“I don’t think we need it on a mug.” I try to persuade him to not buy it since it will be a reminder of what a horrible person I am. How I manipulated him into doing something he didn’t want to do.
He gets the plastic bag as we walk out, and then he pulls it out of the bag and I can’t help but laugh when turns it to face me. “Look at my face.”
“Kirby,” I say his name and hold on to his wrist, “I’m so sorry.” He just looks at me, his eyebrows pinched together. “I don’t know, I thought it would be funny but—” I shake my head and look down. “I shouldn’t have forced you to do this.”
“Hey,” he says, stepping closer to me and putting his finger under my chin to lift it. I try and blink away the tears that have pooled. “What are you going on about?”
“That.” I point to the ride. “It was wrong and I shouldn’t have done it. You were so scared.”
“Well, yeah,” he says. “But hey…” He smiles as he makes sure that he steps even closer to me. “A couple of good things happened out of it.”
“What?” I shake my head, not sure I understand what he is saying.
“Okay, one, I got to hold your hand.” He grins. “And two, I got to kiss you.”
“My fingers,” I start to say and then stop when his free hand comes up, his fingers touching my cheeks as I start to pant. My eyes stare into his as he moves his hand up my cheek, gripping the back of my head. His thumb rubs my cheek, as he tilts his head to the side.
“Well, my life just flashed before my eyes and all I got to kiss was your fingers.” He smirks. “Might as well go all out and ask for the big one. Can I kiss you?” he asks me, and all I can do is nod my head before his lips are on mine.
There, in the middle of a crazy theme park, with thousands of people around us, it feels like it’s just the two of us. My heartbeat drowns out the sound of my breathing as my eyes want to stay open to make sure I see him, but the minute his tongue slides into my mouth, my eyes automatically shut as I lean farther into him. My hand comes up and I slide it to the back of his neck and into his hair. While my other hand grips his arm, he deepens the kiss. He drops the bag with the picture by our feet to wrap his arms around me and pulls me so my chest is flush to his. It’s the single best kiss I’ve had in my life is the only thing I can think of when he slowly releases me.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he pants, his hand still buried halfway in my hair and half on my face. “How can you be so fucking perfect?”
I can’t help but smile at his words. “It’s a gift,” I joke softly, not sure I can say anything more clever, and also not wanting to sound like an idiot.
He laughs before he kisses me softly once more and letting me go to bend to grab the bag and the picture. “Do you want to ride any other rides?” he asks me and I look around. “I’ll even go on the Goliath if it means I get to kiss you again. I would really rather fucking not.” I snicker, bending my head and tucking the hair behind my ear nervously. “Actually, I think I’ve reached the breaking point of trying to be all macho. So if it’s alright with you, I think we should grab a couple of burgers and then head back to my place where we can?—”
“Make out more?” I ask him and his eyebrows go up.
“We can totally do that.” He slips his hand in mine. “I was going to say discuss work, but I like the way you think.” He walks toward the car, opening my door and holding my hand to help me in, and I am a little bit disappointed when he doesn’t try to kiss me. He gets into the SUV and tosses the picture bag into the back seat before handing me his phone. “Here,” he urges, “order food.”
“You are giving me your phone?” I ask, shocked, looking down to see the screen saver is of his cat.
“Well, how else are you going to order food?” He laughs as he pulls out. “Unless you want to use your phone, but then you have to enter my address and it’s a pain in the ass.” I look down at the phone and try not to compare him to Trent, who refused to even let me see the weather from his phone.
“Is that okay?” he asks me when all I can do is stare down at it.
“I wasn’t allowed to touch Trent’s phone,” I admit to him. “He kept telling me it had confidential things on it.”
“I bet it did,” Kirby retorts, “and some things he probably didn’t want you to see.”
“Oh, most definitely things he didn’t want me to see.” I snort. “It’s just…”
“There is nothing on my phone that needs to be under lock and key,” he assures me. “The password is twenty and then sixteen.” I put in the password and then turn to him.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Don’t care,” he says as he makes his way to his house. “Even though I’m pretty sure we almost died, this was one of the best days I’ve had in the longest time.” My hands clench the phone even more as I try not to show him how much that means to me.
We pull up into his driveway at the same time I place the order for two burgers, fries, onion rings, fried pickles, and a bunch of other things. I hand him the phone. “Thank you,” he says and I just smile at him and I’m so nervous. “Do you want to come in?” he asks me and I nod my head. “No, I don’t think you understand what I’m saying right now.” He steps in closer to me and I raise my hand to his shirt.
“I actually do think I understand what you are asking me right now,” I counter, looking up at him, never thinking I would be here in this moment.
“What am I asking you?”
“You are asking me to come in,” I tell him and stare at him. “I would like to come in and for you to give me a tour.”
“I can do that.” For the first time in my whole life, I take a leap without basing my decision on what anyone else wants.
