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We paid the tab and fell onto the street, the quiet and cool breeze a welcome reprieve. “It’s easy to forget how beautiful this city is,” I said. The harbour really was gorgeous and the wharf area—with its lanterns and open restaurants and all the greenery against the water—was really pretty. “I guess I haven’t been out in a while. I forgot what it’s like down here.”
“We were going to come here for our actual date tomorrow,” he noted. “Did you still want to? Or you wanna go somewhere else?”
“No, here’s fine. Unless you have somewhere else you’d prefer?”
“Here’s fine by me too. There’s a coffee place further down that I love.”
“Perfect.”
He stopped walking. “Is everything okay?” I asked.
He pointed to the street up. “I should go this way. I’ll Uber it home.”
“Oh, sure. Is it far? I can drive you...”
He smiled. “No, it’s not far.” Then he took a deep breath. “I’d like to kiss you. As thanks, for dinner and the perfect flower.”
Oh.
“Oh, okay. Um, uh, sure. I’d, I’d like you to do that too,” I stammered.
He stepped in, leaned up on his toes, and pressed his soft lips to mine, his eyelids fluttering closed. Just for a moment, one perfect second. Just a soft peck, so innocent, so chaste, but it sent my heart into a frenzy.
He pulled back, his whole face serene. “Thank you, Keats. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I’d somehow forgotten how to nod or speak. I think I blinked a few times.
“You okay there?” he asked with a laugh.
I managed a wooden nod, and he stepped back, grinning. “Tomorrow?”
I raised my hand for some reason, and it wasn’t until he’d turned and was heading for the street that I found my voice.
“Tomorrow!”
He turned back and laughed, then disappeared out of view. And I stood there for a few seconds trying to remember how to walk. He’d kissed me. And this was how my brain reacted after a quick peck of a kiss? How was I going to react when it was more than a peck? Would there be a deeper kiss?
More than that?
I sure hoped there would be.
God, this was such a thrill, such a rush. I couldn’t believe I’d denied myself this for so long. I was so ready for this new chapter of my life.
Now, I just needed to go home and research some Victorian floriography to find the perfect flower to bring him tomorrow.
Maybe while I watchedHome and Garden.
Chapter Four
Linden
“Hello, darling,”Cory said into the phone. “Are you calling me to say you’ve changed your mind about coming out this weekend?”
“No, sorry. Look, I’m in an Uber on my way home. I just had dinner with Keats?—”
“Dinner? Are you eighty? It’s not even seven o’clock.”
I laughed. “I missed lunch and I was starving.”
