Her voice is barely a whisper and a lot more emotional than I am used to hearing from her. She drops her eyes down the length of my body until they reach my hands.
“Is that…” She points at me when her voice gives up on her. “Is that for me?”
I drop my chin to my chest and see the red rose I’m holding. I don’t even know how to give it to her since that’s never been me. Not to mention, I didn’t even make the effort of buying it.
“It is.”
I raise my hand and give it to her. The smile lighting up her entire face about knocks me off my feet. Why didn’t I ever see her like this?
Our eyes meet, and something shifts in my chest. I see a future with her that scared me to death before. I am scared to death that I will somehow ruin it because she won’t let me have it.
Or, I won’t know how to earn it and keep it.
TWENTY-THREE
Mona
“Kyle’s gonna kill us both,”Alex snickers as we run down the steps to the train station platform. I am still holding the rose he brought me, scared that I will drop it. In this crowd, it will most likely get trampled on, and I will be devastated.
I am shocked when he pays for the passes for both of us, and as soon as the light turns green, we both step through. Alex grabs my hand, and we’re running again. We make it to the platform just as the train pulls up. There’s a rush to get in, the crowd pushing me more into him when the doors finally close and we take off.
“Why is Kyle going to be mad?” I ask as the train jerks us around. “And where is it that we’re going?”
Once we snapped out of our trance in front of my building, Alex grabbed me by the hand and rushed me toward the train station, saying something about being late.
He now wraps an arm around me, shielding me from the people around us, and when he lowers his head to get closer to my ear, I about melt into his body.
“Kyle told me dinner was at seven, sharp.”
I let out a gasp of shock. “But you told me to meet you at seven fifteen.”
His lips part into a grin. “I actually said seven but promised to wait until seven fifteen.” He drops a gentle kiss onto the tip of nose. “And I’m really happy that I did wait.”
After my phone call with Elizabeth, I replied to the message received from Jonathan, which, for some unknown reason just exhausted me. By then, it was close to four o’clock. I figured I could take a quick nap and still have some time before meeting with Alex. Because regardless of how much I went back and forth with it in my head, I knew I’d be going out with him tonight. I craved to be in his presence even knowing that nothing good would come out of it.
“Your friends are going to hate me even more now.” I drop my forehead into his chest and groan.
He chuckles. “They don’t hate you. In fact, they like you a lot more than they like me.”
I lift my head and roll my eyes. “Very funny.”
The train jerks abruptly, and we all brace for impact. Once again, Alex saves me from crashing into the other passengers.
“Where are we eating?” I finally ask. I guess I should’ve done that from the beginning.
“We’re going to Ray and Hayden’s house. Everyone else will meet us there.”
There’s a bit of tension in his tone that I don’t know how to interpret. Then, I repeat in my head what he just said.
“I thought Ray and Hayden don’t live in the city.”
“They don’t,” he confirms, and my head snaps back in shock.
“I can’t be out of the city like this! How am I going to get back home late at night?”
The thought of having to taking the train at midnight is seriously giving me the chills.
Alex squeezes me tighter. “I thought it’d be obvious that I’m bringing you back home, not just taking you there.”
