“How about we do something? I’m not planning on heading back until tomorrow, so we could do something today and thenyou can ride with me when I leave tomorrow afternoon?” I ask, hoping and praying she agrees.
It will be nice to spend some time together away from campus, and this would be a good opportunity to do something date-like to get her to warm up to me without it actually being a date.
I mean, itwillbe a date.
She just won’t know it.
And what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.
“Oh yeah?” she asks with a teasing lilt in her tone. “And what are we gonna do?”
I grin to myself.
“You’ll see.”
The museum is scarcely filled as we make our way around, no doubt due to the time of year and I couldn’t be more thankful for it. The last thing I want is to have to share Gracie with a crowd full of people.
Nope, today I get her all to myself.
“Okay, so this is thelastplace I expected you to bring me,” Gracie murmurs before looping her arm through mine and dragging me to look at something. “I mean… do you evenlikeart?”
I hold back a snort. Of course, I like art.
I like anything that she likes.
“I do.”
“And why did I never know this about you?”
I shrug and shoot her a mischievous smile. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, little one.”
She studies me for a moment as though she’s seeing me through fresh eyes. “Well… I’m going to make it my mission to find out all of your secrets.”
It’s really hard to hold in my laughter right now.
“You do that,” I say teasingly before pointing out my favorite piece.
It’s a painting of a man dressed in all black, standing on the edge of a pier and staring out at the sea. The pier itself and everything on the man’s side of the painting is painted in dark tones whereas the sea and everything on the other side of the painting is in pastel blues and pinks.
The painting is a little messy, and a lot chaotic. Personally, I think it perfectly captures mine and Gracie’s relationship. We’resomessy but have the potential to be so goddamn perfect together.
“Why is this your favorite?” Gracie asks, her eyes seeking.
Because it reminds me of us.
I contemplate my answer for a moment before speaking and when I do, I answer in a soft tone, unable to keep the affection out of my voice. “Because one side is… haunting. It’s painful and dark and even a little twisted, yet the other half feels like freedom, like love and hope and excitement. It reminds me that better things will always come, and that sometimes you just have to weather the darkness in order to see the light. The man is clearly struggling with something, and the sea is clearly calling to him. It’s chaotic… messy… beautiful.”
Her eyes are wide as I finish, and I can’t help but stare down at her with what is no doubt a soft look on my face.
“That’s… well, it’s beautiful Noah,” she whispers, and something flashes in her eyes before it disappears so fast I don’t have time to figure out what it was. “I had no idea you had such a way with words,” she teases, clearly trying to lighten the mood and I laugh.
“Just another thing you didn’t know about me,” I say with a wink, and she grins before pulling me to the next exhibit. Meanwhile, my mind is still trying to decipher the look on her eyes before she tried to change the direction of conversation.
We take our time walking around and while her focus is on the art, mine is on her. I revel in the way her eyes light up when she sees something she likes, the way she describes how the pieces make her feel and the way she grabs hold of me to drag me to the next piece.
Her excitement is addicting, and I’m not ready for today to end.
One day, we’ll have this all the time.
