"Where are you going?"
"Dressing room. Apparently I have conditions to meet."
I found the curtained-off corner at the back of the store. Pulled off my hoodie. Then my t-shirt. The air was cold on my bare skin for a second before I pulled the flannel on. Buttoned it up from the bottom, left the top two undone. Rolled the sleeves tomy forearms. Looked at myself in the smudged mirror propped against the wall.
It fit. Not tight—just right. The kind of worn-in that made it feel like I'd owned it for years.
I walked back out.
Alex was flipping through the vinyl bin. He looked up.
His mouth opened. Nothing came out.
"Conditions met?" I said.
He stepped closer. His eyes tracking from the open collar down my chest to where the flannel tapered at my waist. Then back up. Slowly.
"You look really sexy like that," he whispered.
Something hot curled in my stomach. I smirked. "Let's go before I drag you into that changing room."
Alex swallowed. Hard. "Yeah. Let's go."
We walked out of the store and I could feel his eyes on me the entire way to the door. Back on the main street, the air hit the exposed skin at my collar but I didn't mind. The flannel was warm.
***
Marlow had a trail.
We found it by accident—a wooden sign at the end of the main street pointing toward HEMLOCK FALLS NATURE WALK, 1.2 MILES. The trail started at the edge of a small parking lot and disappeared into the trees.
"You want to?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. Let's go."
The trail was narrow. Single file at first, then widening into a path big enough for two. The trees arched overhead—maples and oaks, mostly, the leaves turned to fire. Red and gold andorange, the light filtering through the canopy in shafts that made everything glow.
We walked close. Our shoulders bumping. My hand finding his between us—not holding, just touching, the backs of our fingers brushing with every step.
Nobody else on the trail. Just us and the trees and the sound of our footsteps on packed dirt and dry leaves.
"This is disgustingly beautiful," I said.
"You say that like it's an insult."
"It's aggressively picturesque. Like a screensaver came to life."
"You're very romantic."
"I'm realistic. Nature is trying too hard right now."
Alex laughed, startling a bird out of a bush ten feet ahead. The bird shot into the canopy and Alex flinched and grabbed my arm and I didn't let go of the joke for the next quarter mile.
"A bird, Alex. You jumped at a bird."
"It came out of nowhere." He was brushing a leaf off his jacket like the bird had personally attacked him.
"It came out of a bush. Where birds live."
