Page 14 of Ten Years and Then…
He pushed open the door, and ushered her into his room. The first time he’d ever had a girl in his room, here or ever. There was no point hoping she wouldn’t know that, his nerves made it obvious. But maybe it didn’t matter. She’d said it herself—she said yes tonight because he wasn’t like the jerks who had a different girl in their room every other night. Because he was different.
So what was there to be afraid of?
Nothing, but that’s why they called them “irrational fears.”
Whatever showed on his face, she didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy looking around his room, running a hand along his bookshelf, picking up the occasional book to look more closely at it.
“You keep things pretty tidy, don’t you? I bet it’s always like this. You didn’t clean up just in case we came back here tonight.”
He felt himself going beet red. “I—I didn’t think, I didn’t expect…”
She put down his copy of The Hobbit and put a hand on his arm. “You didn’t? Really?”
He hadn’t. Until he’d heard that song back at the café, he hadn’t thought about anything more than dinner and talking. And even then, he didn’t picture anything more happening—if it did at all—tonight. “Honestly, no. All I wanted was to not mess up tonight. And—and it’s been amazing. I don’t want to mess it up now.”
She sat on his bed, patted the space next to her. This was so far beyond anything he could have hoped—or even imagined. It took him a minute to get up the courage to sit down with her. “You didn’t mess up. And you’re not going to now.” She grabbed his shoulders, turned him to face her. She was only a couple of inches away from him. “I’m here because I want to be, because I want to be with you. Because you’re the amazing one. And I’m not going anywhere.”
She leaned in, and the inches became millimeters, and then he bridged that last tiny distance, his lips on hers, her arms around him, his hands cupping her face.
After a moment, she pulled away, but her arms were still around him, holding him close. He could almost feel her heart beating. He wondered if she could feel his, feel how it was racing. “I—I know what you said. I don’t want you to go. I just …I don’t want …if we—if this …I want it to be…”
Words failed him, but she understood all the same. She caressed his cheek, then leaned in and kissed him again, deeper this time, and he responded. He wasn’t sure how long it was before they both took a breath.
“Can I ask you something?” He nodded; he still didn’t have any words. “Is this your first time?”
He probably should have had some reaction, he didn’t even know what it ought to be. All he did was nod again.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He surprised himself that he could even manage that word.
“Better than okay. It’s a lot better. It’s a gift that you told me. And that you’re trusting me with tonight.” They kissed a third time, and now, finally, he found his voice.
“I do trust you, Nora. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here with you.” And this time, he was the one who kissed her, and pulled her close, and didn’t let go.
Nora, just after midnight
It had been halting and awkward. But that didn’t matter. What mattered to Nora was the way he didn’t look away from her the whole time. And what she saw in his eyes, the way he trusted her, and, more, the way he was present, in the moment with her, as nervous as she knew he was.
And he still was present, an hour later. He held her close, as they lay together under the blankets. She’d never been cared for like this afterward, and she told him that.
“Really? Why … I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t—what’s wrong with your old boyfriends?”
They mostly weren’t boyfriends, for one thing, but that was something she could tell him another time. “I think it’s more what’s right with you.”
He didn’t respond for a little while. “I—I like this. This is—who wouldn’t want to be with you, after … well, after?” Then he fell silent again, and there was a faraway look in his eyes.
“Hey, Daniel? Where’d you go?”
He blinked, and focused on her again, but he took his time answering, and she knew he was trying to think of the right way to say whatever was in his mind. “It’s what I was thinking about back at the café, when Take My Breath Away came on the jukebox.”
“She was your high school girlfriend?”
He nodded. “Peggy. We dated for, like, eight months or so. She was a senior at St. Barnabas, it was our sister school. When we needed girls for a play, or when we had a dance, that’s where they came from.” She’d wondered how that worked when he’d told her about his all-boys school. “Anyway, she was always at my bus stop in the morning and we got off the bus in the afternoon, and I guess she was flirting with me for a while and I didn’t realize. Bee said that’s what she was doing, then the day she got her class ring, she was so excited, she showed it to me on the bus, and we just walked together when we got off. We ended up at her house, and she invited me in, and her parents weren’t there.”
“And you had your first kiss.” Nora could picture exactly how it had gone.
“They say you’re not supposed to talk about old relationships on a date.”
