at the coffee shop because she felt as weird about me being on that date as I did.
She smells sweet. I breathe in.
When her fingers wrap around my arms, they feel soft and warm.
I squeeze her and rock us back and forth. “Don’t faint, Maddie.”
“If you drop me right now, I’ll never forgive you.”
“I’ll hold you up.”
“You better. I waspretendingto swoon, but now I’m really off balance, thanks to you.” She gives me a light backward nudge with her elbow. It tickles my rib cage and I let out a laugh.
“You want me to do that harder? I will.”
“You got bony elbows, girl.”
“Come on! I saw your chicken wing dance when you were cooking ramen. Yours are two pointy triangles. Those things could pop a balloon.”
She nudges me again, and I let her go.
I flap my elbows. “What, you mean my this-chef-needs-space move? You didn’t like it?”
“Let’s put it this way. If you were on a cooking show, it would have been immediately canceled.”
“Harsh!”
“Honest.”
“Really?” I ask. I’m kidding around, but the word makes me pause. “Are we really being honest?” I ask, my voice suddenly deep with sincerity, because this is something I really want to know.
There’s more to my question, too. More that I can’t bring myself to say: Have we been honest, for even one minute, since Maddison showed up in town?
If I was being honest with her, I’d tell her that this week has been the best week of my life for the past fourteen years.
If I was being honest, I’d tell her that I’ve replayed our college kiss in my mind about a hundred times, since she moved into that house next door.
My bedroom ceiling may as well have a movie screen on it, for all the times I’ve laid in bed, watching it all unfold.
In my mind’s eye, I can see how the shadows in the Fredericks Hall second-floor study room looked, once the lights were out.
How quiet it was, with the crowd gone.
