He stood, and so did I out of instinct. “Someone from the committee will be in touch to confirm your works for the gala. But that won’t be until a week before. So, enjoy your summer, and as much as I love our meetings, the next time I want to see you is when you’re walking into that gala you deserve to be at.” He tipped his head at me as he sank into the shadows. “Always a pleasure, Cora.”
I turned around, my mouth gaped, but smile as wide as anything. I was speechless. Breathless. This was the only thing I’d ever wanted that hadn’t felt like I had to pretend to be someone else to get it.
I looked up and my eyes found Persephone. “Girl, thank you.” My hands cupped my head as I silently screamed with joy.
All of it felt like a dream. But I suppose anything good that had happened to me recently felt like a dream, too. And this moment was no different. Except…
I pinched the skin on my wrist.
Fuck.
Yeah, okay. Not a dream.
And I had to tell someone. Anyone.
In a flash his face was in my mind.
Marcus.
Before I rounded the bench, I whispered back to Persephone. “Sorry about your impending heartbreak.”
I didn’t stop running until I reached the exit, slowing as I jogged down the steps, pushed open the doors, and ran into the bright sunshine. My head swung left and right before I spotted Marcus parked a few hundred yards away, like he’d promised. His body was leant against the car, sitting in that shadowy charm he somehow always kept up.
I ignored the butterflies that took flight in my stomach as my eyes flew over him—the way I always tried to ignore them—and hurried my steps. I got a few paces away when he noticed me, slipping his phone into his jeans and pushing up from the car. His smile seemed to grow the more he noticed mine.
“What’s got you smiling like that?”
My cheeks ached as I kept my grin in place. “You remember the Nouvelle Gala I told you about?”
“The one you remind me about at least three times a week?” His face pulled. “No, I don’t think I do, tell me one more time.”
I reached out and knocked his arm with my fist. “You do. Just say you do.”
His laugh bubbled out of him. “Of course I do.”
My eyes squeezed shut as I ran the words through my mind, wondering how to break it all down without running out of breath or fainting from shock before I could even tell him. So I skipped to the good bit.
“I’ve been invited.”
Marcus’ head tilted in a way that told me he knew I’d have this news eventually. His smile lifted, and his brown eyes lightened as the sun caught them. “That’s incredible, Cora.” He stepped towards me. “How are you feeling?”
My hands ran through my hair as my smile ached. “Amazing?” I said it more like a question. “I think I’m actually deciding whether I woke up this morning or if this whole thing is a dream.”
His hands slowly slipped into mine, like we’d done this a million times and not once was it new, or strange. He squeezed them gently. “It’s real, Cor. Because you made it real. You fought for this.” His head dipped low so we were eye level, close enough I could pick out the threads of gold laced in his eyes. “Proud doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling right now.”
I couldn’t tell you how long we stood there for, holding hands just as tightly as our eyes were, in one of the busiest cities in the world with the late July sun bathing us in a way that I don’t think either of us had truly appreciated before.
We were prone to the shadows because that was where we were safe, where our lives were safe. It had certainly been where I’d wanted to keep my feelings for him recently. But something about his smile and the sun and the feel of his pulse in my palmsmade me never want to retreat to the dark corners I’d made a home for myself in.
Then, through whatever moment that was forming, his phone began to ring.
My eyes darted between his, watching as they sank and he sighed. My hands went cold instantly as he slipped his from mine, his phone replacing them as he pulled it from his jeans. He looked between his phone and me before shaking his head.
“It’s Oscar. He said he’d call if anything came—”
“It’s okay,” I smiled, genuinely. “I’ll wait here.” I twisted my body and leaned it against his car. “Stay out of trouble.”
And of course, he smirked. That maddening, knowing, infuriating smirk that curled the corner of his mouth like he’d already won a game I didn’t know we were playing. It wasn't even full, just the barest twitch of amusement, but on Marcus, it was lethal. He didn’t smirk like other people. There was no arrogance in it, no boyish charm. It was subtle. Controlled. Dangerous.
