“Burnt butter choc-chip,” I confirmed. “I’m not trying to get out of being cursed. I just… wanted to say thank you. For… being cool, I guess. Curse or not, we’ve had some fun together. And you watch out for Iggy.”
“I do,” Dante said. “And for the record, Idolike you. I just wish you were sticking around.”
Me too, I didn’t say.
“You want a hand cleaning up?” I asked, looking around. It was hard to tell how much was left to do, but I didn’t want to just leave Dante with it.
“I want you not to keep Iggy waiting,” Dante said. “Get out of here.”
* * *
Nerves and anticipationwrestled in my stomach as I approached the spot Iggy had invited me to.
The spot on the top of the cliffs with the view of the ocean, where, on a clear night, we’d always said we could see every star in the universe.
Mom and Dad had both lived in big cities with too much light pollution to see more than a handful of stars, and now work took me right back to them. I hadn’t even bothered to look up at the sky, as far as I could remember, in maybe a decade.
I might not have looked up since the last time I’d been here.
Iggy and I had always had other kids to hang out with—Seth included—but this spot had been ours. Just ours. I’d never been up here with anyone else. It was difficult to get to, a narrow, winding trail through the woods that wasn’t really a trail at all.
But I’d remembered the way like I’d been here yesterday. My body remembered.
As soon as I broke out of the woods and into the clearing, I stopped dead.
Right up on the edge of the cliff, in the spot we’d always laid down and looked up at the stars, was a softly-glowing tent made out of sheets and throw rugs and outdoor Christmas lights.
At this angle I could just Iggy’s silhouette in it, surrounded by throw pillows and stretched out on what looked like a picnic blanket.
My heart felt a size too big for my chest.
He’d done this. All of this. For the two of us.
It was without contest the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for me in my entire life. Nothing else even came close.
No one else had ever been inclined to doanythingromantic for me, and I hadn’t realized until now how good it’d feel.
Iggy was sitting cross-legged among what had to be every pillow he owned, checking his phone.
Mine buzzed in my pocket, and I took it out automatically to check it.
Iggy:are you lost?
I looked over at him—he hadn’t noticed me yet—and smiled.
Harvey:I think I’m found
Iggy looked up as I headed over, eyes glittering as he grinned at me and rose from the ridiculous pillow pile.
“You made it,” he said, standing in front of me like a nervous prom date.
If my heart hadn’t already melted, it would’ve melted all over again.
Iggy was the best, kindest, sweetest man I’d ever known.Wouldever know. It was impossible to imagine someone more perfect.
“I made it,” I said, smiling at him. “Ig, this is… it’s…”
“For you,” Iggy interrupted. “Because I don’t want you to think I’m mad at you, or anything. I know I was awkward this morning.”
