I give in and take a large bite while we head to our table. It’s pretty quiet here tonight, meaning we can chow down withoutworrying about Finn wearing his hat or sunglasses. Unlike our first date, there isn’t anything in the way of the warm eyes that always seem to be watching me.
The gravy burns my tongue a bit when I chew, but that doesn’t keep me from smiling with my lips closed and cheeks slightly puffed. Finn’s puff out when he grins and reaches over, using his thumb to wipe the corner of my lips.
“I can’t wait to get out of these clothes. This bow tie is choking me,” he says while offering me a hand up onto the top of the table.
My toes are cramped in my heels. I didn’t have time to break them in fully before wearing them tonight, so the moment I sit on the table and get off my feet, I nearly moan from the relief. Finn takes a seat beside me, so close our shoulders touch.
I set my hot dog container down by my thigh and twist so that I can begin pulling at his bow tie. He doesn’t say a word while I work, undoing it with surprisingly steady fingers. His skin is hot when my knuckles brush his throat and the back of his neck.
“I was half expecting you to just use a clip-on one,” I tease.
“Not a chance. I wanted to impress you.”
Looking up from his neck, I stare into his eyes and quirk my lips. “Well, you did. Very much so.”
His fingers climb my spine before finding the base of my skull and pressing deep. The tension pulsing beneath his touch is from my updo, and the relief beneath his gentle massaging is instant. I shut my eyes, a weightless feeling growing when he begins pulling each pin out. My curls fall one by one, draping down my bare back.
“That’s better,” he rasps.
I roll my head forward, giving him more room to work. The moment my hair is down, he’s diving his fingers into the mess of curls and rubbing every ache and pain away from my scalp. It’s heaven, and I moan softly, closing my eyes.
His voice drifts over me, so soft it might put me to sleep. “I remember doing this after prom, too. Only you’d used at least a hundred more bobby pins. And your hair was shorter.”
“You remember a lot.”
“As much as I can. There isn’t anything that I want to forget.”
“Including my date to said prom?” I smile as big as I can with how heavy my eyes have gotten.
“Mm, maybe not. I should have asked you to come with me instead.”
“You’re the one who got me the corsage, so in a way, I was your date.”
His chuckle trickles over my arms at the same time the cool breeze picks up, bringing goosebumps to the surface. I shiver at the change in temperature, and his hand drops from my hair.
“Don’t frown. I’m just getting my jacket off,” he says.
When I peek my eyes open, I find him grinning smugly while shrugging his arms out of his suit jacket. Once done, he drapes it over my shoulders and does the first button up to keep it in place.
“Thank you.”
He returns his hands to my hair, this time lifting it up in a loose fist before sliding his fingers beneath the mass of curls. “You’re welcome. How about you eat for me so we can go home?”
“I’m not hungry anymore,” I lie. My head is heavy when I lean it on his shoulder and close my eyes again. “I just want to lay here for a minute.”
He breathes in a long, soft inhale. “Alright, sweetheart.”
“I’m glad you took me here tonight.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I wanted to see the lights with you like this. It’s the same, but different.”
He hums low in his throat, still massaging my scalp. “I’ll take you here every night if that’s what you want.”
It sounds like a dream. The kind that sounds so simple yet fills my stomach with a dozen sets of flapping wings. I’d get tired of the hot dogs and the cheap string lights, but Finn?
Being with him is one thing I’ll never get enough of.
