When I stepped out, the car was already parked in the front, door held open for me. I slid in immediately.
“Then why does it feel like you did?” Her voice grew quieter, saddened. And for some reason, that hit closer than it should have.
I leaned my head against the chair as the engine of the car purred to life. The pressure behind my eyes pulsed, slow and insistent. Familiar, like fingers testing the edges of a crack.Zaghan.
“They’re showing it again by 3:30,” she murmured. “Do you think you can make it this time?”
I lifted my hand, checking my watch. It was 2 pm. If I left now, I would be able to make it. But I had somewhere else to be. I needed to find the ledger. Even if I’d fail again, I needed to keep trying.
“I’m on my way,” I said without meaning to.
“Sure?”
No.
“Yes.” Again, I lied. The car was heading in the opposite direction, every hum of the engine a second further away from her, and yet, I lied.
“Okay.” Her tone was lighter now, like the irritation was fading away. “Don’t disappoint me again, Snow White.”
“I…won’t.”
The line went dead after that.
I stared at the screen of my phone for a second longer, listening to the fading echo of her voice, the weight of what I had just promised settling on my chest like a stone.
I had been promising and failing for the past four days. I’d tell her I would be there, but then I wouldn’t make it. This was what she didn’t want. Someone who kept disappearing. Someone who couldn’t even bother to show up. I didn’t want to be that person. I wanted to be the one who stayed. The one who’d always show up even in the dead of the night.
A heavy sigh escaped my lips, my eyes snapping shut. I needed to show up. I must be there for my Elizabeth. I mustn’t disappoint her again. I mustn’t give her reasons to stop being mine.
The thought of her not being my girlfriend anymore sent a wave of anxiety twisting around my spine.
No!My eyes snapped open.
“Turn the car around,” I commanded, my tone urgent. “We’ll go to Braemont first.”
???
My Elizabeth was waiting outside the theatre when the car pulled up at the front. Her arms were folded, wrapped in arm warmers the colour of earth. I had seen her in black and dark blue. And I had noticed the pattern long before I admitted I was paying attention. She always wore them. Even with her school uniform.
I had asked her once, during our many late night conversations, and she said it was a secret. And I had wondered ever since what kind of secret made someone cling to a fabric.
She was staring at a couple taking pictures under the lamp post just a few steps away, a distant look in her eyes. Then, as though she sensed my presence, she turned the moment I stepped out of the car.
She smiled, small and cautious, like she was contemplating.
“You came,” she said the moment I reached her.
“I said I would.”
She studied me for a second too long. Then she lifted her hands, cradling my face in her palms, her warmth seeping into my skin. My breath stilled at her feverish touch, my heart racing, pounding loudly in my ears, knowing what was coming next.
She was going rise to her tiptoes, tug my face down until our noses brushed, her presence crowding my thoughts, her floral scent filtering into my lungs. My breath would stutter as her seductive eyes ran over my face, dropping to my lips, my bones trembling as though my body never learned this part no matter how often she did it.
And then, my heart would cease to beat as her lips would press against mine, warm and sure. I would freeze for half a second before melting into it, hands hovering uselessly at her side like I was afraid to do it wrong. She would kiss me for a while, maybe five minutes, maybe an eternity. Time never behaved itself when her mouth was on mine.
By the time she would break away, release me from her spell, I was already unravelling, trembling, needing more, another dose of that fire, even though I was already burning…everywhere.
We had only met four different times after I became her boyfriend. And she always did this.
