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I guess that’s why her teasing is starting to hit like a punch in the gut. Most people are very into Lockhart. I want her to be into Joel.
I also really want to leave this apartment. There’s one final thing I have to do to complete this ’fit. “What do you think?” I ask as I slide on some iridescent sunglasses. “Do I look like an average Joe?”
My own joke makes me chuckle. Anna doesn’t seem too impressed, though. “You look like a moron. You’ll boil in all those layers.”
“Let’s find out. You ready?”
CHAPTER14
ANNA
For a second as we walked out of the door, I thought we were about to hold hands. There was something in the way Joel looked at me, a certain glimmer that seemed to say that he really wanted to go out into the world, not just for the sake of it, but with me.
“Cold out,” he says, breathing a cloud of steam into the air.
“I’m surprised you can feel it.”
“My nose isn’t covered. Or my fingers.”
Is he teasing me on purpose? Testing the waters to see how I’ll react? Or is this just baseline for him? He sees a girl, he flirts with her. Typical. I decide to play it cool. “Should have brought gloves then.”
It’s probably my imagination, but he wilts a little when I don’t take the hand-holding bait. He shoves his hands in his pockets and shrugs. “Boom. What do you wanna do?”
I shrug in reply. “Usually, I like to go to that little café on Seventeenth Street — Broken Cauldrons. Do you know it?”
He shakes his head and I wince. He’s clearly not a little café kind of guy. “It’s pretty popular, anyway,” I say, deflecting my own disappointment. “So we should probably avoid it.”
“Another time,” he says to be polite. “You’re right, we should avoid the crowds.”
“Yeah, the crowded Olympus City streets on a Thursday lunchtime.”
I’m being facetious, of course. It may be less busy than on a Saturday afternoon, but there are still people everywhere. As soon as we stepped off the subway, we were faced with a swarming mass of people, all wrapped up like us in colorful coats and warm boots, rushing around as they heading to some destination unknown.
Joel was nervous on the subway to be in close proximity to people who might stare at him, but we got on the blue line which is never that full anyway and managed to get on an almost totally empty car. It did take us way north though, somewhere I hardly ever go. We jumped off on Albion Street Corner just because we could, and now we’re roaming aimlessly.
“You never know where journalists are lurking,” he whispers loudly, leaning in like he’s sharing a conspiracy.
“I don’t think they’re lurking around here, somehow. And I don’t think they’ll find you looking like an escaped elf.”
A grin splits across his face and that stupid urge to hold his hand bubbles up inside me again. I don’t know what it is about the faded rainbow beanie and old blue coat that makes me want to be close to him. I don’t know when I stopped seeing him as Joel Lockhart and instead started enjoying his company for real.
We turn a corner and gray buildings rise and loom over us. This city is so gross when it’s cold and winter. I grew up here, so I don’t think I could cope with a California-style winter, but clouds like this make me long for the sun.
“Wait,” I say. We screech to a halt and he looks at me expectantly. “This is Twenty-Fourth Avenue, which means…”
I whip out my phone to double check something on the map. Joel keeps staring at me, waiting for the reveal. “Yeah, I’m right!”
“About…?”
“There’s this great place about five minutes from here, they serve the best gelato you will ever have in your life.”
“Ice cream?” He frowns, dubious about the idea. “It’s like fifty out here right now and you want to get colder?”
“Not ice cream, gelato.”
“Same thing.”
I can’t tell if he’s winding me up. The smug smirk is inscrutable. “It’s not, but whatever. They do awesome hot chocolates too. Plus, it’s not exactly going to be busy. Most people don’t want a cold dessert in the middle of winter.”
