Page 9 of Write on Time

Drake

She looks like she’s about to throw up and my heart clenches. I can’t let her do this alone. Even if the first time made me want to hurl my own cookies.

“I’m coming,” I whisper as I grind my teeth together and hope she didn’t pick something crazy.

I step up on the stage as the music comes on and she grins at me, holding out a hand.

“I cannot believe that you picked this one,” I mutter under my breath.

One of the biggest chick songs of the last year. The women she’s with go crazy and she shoots them all a huge grin before she starts singing, holding onto my hand.

I groan when we hit the chorus and sing along. “Cause dirt on you is dirt on me…”. The girls are dancing at the table, their hands in the air.

I wish I wasn’t helping her sing about killing her husband and hiding the evidence!

But she’s smiling and her hands aren’t clenched on the microphone anymore. She’s starting to dance and move around and I move with her, entranced.

Lord, she’s pretty.

Her face is lit up as bright as the stage lights and her green eyes are sparkling with laughter and happiness and there’s just something about her that makes my heart feel so full that it’s about to overflow with emotions that I’ve never felt before.

And I don’t think I’ll ever feel them again. Because I will never love another woman like this.

She moves around me and I follow her like a moon trapped in the orbit of a planet. She’s where I need to be for the rest of my life.

I draw in a deep breath and she winks at me, completely in her element and I’m entranced. She seemed so shy and sweet and now I know that there’s something lively and warm underneath all that shyness and…it’s the most perfect thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life, watching her come alive.

Watching her learn that there’s more to life than loneliness.

The song ends and I hold her hand up and kiss it lightly. She blushes and ducks her head and there’s the shy girl again. But this time I know that there’s so much more to her than that and I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life.

The minute that I recognized my heart had a home and it’s a tiny little wild card of a woman who’s too sweet, too shy and too dang perfect to be real.

She yanks on my hand and drags me down to the table where she was sitting. All of the girls are laughing and Delia holds up a drink, toasting her.

“Congratulations, Alanis! That was amazing!”

She flushes and then sits down at the table, pulling on my hand so that I practically end up in her lap.

It’s like she’s forgotten that she’s still holding my hand. She flushes and drops my fingers. “I’m so sorry, Drake! I shouldn’t have let you stay with me. I’m sure you’re ready to be done with me.”

I shake my head and grab my drink, taking a hearty sip. “I could never be done with you.”

Delia grins at me and winks. “Smooth,” she whispers.

Alanis groans and slaps her hand over her eyes. “I can’t believe I just did that!”

“You did!” They all cheer and laugh and I take my drink and move back to the bar, keeping an eye on my girl.

For the rest of the night, the girls drink and have fun, laughing and swaying to the music and I keep an eye on Alanis, unable to look away.

Until this moment I don’t think I realized how gone I am for this woman. How much she’s come to mean to me through her letters and then the fiery, shy personality of her in the flesh.

At the end of the night, the party breaks up and I drop the cash on the bar for my beer that I nursed all night.

I have no intention of being drunk tonight. Because I intend to walk that woman to her car. Ineedto spend more time with her. Need to listen to her voice and see her soft smile.

She heads for the door and I push back, following her. Most everyone has already left. Her friends are packed into a couple of cars and they’re shouting like crazy teenagers.

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