“I can’t tell you unless I win,” I quipped, my pulse already racing. “Otherwise it won’t come true.”
“Good point.” He cleared his throat. “On three?”
I nodded. “On three.”
The Philadelphia Museum of Art was massive: Greek revivalist architecture with grand sandstone columns and an equally large lobby. “Where should we start?” Ev asked, and cringed when his voice bounced off the walls. He slipped his hands in his pockets when other museum goers looked at him. “Sorry,” he murmured as we procured maps.
I scanned mine. This place was one big labyrinth. “I think we should divide and conquer,” I said, looking from Isa to Ev and back to Isa. “We only have limited time until ournextstop.” I smirked, teasing them. “If we split up, we can each see what we want to see.”
Ev didn’t say anything, but Isa agreed. We weren’t compatible tourists, especially when it came to artwork. While she liked efficiency everywhere else, I knew—thanks to our ninth-grade field trip to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—she would placidly wander here. She liked tostudyart; I liked tolookat it. The last thing I wanted to do was pull her away from the Impressionist collection to see the gilded gold sculpture of the goddess Diana.
We set alarms on our phones and chose the fountain outside as our rendezvous point. Then Isaclick-clackedoff through an archway. How her feet weren’t killing her in those heels, I did not know.
“Well, go ahead!” I told Ev, not shooing him away but perhaps clapping my hands together before pointing directly at the staircase.
One corner of his mouth curled up, and he pretended to wave a magic wand.
“Very funny,” I said.
You have to see an exhibit with me,I’d texted him after winning our Rocky race.
That’s your wish?he’d replied.
Yes,I said.That’s my wish.
Some stakes, I know.
The two of us climbed the stairs side by side to the second floor. There were plenty of goodies at the museum, but Isa would cover those. What I really wanted to see was the visiting collection, a unique digital art installation by the Japanese art group, teamLab. Their base was in Tokyo, but someexhibitions still traveled around the world. From what I’d read online, they didn’t simply allow visitors to admire displays; they encouraged them to immerse themselves in the exhibit. My heart was skipping with excitement, and it was nice that I wasn’t going to experience this alone.
A docent waited at the exhibition’s entrance. “Enjoy!” she said as one guard held the door open for us.
First, we were figuratively and literallydazzled.Ev and I both covered our eyes for a moment. The room was full of LED lights and mirrors, creating a space that sparkled like ice and seemed to stretch on forever. We walked around slowly, worried about accidentally bumping into a mirrored wall. “Whoa!” Ev said when the room’s light pattern abruptly changed from glittering pixie dust to us soaring through some type of interstellar space-time continuum. The effect was incredible, but also scary—scary enough that I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly so we wouldn’t get separated as we spiraled. “It’s okay,” he said, squeezing it back. Sparks swirled in my palm. “I’ve got you.”
When we spotted someone slipping through a curtain into the next room, we quickly followed them.
Ocean waves welcomed us. Soft and soothing, the blue-and-white swirls washed up against the walls. The high ceiling and floor were black to solely focus on the sea, but I noticed some viewers relaxing in beanbags that had been arranged in the center of the room. Ev, however, let go of my hand and started tickling me. “Stop!” I whisper-yelled with a smile. Every summer, my family and the Adlers rented a house inStone Harbor for two weeks while the Cruzes spent a month with family in Argentina. Ev and I always stole some beers when we took the Adlers’ sheepdog for late-night runs on the beach…but while Millie would bark and splash around in the water, we would mess with each other. He would tickle me, I would kick up wet sand at him, and then he would catch me in his arms again and spin me around and around. I always told myself that, beers aside, we were acting like little kids—that the silly games were nothing more than silly games. “We better stop,” I said now, once he’d twirled me twice. “Looks like we’re ruining some serious relaxation.”
The beanbag crew had all sat up and were glaring at us.
Ev chuckled softly, and I muffled mine in his chest. My pulse rushed when I realized what I was doing.I want you,I let myself think, longing to close my eyes, rest my head against him, and sway with the smooth waves.I want you with all my heart.
The Forest of Lampswas beautiful. Lights of various lengths hung from the ceiling, and their color scheme went from a bright red to a vivid blue to a warm yellow. Ev’s gaze swept the space. “This room is like the scene inTangledwhere Rapunzel and Flynn Rider are sailing together as the kingdom releases her birthday lanterns….”
I snorted. Ev had an exceptional education in Disney movies.
He grinned, and—without thinking about it, too caught up in the fairy tale—I stretched up on my toes and kissed one of his dimples.
Or Itriedto, because Ev pulled away before my lips could fully land. “Final room?” he suggested, looking flushed in the lamplight.
“Final room.” I agreed, my insides twisting. Had I read this whole thing wrong? Even though I told myself our games were just that, I didn’t really believe it. We flirted, didn’t we?
Confused, I felt Ev take my hand again and let him lead me toward theUniverse of Water Particles on a Rock Where People Gatherdoor—which was like a portal to another world, to an enchanted wonderland. I didn’t know where to look first. Purple, pink, and orange flora and fauna covered the floor and walls, while blue and green birds flew through the air, leaving twinkling flight paths in their wake. My mouth had fallen open, but when Ev let out this little gasp?
Well, forgive me for sounding so thirsty, but I wanted totasteit. And then, I heard Taylor Swift, of all people, in my head.Don’t waste the moment, Grace. Take it.
I needed to find out if the sparks between Ev and me werereal.
I tugged him across the magical room, completely bypassing the fabricated mountain where most people had congregated to marvel together. A glimmering waterfall beckoned. “What was it?” I asked Ev once we were hidden underneath the waterfall. My tone sounded too aggressive, but I didn’t want the rush of water to drown out my voice. I needed to know. “What was your wish?”
