Page 62 of Swiped
The guard clapped her hands and circled them with a pointed stare. Rami winced again at his ruined plan.
“Actually, I’m kinda glad that it’s closing.” Allison took a huge step back from the domed windows. “I’m kinda afraid of heights.” She swallowed with another big step backward. “Like, a lot.”
“Oh my God!” he cried. Rami quickly ushered her back into the elevator lobby.
She jammed the button.
“So, I just took you to the one place that’s your absolute nightmare? On your birthday?”
Allison gave a nervous laugh. “I mean, no clowns here yet, but . . . yeah.”
They hopped into the antique elevator with a creak.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.
The doors closed, and the tarnished iron grate slid across the car as they lurched down.
“You just seemed so excited,” she said, still clutching her hands to her chest.
“I can make this up to you. I know another spot — all indoors, all ground-level.”
“Is that their motto?”
“It’s actually, ‘We Will Not Terrify Nice Girls.’”
She relaxed a little. “I feel bad, though. I mean, you must have other stuff to do today?”
The elevator doors pinged open, and they walked into the lobby, just two more figures among Diego Rivera’s colorful mural.
“Seriously, this is what I’m doing today. It’s your birthday! We can’t give up now.” Rami knew he sounded like the overly earnest hero in a children’s cartoon, but he didn’t care. Cringe be damned! He was going to make this a romantic day, no matter what.
They paused at the doors, looking out at the sheets of rain cascading through the street.
He sighed. “Why let one humongous miscalculation get in the way of an adventure, right?”
She hit him with a mischievous smirk. “Now you’re speaking my language.” She stepped backward into the rain with a small, “Whoop!”
He watched the rain darken her red hair into tight curls as she lifted her arms and tilted her face back into the downpour. Patches of water instantly spread across her oversized athleisure pullover and streamed down her black leggings.
She grinned at him with sparkling, manic eyes. “Is this what you’d call a data point?” she yelled through the gray sheets of rain.
Rami felt his heart swell, as his mind saw a rush of invisible cartoon hearts swirl around Allison’s laughing frame. He stepped out into the rain with her.
* * *
The rain reached Nat and Thom in their open-air hot tub suite as a sudden downpour. Cold drops pelted Nat’s skin as she clambered out of the steamy tub. She shrieked.
Thom grabbed their robes and opened the door for her.
Nat registered anew that their suite was in the middle of a large, grassy field. It had seemed perfect on the way in, but that had been before the sky opened up.
Thom pointed to a large barn in the near distance. “There! I see a roof.”
They pulled their robes over their heads and ran into the field. Nat shrieked again as they splashed through the soaking grass. The robe-tent over her head echoed the happy panting of her own breath. All she could see were her bare feet sloshing in the soft mud. She heard Thom give a high-pitched howl. She laughed between her breaths and peeked out from under the robe.
Thom had reached the barn and stood in the rain holding the door open for her. She raced inside.
He caught her with strong, soaking arms. He wrapped his slightly less soaked robe around her. They huddled in the dark, empty barn, catching their breath through racing hearts. Chairs and tables draped in white cloths lined the space. Dark strings of Edison bulbs looped through the beams. Nat could practically see the happy ghosts of the beautiful weddings that had happened here.
