Page 68 of One Night

"I think it's best if we don't."

He takes his hand away. "Go ahead and get dressed. I'll wait here."

Back in my room, I race to my closet to find something to wear. We need to get out of the apartment before we do something we shouldn't. I hurry and change into black yoga pants, a long sleeve t-shirt, and zip-up hoodie. Then I race to the bathroom, dry my hair, and gather it into a ponytail.

"Aren't we going to freeze out there?" I ask as I come back to the living room.

"It's not that cold. It's in the fifties but feels warmer with the sun."

"Okay, then I'm ready."

I grab some gloves, just in case my hands get cold, then we go outside and take off toward campus, which is about a mile from my apartment. When we get there, I take him to the path that Kira always runs on. It's a two-mile loop that goes along the perimeter of campus.

"You doing okay?" Dylan asks.

"Yeah. How about you?"

"Good, but why don't we take a break?"

We stop next to a bench and stretch our legs.

"For someone who doesn't work out much," he says, "you're in really good shape. I was going pretty fast and you still kept up."

"I walk a lot on campus and I'm a fast walker. And all of those years of gymnastics paid off. I'm still in good shape from that."

"Why don't you show me what you can do?"

"What do you mean?"

He motions to the lawn behind us. "Show me some of your gymnastics."

"That was a long time ago. I don't do that stuff anymore."

"But I'm sure you still know how. Come on. I want to see you do something."

I check to make sure no one's coming down the path. I go behind the bench, stretch a little, then get a running start and do a series of forward flips, adding a twist in the air for the last one.

"Holy shit, that's amazing," he says.

I laugh. "It's really not. That was like gymnastics 101. I can do a lot better than that."

"Can you show me?"

"I don't know. The ground is really hard. I don't want to fall and get hurt."

"Yeah, of course. Sorry, I wasn't thinking about that. Come sit down."

It would be kind of fun to do a routine for him. I wonder if I could still do it.

"Hold on. I'm going to try."

"Amber, no. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I won't." I get in position, pause a moment to get my mind in the game, then do a routine I used to do for a warmup. It's not my hardest routine but it was always one of my favorites.

When I'm done I glance over at Dylan and see him staring at me like he can't believe I just did that. He lifts his hands and slowly claps.

"You liked it?"

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