Page 21 of Ten Years and Then…
Nora couldn’t blame her. She would have said something similar in Lisa’s place. She also couldn’t help smiling at how adorable it was that even two years later and a hundred miles away, Daniel couldn’t bring himself to repeat a curse to his father. “Wow.”
“He could see how upset he was, he didn’t even get angry at her. And I found out what happened from Jack’s brother the next morning. I didn’t tell my parents anything except that she had a really bad night with her boyfriend and they needed to give her as much space as she needed.” He took a deep breath. “I did, too. She didn’t come out of her room except to go to the bathroom for three days. So I brought up her meals on a tray and left it outside her bedroom door. And I put my Discman on the tray, because she’d broken hers, so she could listen to Bon Jovi over and over until she was ready to come out.”
He would have been just seventeen. And he did all that for a sister he didn’t even really get along with.
“My outfit made you think of all that?”
Now, finally, he laughed. “I think it was the way your makeup ran. It brought that whole thing back. I mean, you look nothing like her.” He got up, went over to his desk, grabbed his wallet. “Here,” he said, opening it up to reveal a family photo. “See?”
He was right; she looked nothing at all like his sister. He’d also been right that his sister, cute as she was, was not quite built to wear anything from Victoria’s Secret. “I take back what I said before about not telling her how much you care about her. She already knows, Daniel. She’s very lucky to have you. And, you know what else?”
He met her eyes, and his smile told her that he did know what else. Which meant she didn’t need to say it, she could just kiss him instead. Kiss him properly. So she did.
Daniel, three a.m.
It was almost three o’clock in the morning. All they’d done, all night, was talk.
Well, they’d made out for a few minutes here and there. And they’d danced through all of Slippery When Wet. Right there in the middle of his room, with the CD playing on his little boombox. Truthfully, it was mainly Nora who danced, while he mostly shuffled his feet around and waved his arms in a sad attempt at rhythm.
At least they’d been able to slow-dance to I’d Die For You. That had been pretty wonderful.
But she was yawning now, and that got him yawning. They were back on his bed, just sitting, just together. Nora really was the girl he’d told Bianca he was hoping for, someone he could just talk to all day long—or all night—and never want to be anyplace else.
“You know something?” She took his hands in hers. “This is the first time I’ve been up to your room and we haven’t…”
He hadn’t even thought about that tonight. They’d been too busy telling embarrassing stories, looking out the window and making fun of their classmates’ Halloween costumes, dancing badly to Bon Jovi and just learning more about each other.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I—of course I want to, but tonight was pretty great just as it was.”
She was still holding his hands. “I feel the same way. I’m really glad I came over tonight. It was special. You’re special, Daniel.”
“So are you, Nora.” She was so much more than special. He wished he knew a word that would describe it, but maybe there wasn’t a word big enough for her. All he could do was kiss her, and then walk her home.
Who would have thought that tonight would have started out with his girlfriend showing up in the most ridiculous outfit imaginable, progress to him telling a horrible story about his sister, and end without either one of them taking a single item of clothing off and somehow it would be the best night of his life?
Chapter 7
The last week of Fall semester—Albion College
Daniel, December 15
Daniel glanced at the calendar as if it might say something different this time. But of course it didn’t. Today was still December 15th. Still only five days until he headed home for Christmas break.
Only five days to find the perfect Christmas gift for Nora.
This was why he always tried to do important things well ahead of time. But he’d had two final papers to write, four final exams to study for and a special project to work on for Professor Maddox. And on top of all that, he’d spent two nights helping Anjali and Jeanette cram for their Physics final after they’d come down to the lobby and begged for someone to save them.
On one hand, eight tedious hours over two nights felt kind of like overpayment for the five minutes Anjali had spent ironing his shirt before his first date with Nora. On the other hand, maybe that had been the detail that made everything work, and that made it priceless; eight boring hours with occasional teasing thrown in was an insignificant price to pay.
Either way, those two nights were gone now, and he still had no idea what to buy Nora. Especially with only $20 to spend. He did have the emergency credit card his father had given him right before he got on the train to come to Albion last year. But how would he explain charging a gift for her, when he hadn’t even told his parents he had a girlfriend?
Could he make something? Probably not. The last handmade gift he’d given anyone was a bracelet he’d made for his mother in summer camp after third grade. It had been pathetic, even by the low standards of camp crafts produced by eight year olds. The only reason Mom hadn’t thrown it away the minute his back was turned, was that Mom never threw anything away, ever.
Except—maybe there was something he could make for her. There, taped up by the window, was the picture strip from the photo booth at the mall. They’d gone right before Thanksgiving, wandered around the mall for three hours, split a Cinnabon, and before the day was over, Nora had insisted on doing the photo booth.
Four shots. She was making devil horns behind his head in the top one. They were kissing in the second one, which didn’t look nearly as romantic in a 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch photo as it had felt inside the booth. They were both making silly faces in the fourth one.
But the third one—he remembered that moment. They’d just kissed, and she had pulled away a little from him, and he was staring into her eyes, and she into his, and neither one of them had even noticed the flash going off.
