Page 49 of With You

“You okay?” I ask, leaning closer to whisper into her ear.

Amelie pulls back slightly to smile at me, her gaze soft as she takes me in.

“I’m great,” she says quietly, her fingers tightening around mine. “I’m really happy, River.”

“Me too,” I tell her, my nervous heart settling at hearing those words.

I press a quick kiss to her cheek, almost grazing the corner of her mouth, right as the auctioneer starts to speak. We spend the rest of the night with our hands joined under the table, her leg pressed against mine, and our hearts beating in sync.

Although Damien is proposing to Evie tomorrow, he’s insisted that we go into Paris tonight. It’s been over a week since the auction, and he hasn’t mentioned a thing about Amelie and me being together. I can only thank Amelie for having friends that are so good at keeping secrets.

“Let me see the ring again,” I ask Damien, as we sit in the back of his car.

He pulls it out of the inside pocket of his jacket, opening the black velvet box to reveal a diamond ring that’s been in his family for generations. I take it from him, holding the small band between my fingers to get a better look at it.

It doesn’t look like the kind of ring Evie would wear, but I guess their preferences haven’t been taken into consideration for any of this. I can imagine Amelie wearing it, though. Can almost see the silver band set against her ring finger after I’ve asked her the question.

“It’s nice,” I say, handing it back to him, and trying to shake that image out of my head.

Even though we’ve decided to just do whatever feels best for us, we still haven’t put a name to it. I suppose there isn’t really a label for two people who used to hate each other, but now have to dance together, and that dance includes a kiss that both of them got a bit too carried away with, and now there’s strange feelings developing, and they’re kissing outside of practice. Whatever the name for that might be, I like it far too much. A heavy sigh escapes me as I wonder what this will end with, because I know it has to end at some point—everything does.

“You good?” Damien asks, tucking the ring safely back into his pocket.

“Just tired,” I feign a yawn.

I can’t tell my best friend what’s really going on. That I think I’m too far into something that feels like the worst and best thing at the same time. That I’m falling for the girl I’ve spent most of my life complaining to him about.

“Amelie’s really got you working,” he jokes, and I can only let out a pathetic breath of laughter in response.

Thankfully, we reach our destination before Damien can ask any more questions. I’m not entirely sure where he’s dragged me to; he just said he had to do something before tomorrow and asked me to come with him. We get out of the car, and I look around to see what might have caught his interest in the area, but there’s nothing.

“What’s the plan?” I ask, still searching around to figure it out.

“That is.” He points down the street toward a tattoo shop.

I stare at him, wondering how I didn’t notice my friend getting swapped for a stranger who gets tattoos.

“You’re not,” I say as he starts walking toward the shop. “A tattoo, Damien? For what?”

We stand outside the shop, Damien with his hand on the door as I watch him. There’s an expression on his face I can’t quite read, something I’ve never seen before from him. I’ve been friends with him for our entire lives almost, and he’s never mentioned wanting a tattoo before. I wonder what else he could be hiding from me.

“Just something I need to do,” he says, and it only leaves me with more questions.

I follow after him as he enters, the artist greeting him before showing him to a bed near the back of the small shop.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“You don’t need to hold my hand, River. I’m a big boy now.”

“Okay, don’t ask me to go with you the next time you want to watch a horror movie then.”

“That’s a completely different scenario,” he says, his voice going slightly higher. “Just wait there, it won’t take long.”

I shrug and do what he says, taking a seat near the blacked-out window. Art lines the wall, an eclectic mix of what I’m assuming the different artists here have created together. I’ve never really thought about getting a tattoo, but maybe it’s something to consider. A lot of these designs look pretty cool.

River

Have you ever wanted to get a tattoo?