She met my gaze. Did she feel the connection, too? The electricity in the air between us?
“Or not?” She broke eye contact and put the bits of popcorn into her small popcorn bucket.
Fuck. She’d asked me a question. I furiously tried to get my brain functioning again.
“There’s a broom out in the lobby,” I blurted out. “I’ll grab it for you. I know where the supply closet is.”
I practically sprinted away, my alpha clawing at my chest with every step. I was breathing heavily by the time I located the supply closet and pulled out the broom and dustpan. No one had ever made me feel this off-kilter. The strength of my feelings made me want to keep running straight out the door, and at the same time, urged me to wrap that little omega up in my arms and pull her to my chest so no one could ever take her away from me.
The broom handle snapped in my hand, and I swore. I needed to get myself under control.
She was just a woman. An omega. This wasn’t a big deal.
I kept a measured pace as I returned to the theater. The woman went to take the broom from me, but I didn’t want her to comment on the broken handle, so I quickly swept up the popcorn.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice practically a whisper. Did I make her uncomfortable? Should I leave?
Just then, a loud sound burst from the speakers and the screen showed the movie’s title.
“It’s starting,” I said unnecessarily.
We both stood, staring at each other for what felt like approximately three hours before the woman sat down. Should I sit next to her? Or move far, far away? She probably didn’t want company.
I sat in the seat next to hers.
“You can have my popcorn,” I said.
“Oh, no, that’s okay.”
I placed the bucket in my lap so she could reach it if she wanted. All my muscles were stiff, but not with irritation. I’d wanted privacy tonight, but now I was having to hold myself back from getting to know this omega… from touching her.
I focused on the film instead of the storm of emotions inside me. Two high school sweethearts broke up to go to college. Years later, they were meeting back up at the school to see if they could make their relationship work. I munched on the popcorn as the couple on the screen started making out under the football bleachers. I definitely didnotallow my mind to imagine what it would be like to kiss the cute stranger beside me.
The production quality was shit, but this was definitely the mostnormalmovie I’d ever watched in this theater.
Famous last words.
Flashing lights filled the screen as something descended onto the couple with a loud mechanical noise. The screen went black, and then an alien appeared. A group of green aliens. I furrowed my brow in confusion, but I should have known. Herbert and Missy were incapable of showing a normal rom-com.
The head alien told the couple that the only way they could be together was if they went back in time and never broke up in the first place. If they didn’t, the world would explode in three days. I scrubbed my hand down my face. Who even made these movies?
The couple agreed to go back in time, and then the aliens broke out into a fully choreographed dance with song.
“What the fuck is happening?” the woman whispered, and thatbroke the tension between us. I let out a bark of laughter and settled back in my seat.
“The movies here are always unhinged.” I held out my large popcorn bucket, and she took a handful. “Candy?”
“Yes, please.” She also relaxed back in her seat, putting her legs up on the chair in front of her as she ate some Junior Mints. Satisfaction ran through me that I had provided for her.
She started humming along to the alien’s song. “This is pretty catchy.”
I laughed again. My chest felt bright and light… and I realized I washappy. The past six months, my chest had been so heavy with grief I’d forgotten what happiness felt like… had stopped believing I would ever feel it again.
The couple in the movie was rocketing through space until they landed back at their high school. “You think they’re going to save the world?” I asked.
“With dancing skills like that? Probably not.”
I snorted out another laugh, and this time, it was my popcorn flying all over the place.
