Page 308 of Falling Backwards
Not that I’m giving up, of course.I’m just not interested in it on our extra-special occasion.
For a minute, we sing along with the Fall Out Boy song quietly playing.Then I remember the new featured burger at Mellow Burger, and I wonder if Luke and I should share it.It has a glazed donut for a bun, which sounds weirdandtasty and like something one person maybe shouldn’t eat by th—
Without warning, a car veers right in front of us from the lane beside ours, making me gasp sharply and Luke rush to hit the brake.I grab my door and the center compartment as we slow just enough not to collide with them as they turn into a parking lot.
“Are you kidding me, fucker?”Luke demands loudly.He holds a hand out in front of him, somehow resisting flipping the driver off.“What, they don’t put blinkers on BMWs?”
Heavy adrenaline pounds through me.I work on breathing through it, assuring myself that we’re safe and that I shouldn’t flip the person off either.
And then, through it all, I’m hit with astonishment.
I whip my head to look at Luke…
…who clearly has, as I have, registered what he just said.
My mouth was already open, and it falls open even more now.
He sees it between glances since we’re coming to a red light and the danger has passed.
Holding his index finger up at me, he says, “Okay, wait a second.”
“What was that?” I finally exclaim.“Did you just basically admit—?”
“No!No!”He shakes his head.“I said—I—what I said—what Imeantwas—”
I jab a finger at him.“Oh myGod,Luke!You understand the importance of a blinker!”
“No, listen!That isnotwhat I….”
He doesn’t keep talking.He just looks at me like a deer in headlights.
And I explode into laughter.
Luke puts his face in his hands, and as if he hadn’t already betrayed himself with his complaint to that driver, I can read defeat on him here.
“You agree with me!”I say.“For all your stubbornness aboutnotusing your blinkers, when it comes down to it,you freaking agree with methat people should use them!”
Through my wholehearted amusement, I hear him groan, “Aw, God, what have I done?”
I laugh through the remaining couple of minutes to Mellow Burger, heartily, in giggles, in shoulder-shaking snorts I try to stifle.All the while, he grips the steering wheel with both hands and chews on his bottom lip, the picture of,‘I just lost this argument.’
This.Freaking.Guy.
Once we’re parked and out of the car, he shuffles around to meet me at the front of it.He tries not to smile, but he fails, then grins, then finally starts laughing along with me.
“This is ass,” he says.
I laugh harder, and he comes close enough to put his hands on my aching cheeks.
I get out, “How long have you known I was right?”
Chuckles quake through him as he kisses my forehead, and then he groans, “You’re not right.Blinkers don’t matter.I was just mad that that car cut right in front of us.”
I tilt a look up at the good-natured exasperation on his face.Overflowing with love, I calm down enough to agree teasingly, “Yes, and that’s why you said,‘Who taught you it’s okay to cut off other cars like that?’and not,‘What, they don’t put blinkers on BMWs?’”
Luke’s laughter builds and takes mine with it; he brings me into a hug that lets me feel all of it moving through him, warm and wonderful.
As I hug him back, I stamp kisses to his shoulder and neck.He does the same to me, then to the side of my head, then around to my lips.
