Page 71 of One Night

"It was on the floor. It must've fallen off the table. Is it from Dylan?"

"Yeah, but I didn't see him leave it."

"He must've set it down when you weren't looking."

I take the letter to the living room and plop down on the couch.

"Amber we have to go," I hear Kira say. "We're already late."

"It'll just take a minute."

"You read his letters like ten times. It'll take more than a minute."

"I won't read it ten times."

As I open the envelope I wonder when Dylan even had time to write this. I was with him all day. He must've written it when he went home to shower before lunch. This past week, we've only exchanged letters once. I was starting to think maybe he'd given up writing them.

My Dearest Amber, he writes.

It's now been a week since you sent me the letter that reignited our relationship but it seems like much longer than that. Maybe because I've thought about you every single day since that night last May. For whatever reason, I had a feeling that wasn't the end for us. And it wasn't. It was only the beginning.

I know you didn't want us to see each other this past week but fate brought us together once again and I'm grateful it did. We already had our time apart. Six very long months. Now it's time to be together. Get to know each other. Become friends. And eventually more than that.

I'm in no rush to get to that point, the place we were at the night we met. There are parts of me that vehemently disagree with that, one part in particular, but he'll just have to wait.

I want this to work. I want it to be more than just a casual relationship that ends in a few weeks or a month. So if taking things slow will help us do that, then I'm all for it. But I can't go without seeing you. I'll still write the letters because I know how much you like them, but they can't replace my time with you. I hope you feel the same.

Love, Dylan.

I do feel the same. Now that I've had a week with Dylan, going without seeing him seems impossible. He's right. The letters aren't enough. I love them, and I love reading them over and over again, but I also want to see him.

"What'd he say?" Kira asks, her coat on, indicating she's in a hurry to leave.

"I can't tell you. I'll be right back." I run to my room, deposit the letter in my drawer and meet Kira at the front door.

"Why can't you tell me?" She hands me my coat.

"He asked me not to." I laugh as I shrug my coat on. "He said he'd lose his man card if I ever told anyone what's in those letters."

"So he writes you lovey dovey stuff." We go out in the hall and she locks the door.

"Well, yeah, they're love letters. They're supposed to be romantic."

"I can't imagine Dylan writing that. He doesn't seem like the romantic type."

"He is. He just tries to hide it."

I think that side of him only comes out when he's with me. At least I hope that's true. I don't want to think about him being that way with someone else.

As we're driving to the bar, Kira asks, "You going to be okay tonight?"

"No." I keep my eyes on the road. "But there's nothing I can do about it. He's the lead singer. He's hot. And girls love him."

"But you know he'd never do anything with them, right?"

"He said he wouldn't, but I've only known him a week so I guess I can't really be sure about that."

"He wouldn't cheat on you. He's so crazy about you, I can't imagine him even looking at another girl."

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