“Pinky. I should probably get back out there though. You’re gonna be okay. Give Cooper and yourself grace. And don’t navigate this alone. I think he’d be okay if you leaned on him…or at least fucked it out of your system.”
“Meave!” I push at my sister’s shoulder.
“Oh come on. If the kiss was that good…just imagine it.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.
Trust me, I have. Last night to be precise. Twice.
I jump ship to a new topic. “When do you leave for filming?”
“Not till May,” Meave plays it off casually, “but I met someone last week.” Lucky girl syndrome, I swear. “So I think I’m gonna bail.”
“Bail? After knowing him for a week?”
“Wait till you meet him.”
“What?! He’s here?” I squeak.
“Well, duh. He’s obsessed with me.” Meave walks us out of the office and in the direction of someone who looks like they could own half of the Chicago skyline.
Meave was surprisingly right.Her new crush is obsessed with her, and dinner was incredible. Cooper enjoyed it so much, he finished off my Buddha bowl.
“Sutton, do you want me to drive you back to campus? We can have a sleepover?” Meave asks me, tucking her to-go boxes into a brown paper bag.
Cooper glances at us across the table. Sly and inconspicuously. He’s trying to be a snoop without getting caught.
He is, but it’s not his fault.
He isn’t to blame for becoming a magnet. Drawing me to him whenever he’s in the room. I hate that this is how my current reality is. I keep waiting to wake up, but I’m not sleeping.
After Meave and I’s conversation at the art gallery, I’m coming to terms with the reality. Minorly. Searching for the words to tell Cooper, and to make sense of the emotions dwelling within me.
Standing across the room, I don’t know if I want to run for the hills or run to him.
“Can we plan a sister night for another weekend? Spring break? Cooper is going to drive me back.”
TWENTY-SIX
SUTTON
We ignorethe first crackle of thunder. Ignorant of the harsh line in the sky and gray, endless clouds chasing behind us. Above us, through the open top of Cooper’s Jeep, is a cotton candy sky. The day fading into warm oranges and pinks, watercolors blending as if the sky is one of Meave’s pieces of art.
“Turn it up?” he asks as ODESZA’s “Line of Sight” comes on.
I reach to turn up the radio, my fingers twisting the knob, making sure it is on an increment of five for him. I lift my hands when the song hits its peak, stretching up through the roof.
Wind on my fingertips and billowing in my curls. Contentment on my face.
I tip my head up and take a slow inhale of air and the lyrics.
Is he taking them in, too? Can he hear the way I sing the lyrics as a plea to him? A single rain drop hits the tip of my nose, and as I open my eyes, I debate telling Cooper we should put the top back on. We checked the weather before programming the directions to campus. There was a ten percent chance, but the radar only showed a minuscule speck of green.
I turn my attention to him and decide not to.
From his passenger seat, I stare over at him.
Wind in his hair.
Smile on his face.
