Page 81 of Dire Straights

After a brief stint of silence, other than chewing food and slurping from our drinks, I noticed the table of girls in the corner seemed to be looking over at us a lot.

“I think your buddy from earlier might be talking trash about you,” I observed, and he glanced over to their table too.

“Whatever. They can say what they want.”

“It really doesn’t bother you?” I wondered, tilting my head at him. “They’re probably complaining that you’re gay,” I said. It was a little funny.

Snorting a bit and shaking his head, he reached across the table and caught my hands in his.

“I seriously don’t care what anybody thinks about us, or if they think I’m gay, or whatever dumb shit. I’m really, really happy with you.”

“Me, too,” I said, hoping I didn’t look too dopey staring at him like a cartoon character with big hearts for eyes. “Oh, crap,” I realized, once I’d peeled my eyes away from and glanced down to my phone. “There’s kind of this thing I wanted to do, and we need to go now if we want to catch it on time.”

Luckily, we were both basically done eating and could book it out of there, hurrying down the boardwalk. I led the way, grasping his hand in mine as I dragged him along. And yeah, some people looked at us weird. But if he didn’t care, then I didn’t care.

“The ferris wheel?” He asked, when I finally stopped, panting a bit. It towered over us, the colorful lights flashing in chaotic patterns all over the giant spokes. The sun was just starting to sink down into the horizon, pink and orange scribbled all over the sky.

“I wanted to ride with you when we came here before, but remember it started raining and we had to run home?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “I remember what happened after that, too,” he said dryly.

“Oh, yeah. That was really cute.”

“Shut up,” he said, rolling his eyes. But he was blushing. “Let’s just get on the ride.”

We waited in the short line, climbing up into one of the dangling baskets when the attendant directed us to, pulling the safety bar down over our chests. It was cold, the bracing airwhipping around us as we rose into the air. At the top, we could see the whole boardwalk and even most of BBU’s campus.

“This is so fucking cool,” Maddy commented, gazing out over everything. It was, but I couldn’t stop looking at him. When he shivered from the cold, I put my arm around his shoulders and hugged him tight to my side for warmth.

“So… About what’s in this box,” I started, but he shook his head and cut me off.

“Wait,” he said. “There’s something I want to say first. But I’m really fucking nervous.”

“You don’t have to be nervous with me,” I reminded him. But truthfully, my stomach was twisting with nerves, too. What I had for him in the box was cheesy and silly, but it was also really important. “Whatever it is, you can say it.”

“Um, it’s just that… I’ve been thinking about everything between us and… You know, when I wake up you’re the first person I think about and you’re the last person I think about when I go to sleep. And when I see something funny, you’re the one I want to tell about it, and all that lame shit. You know?”

“Yeah. Me, too.” I nodded, but my heart was pounding in my chest like a jackhammer. He looked so anxious I wanted to put him out of his misery and tell him he didn’t have to say it, but I wanted to hear it so bad I couldn’t.

“And so I just… I just figured that because of all that, and because I’m so happy with you and I just love spending every second with you that I can, and when I’m not with you, you’re all I’m thinking about, so… That probably means that… I love you.”

I really, really hadn’t imagined any universe where he would tell me first. And it didn’t bother me, thinking I would have to say it before he would have the guts to, because that was just how he is. It was so amazing, like my blood was singing in my veins, and I couldn’t stop smiling. The sun sent out its final beam,blasting out all the fiery sunset colors before they got painted over with the cool, dark tones of night.

“Maddy… Here,” I said, pushing the little white box into his hands. He held onto it, staring down at it for a couple of seconds before looking back up at me, those gorgeous blue eyes narrowed.

“So I know everyone’s always likeI’m not saying this so that you’ll say it backbut if you don’t say it back, I’m actually going to be really pissed off.”

I laughed, mostly because the expression on his face was so deadly serious, like he would throw me off the ride if I didn’t comply.

“Can you just open the box?” I asked. “And by the way, I’m aware it’s completely lame now, compared to you just saying all that stuff. But I didn’t know you would do that.”

“If this is a high school musical cupcake, I’m going to be very upset.”

“Open it!”

He still looked annoyed and suspicious, but he tilted the lid up and back, revealing the stupid, silly treat I’d had made for him. It was a big chocolate chip cookie, with pink glitter and edible confetti shaped like hearts sprinkled all over it. And spelled out in swirly letters and thick pink frosting wasI love you.

He stared down at it for so long I started to worry that he hated it. I cleared my throat, wincing slightly.

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