I slid into the back of the car as she told the driver where to take us.
“You’re going to love it,” she gushed, and I had a feeling she was going to love it enough for the both of us. “Rolf’s has over-the-top holiday decor. It’s like a Christmas wonderland with all the ornaments and lights and garland. Every inch is decorated.” She spoke animatedly with her hands, her words coming out fast, and I found it extremely entertaining. “It’s super busy though, so we’ll have to wait to get a seat, but it will totally be worth it.”
Excitement at taking me to this Christmas restaurant bubbled out of her, and I couldn’t help but let out a small smile. Which was not like me.
“So—” she started but cut herself off. “Oh, my gosh, I don’t even know your name. I’m Belle.” She held out her hand for me to shake.
I took her hand in mine, giving it a single shake. “Holden.”
She smiled. “So, Holden, what has you back in the city?”
I didn’t want to answer that. I didn’t want to tell her I had played a game last night against my former team and had asked to stay behind so I could spend one more day in New York. I had hoped I could talk myself into visiting my aunt, but so far I hadn’t been successful. I had thought that by maybe leaving my hotel room, I could force myself to get out and make the trek to see her, but then I bumped into Belle and was happy to give up my prior plans.
“Traveling for work.” That was true and would hopefully appease her enough to move on from what my job actually was.
“Oh, so what is it you do?” she asked.
I should have known she would ask that. She was like this eager puppy excited to meet someone new.
“I have an idea,” I said, thinking of this on the spot. “What if we keep things like our occupation, last name, family info, and stuff like that to ourselves? We can enjoy a nice linner without interrogating each other.”
Her brows creased in confusion for a few seconds before smoothing out again. “Okay, yeah. That could be fun. A different way of getting to know someone. I like it.”
How could someone be this positive? She felt like an anomaly to me. I was just grateful she had decided to go along with it. The pressure of trying to keep my identity from her started to float away. Now I just had to hope that someone else didn’t recognize me and blurt out my secret.
We pulled up to the restaurant, and I got out of thecab first, holding the door open for her to join me out on the sidewalk. She practically bounced to the back of the line that had formed outside the door of Rolf’s, her enthusiasm and energy a stark contrast to my serious, glass-half-empty personality.
As I joined her, she asked, “If we can’t ask the normal get-to-know-you questions, that leaves us with either ‘what if’ questions or ‘would you rather’ questions.”
“What if,” I said, since I wasn’t a huge fan of the ‘would you rather’ game.
She nodded. “Okay.” She took a moment trying to figure out her question as the line moved along. “What if,” she started, “you could have any superpower, what would it be?”
“To be able to sleep anywhere at any time.”
“What?” She seemed genuinely surprised and confused. “You didn’t even take a second to think about it. And did you not hear the question? You could haveany superpower, and the ability to sleep is what you choose?”
I shrugged. “I travel a lot for work, and I can never sleep. It’s horrible.”
“I guess that would come in handy, then,” she said. “I can sleep anywhere. I could sleep standing up in this line. Watch.” She closed her eyes.
She couldn’t be serious. I continued to watch her as her body relaxed and her head started to slowly tilt to one side, a slight snore already escaping her. I watchedher in amazement as she seemed to fall asleep in front of me.
One of her eyes peeked open, and she caught me staring with what I assumed was a stunned expression on my face, because soon she was laughing.
“Oh my goodness,” she said through her laughter. “I was teasing.” She playfully hit my arm. “I didn’t know I was such a good actress.”
I gave her a close-lipped smile and shook my head at her, not believing it myself that I had fallen for her act.
Which made it official. I had never met someone like her before. She was so full of life, acting so carefree, that it made me wonder if nothing bad had ever happened to her. Because I couldn’t understand how someone could be this happy and alive.
Or maybe it had more to do with how different she seemed from me. I was bitter and, well, unhappy. At least when it came to my personal life. My professional life was everything I had dreamed of as a kid—and more. Hockey had not only gotten me away from my mom, it was also the only thing I truly enjoyed doing. The rest of the time, I walked around on autopilot.
“If I could have any superpower,” she said, thankfully cutting off my thoughts and not waiting for me to ask her the same question. “I would want to be able to travel wherever I wanted, just like that.” She snapped her fingers in front of her face as if to emphasize what she meant. “You can change your answer to that if you want. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about sleep. Youcould just snap your fingers and be back in your own bed or back to work.”
Was it weird that I thought I could listen to her talk all day? I’d only have to say the occasional answer or nod my head, and she’d do the rest. She was like a butterfly who kept fluttering around from thing to thing, from sentence to sentence, her hands constantly moving when she talked, and I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off her.
“And where would you travel to?” I asked, with yet another small smile on my face. I’d smiled more with her in the last half hour than I had with anyone else.
