I took a long lick of my cone, moaning as the creamy coolness made its way down my throat before I even put my change away.
“I’m not waiting any longer if it’s that good.” Layton brought his tongue out to meet the ice cream, mesmerizing me again.
“Want to walk?” he asked while I shoved my change away and grabbed a light sweater from my bag.
Chills were forming from ingesting the cold ice cream, coupled with the searing heat between us. I put one sleeve on while licking my cone and then switched. It wasn’t even close to being glamorous or seductive, but it was never about that with Layton.
With him, I could be the socially awkward girl who was way too ahead of herself, but was afraid to admit it.
We ended up walking up Central Park South toward Columbus Circle, eating until there was nothing left and swapping stories. Somehow we got stuck on the topic of peanut allergies, I think because of the nut vendors on the street and different people we knew with the ailment. We agreed that while it was serious, the whole not-serving-peanuts-on-an-airplane deal was overboard.
Then again, we weren’t parents, so what the hell did we know? Honestly, it was such meaningless banter yet heavily weighted with meaning, simply because we were doing it. Chatting like a longtime couple with plans for a future and kids with allergies.
At Columbus Circle, I stopped in front of the Time Warner Center. “Pretty sure this is you.”
“It is.”
We stood there quietly, no more laughing over peanuts and long-gone ice cream cones to busy our hands with. After an awkward moment, he broke the silence.
“We could have a drink. You could come up?”
As he watched me, waiting for an answer, I studied him back, nearly sighing at how his brown eyes looked like a warm honey amber against the twinkling skyline.
Oh. My. God. I was a cheesy girl falling for a guy, the star of my own romantic comedy.
“I’d like to,” I answered, grinning from ear to ear. “Want to play me some of the music you heard today?”
His face lit up like the Empire State Building. “You’d want to do that?”
“I would.”
He linked his hand with mine and practically dragged me into the hotel lobby and toward the elevators.
