Like,actuallygasp.
He laughs but then stops as he seems to realize I’m taking him halfway seriously. “I’m not dumping you in the middle of the island.”
“But I know about your kittens. I could make lifehorriblefor you.”
“I have way bigger secrets thankittens.”
“Like what?”
He cuts another look at me and chuckles again. “Dream on, Laney.”
“Maybe I’ll tell everyone about your kittens if you don’t.” I totally won’t. But I feel like I’mflirting.
Like I’m havingfun.
Like I don’t have to watch everything that comes out of my mouth to make sure it’s living up to the expectations that I’ve been told the world has for me.
And he hasn’t kicked me out of the car. He’s not slowing down. The sunset is so lovely that it’s even lighting up the clouds looming to the east with a gorgeous pink-orange hue again.
I love the sunrise and sunset back home over the mountains, but this sunset is special too.
“You won’t tell anyone about my kittens,” he says.
His confidence annoys me. “Why won’t I?”
“Because if you do, I’ll launch asave the kittens so Theo can take them homecampaign, go viral, get thousands of dollars in donations from around the world, have half the women at the resort fawning over me, and you’ll bethat womanwho turned in the internet’s new favorite son.”
I don’t gasp this time.
I squeak.
He’s the type of person that could happen to. I swear he is.
Can this car maybe swallow me whole? I’m trying to be fun, and instead, I already feel like the horrible person who’d sacrifice the future of a litter of kittens for the sake of learning a secret.
Theo cuts another look at me. “Laney. If you were going to tell anyone, you would’ve done it already. Crazy rule-breaker, you.”
“I can have fun.”
He doesn’t answer.
“I can. It’s just hard when there’s so much pressure to always do the right thing and look the right way so that you don’t mess up your future.”
“Ask you a question?”
The correct answer here isno. Every instinct inside of me is hollering for me to say no.
I ignore it. Tonight’s about ignoring what I’ve been taught and leaning into being someone else. “Sure.”
“How long’s it gonna take for you to get to that magical future you want to live in, and do you really think you’ll like it when you get there?”
My brain breaks. Splinters and shatters and cracks wide open. “I—I—I mean, I’m living it right now, but I also have to think about how that impacts next year, and next decade, and—”
“You really enjoying it?”
Once again, I know the correct answer.Yes. Yes, this is what I want and it makes me happy.
But instead of answering, I’m frozen.
