Page 44 of Swiped
It seemed like the number of people on the street had doubled in the time they were in the pizza shop. Nat squeezed close to Rami to avoid getting elbowed by drunken groups taking up the sidewalk in their crooked march to the next bar. He leaned his body back toward hers in response and guided them through the chaos as a little unit.
They managed to walk a few blocks, and the crowd thinned out. Nat realized that she didn’t know where they were going, and that she also didn’t want to ask and have the answer possibly be “nowhere.” She also noticed that he hadn’t moved away from her, even though the sidewalk was now wide open.
Rami cleared his throat. “Shall we get a nightcap? We could probably make last call.”
Before Nat could answer with her definiteYes, she felt her phone buzz just as she heard Rami’s buzz in unison.
They pulled out their phones.
“Oh shit,” said Nat, reading.
“Shit-shit,” said Rami, also reading.
It was an email from Tracy Goodwin-King at BuzzFill. She was reminding them of their pre-arranged midpoint check-in interview in the morning. It seemed that neither of them had accepted the calendar invite, or maybe her intern had forgotten to send it — an idea to which she had added a smiley face. Either way, the date was in the contract, so she expected to see them bright and early, and ready to give updates on their contest progress — on camera, obviously.
“More like BuzzKill,” Rami grumbled.
“It really is.” Nat sighed. She eyed Rami’s figure standing next to her in the hazy street light. “Unless . . .”
“Unless you don’t want to give the interview, for some reason,” he said, voice turning up into a taunt as he finished her sentence.
She balked. “I have no reason not to! Everything is going fine for me.”
“Good. Me too.”
“Good.” Nat shifted her weight and straightened her coat. “So then we can both just report on our respective dating success tomorrow.”
“Absolutely.”
The idea of this same voice deriding her app,her work, was all too real, no matter how sweet it sounded to her now. After all, she’d heard him do it before. She stuck out her chin in defiance. “I’ve been meeting great guys through BeTwo. I haven’t found the right one yet, but I will.”
Rami nodded and tucked a few of his glossy curls behind his ear. “Yeah, and I just had a great night with a cute girl I mettotally organically . . .” He hesitated, biting his pouty bottom lip. “I met her at a tech convention.”
Instinctively, Nat nodded with a tight smile. Then his meaning hit her. The city street seemed to hush around her. All she could see was his face — his doe eyes under expressive brows, and strong, stubbled jawline offset with a shy smile. For the first time with him, her mind went blank. She just stared.
“Sorry, bad joke,” he said, as cars and sirens and other people’s conversations swirled back into her awareness. He rubbed his hands together with an awkward laugh. “I should probably call it a night.”
But she didn’t want to call it a night. “No,” she said, stepping forward and taking his hand. She let the warmth of his body fill her with courage. “I had a nice time with you, too.”
Rami drew close to her, and his soft fingers curled around hers. Chemistry, that thing she had been chasing all night, practically sparked in the gap between them like electricity. His eyes searched hers, and she nodded silent permission. Slowly, so slowly, Nat couldfeelher shaky breath.
He leaned in, and their lips touched.
And it worked. His lips moved with hers, and she felt his broad chest pressing against her. She wrapped her arms around his steady shoulders. He pulled her close with a deeper kiss. The city was hushed for her again, and the only sound she heard was their breath.
She felt his hands rest on her hips as she leaned away. “That was nice, too,” she whispered. But it had been so much more than nice.
“You’re nice, too,” he echoed back to her.
* * *
Rami opened the door to his apartment in between their kisses.
“I don’t understand anything about you,” she said, barely taking a breath.
“I don’t understand anything about you,” he said, flicking on the lights and pulling her into the hallway toward his room.
“And yet you want to punish me,” she said.
