Page 148 of Falling

“I like that they have a song just for them. Do we have one?”

She looks up at me as if I offended her. I can’t help but laugh at her sudden change of expression as she continues sniffling.

“Of course, we have a song, Miles, and you know which one it is,” she demands. “Do you really think I’d be still dating you if we didn’t have a song?”

“I’ll try not to take that personally,” I murmur.

She rolls her eyes. “Come on.”

She pulls at my arm as she starts to walk through the crowds of people in the room and leads us through the door. She drags us down the corridor of this fancy hotel until we get to a dark corridor. She looks into some of the rooms as if she knows her way around, and the thought crosses my mind that she’s secretly a spy.

When we get to the end of the corridor, she jingles the door handle to the right and opens the door, which leads to a flight of stairs.

“Where are we going?” I ask as she starts to sprint up the stairs.

“I know a shortcut,” she pants.

“How? We’ve literally been here a week.”

She ignores me with a laugh until we reach the top of the first flight of stairs to another door, which she opens with ease. We’re in darkness for a few beats before a light turns on and we’re somehow back in our suite.

“How?” I ask breathlessly as I cross the bedroom into the open living room and kitchen area, looking back to the door that we came out of.

“I have my ways,” she says with a shrug, looking through her bag from under the couch. She pulls out her speaker and holds down the button to connect it to her phone.

“You’re insane,” I say, walking over to her. Her blonde hair that she curled especially for today falls down across her face, and I brush out a strand from her eyes before pulling her further into me.

“I know,” she says cheerfully as she sets the speaker on the kitchen island. “Come and help me move this out of the way.”

We take a while to move the couch and the coffee table out of the way until there’s a large space in the middle only holding the carpet. Now we’re both sweatier than before as I huff and stare at her. She has a daring look in her eyes as she grabs her phone from the kitchen before returning to stand in front of me.

“You can have one guess as to what our song is,” she demands as she tugs on my tie and pulls me into her.

“I’m guessing it’s a Taylor Swift song based on your excitement.” She nods, waving her phone between us suggestively. “I don’t know, baby. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just be grateful you have a super cool girlfriend with impeccable music taste,” she says with a flourish as she hits play to the song she’s chosen. My heart expands as soon as theinstrumental begins, and the moment that she played this to me for the first time hits me. “See.”

She throws her phone on the couch and snakes her hands around my neck as the first verse toYou Are in Loveplays over the speakers. I wrap my arms around her waist as she brings her body closer to mine, our bodies fitting together perfectly.

“Do you remember what happened when I played this for you?” she asks as she sinks into my chest, her arms falling loose around my neck.

“I was driving us back from the gym, and you insisted on putting a song on because, apparently, my music taste is shit. You put this on, and I said it was good, but it felt like you were trying to subconsciously convince me to fall in love with you. Like you were trying to manifest it or something. You then told me that that’s never going to happen, but you thought it was one of the best love songs,” I explain as we sway back and forth to the music.

“And then what happened?” She starts to laugh into me, knowing what I’m going to say. I press a kiss to her head and chuckle into her.

“Thenyoufell in love with me.”

“I did.” She laughs softly before breaking away to look up at me. “I really did and hard too.”

We stay close to each other as the song plays on a loop, letting the words settle around us.

You can hear it in the silence.

You can feel it on the way home.

You can see it with the lights out.

You are in love.

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