“Ha!” He barked a laugh. “Me? Judge you for that? Not at all. I’ve done my fair share of questionable things. I was only curious.”
That floored her. “What?!”
“And I think it’sextremelysexy of you, by the way. Thewhole civil disobedience thing.” His eyes glittered with mischief. “Very hot.”
She was still stuck on the first part of what he’d said. “What on earth couldyouhave done wrong?”
Theo Sullivan? Painfully shy and anxious, deeply romantic artist, a lawbreaker?
It was unfathomable.
Theo laughed again at her expression. No embarrassed huff, no bashful chuckle—a thorough guffaw, eyes closed and head thrown back. The crinkles around them were the deepest she’d ever seen, and a wave of warmth washed over her as she looked at him.
What she would have given to see him unwrapped and fully unbound in that moment.
“I was a right little anarchist shithead back in high school. A budding graffiti artist, which meant I was guilty of a decent amount of vandalism. Maybe a touch of light breaking and entering, and a not-insignificant amount of trespassing. I mean, I was obviously a solo actor, I didn’t have that many friends and I didn’t run in a gang or anything. But I had a tag and a distinctive style. I was a known entity around the city.”
“You hooligan.” Audrey shook her head, her grin so wide, her cheeks hurt.
The bandages stretched over a grin of his own. “Oh yes. I almost got caught by the cops once, but I managed to get away at the last second. It was a close call.” He leaned over and whispered into her ear. “I was really skinny, and I slipped through a gap in a chain link fence. Pigs couldn’t get me after that.” She snorted and covered her mouth, and his eyes gleamed with pride. “And at least these long legs were good for something—I was pretty fast, and I absolutely smoked ’em. I didn’t manage to get away from my mom, though.”
The look he gave her conveyed everything she needed to know about how wellthathad gone over. “She caught mered-handed—literally. Covered in red spray paint, sneaking back into the house in the wee hours of the morning.” He winced. “But that was my only real outlet. I was a really quiet, really angry,reallybroody teenager.”
“You’re still really quiet, and still really broody.”
“And still really angry sometimes, too.” Some of the smile faded from his eyes. “I was mad at my mom for being who she was, and for leaving my dad when I was so young. It was rough.” Theo shrugged. “But it helped form me as an artist, I suppose.” He held up his hands. He’d put his glove back on before they’d gotten on the train. The left one was steady, but that persistent tremor still coursed through the right. He sighed and let them fall back into his lap. “I keep telling myself I’ll find my way back one day—to the artist I was before, if not the man.”
Audrey plucked his hat away from his head and set it in her lap before sliding her hands around his neck to guide his head down to her shoulder. He let her, and as soon as he made contact, he drew in a deep breath, and his whole body relaxed. “You will,” she murmured, stroking the side of his face through the gauze. “I know you will.”
No one gave Theo a second glance, perhaps because at least half the city seemed to be celebrating Halloween that weekend. As soon as they stepped out of the subway station at their stop, they were mobbed by undergrads walking around in costumed packs on their way to parties. Music blasted through the streets, and Audrey went cross-eyed trying to count all the sorority Barbies she saw on the sidewalks in high hot-pink heels. The moon was obscured by dark, rolling clouds, but that wasn’t unusual—it was always hard to see the light of the night sky when New York was so good at providing its own landscape of stars.
“I like the cut of that suit on you,” Audrey said, rubbing her arm along Theo’s sleeve while she guided him toward the space her student org had reserved for the party. “You look so handsome in it, and it’s a nice change of pace from the usual jeans and hoodie.”
“Handsome like Humphrey Bogart?” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Like Rick Blaine?”
“Even more so. Well, at least I’m sure you are under all that gauze, anyway.”
He chuckled, and his eyes—both of them—lit up at her praise. It was fun seeing the change in him as they passed under the campus streetlights. “Oh, well, I already had this suit, as per the rules. And, uh…” He trailed off, and the crinkles faded. “I already had the gauze too. Scads of it. And while I’m sure I could repurpose at least some of this, I hope I never need it again.”
“I think it’s okay if we throw this out for good once we’re done here tonight. I’ll sign off on that as secretary of Earth Matters.” She squeezed his arm. “Plus, it’s biodegradable.”
When they got to the correct building, Theo held the door open for her and they wandered to the student organization’s reserved multipurpose room, where they got straight to work, setting up the party with the other officers.
Audrey claimed food duty, and she and Theo began arranging all the freshly delivered pizzas and prepackaged snacks and drinks. This was one of the few big events they held every year. Most students knew about Earth Matters, and a fair amount of them could be counted on to show up for the free food while they pregamed for the other Halloween parties off-campus. But that was fine. They usually picked up a few new members after this event, often some of the more civic-minded freshmen who wandered their way over out of curiosity and a lack of anything better to do.
It was natural working with Theo like this, and it became almost a dance as they moved around each other in tandem, reaching for more snacks or organizing stacks of compostable paper plates. At every opportunity, Theo shifted closer and closer to her while they worked, brushing his hand against hers, touching their shoulders together here, reaching around her there. Whenever he did, goosebumps prickled across her skin, and Audrey was struck again by his warmth above all else. It radiated out from him, flooded through her, tingled across her arms, right and good and welcome. And as it turned out, they were a good team. Everything was set up in record time, and soon enough, the doors opened and undergrads flooded into the ballroom.
The spread of costumes this year was impressive. There was a contest with a prize for whoever had the best sustainable execution, and the attendees didn’t disappoint. There were groups of people dressed as painted cardboard Tetris blocks, an astronaut with a jetpack made from soda bottles, a snail crafted out of Amazon paper and packaging. One person had shown up as a cereal killer, a costume Theo was particularly enamored with. Miniature cereal boxes from the dining hall were glued to a plain white shirt painted with dripping red blood, all of them stabbed in the center with plastic knives. Audrey’s favorite was a movie theater floor: clumps of popcorn and candy wrappers and trash stuck all over a black shirt.
But those were the true nerds or hippies who had enough dedication to follow through on the concept. Most of the rest of the students wandering in were more casual participants, but they seemed to have fun with the games and music nonetheless. A few of the other officers tried to get a dance party going, and Audrey grabbed Theo and attempted to drag him over there with her. But he dug his heels in, and when his eyes grew wide and he shook his head frantically, her heart dropped just a little.
All right, so maybe public dancing was pushing it. He wasveryshy, after all, even if she’d gotten her hopes up about the prospect of dancing with him.
It was okay. She could handle that sort of disappointment.
“AUDS!”
Before she could get too in her head about it, someone shouted at her and she turned to find Kayleigh, the club’s president, wavingher over from a dark corner. They’d all been so busy setting up earlier that she hadn’t gotten to check with her when they came in. She tugged Theo in that direction, and he limped after her.
