He’s outside of my building.
I very nearly sprinted to the elevator, feeling so rushed to see him that it occurred to me El was right—Iwastoo smitten.
The sun was bright when I walked outside, one of those lovely autumn days where the temps hovered in the sixties and the world felt like it was being played out on the set ofGilmore Girls. I took about four steps before I saw him, standing near the fountain, and my heart felt full as I drank him in.
There he stood, casually leaning against a no-parking sign wearing jeans, a black hoodie that matched his black baseball cap, and a pair of sunglasses. He looked tall and hot, because hewastall and hot, and my smile grew as he straightened upon seeing me.
He had two scooters with him, the kind you could rent all over the city, and a backpack strapped to his back.What the hell is he up to?
“What is all this?” I asked as I approached.
“It’s a beautiful day so I thought we could scooter over to White Castle,” he said. “Unless you’re scooter-averse.”
“How did you scooter over here with two scooters?” I asked, trying not to laugh.
“Leave it to you to think about the logistics of it instead of the romanticism,” he said, a smile in his voice even though he was giving me a fake scowl.
“Scooters are romantic?” I asked, even though somehow they absolutely were.
“Not for a normal human,” he replied, “but I totally thought it would be for you.”
“Yeah, you weren’t wrong,” I said, feeling his eyes all over me even though I couldn’t see them behind his dark sunglasses. “This is better than John Cusack with the boom box for sure. But, like, did you put one foot on each scooter? How did you do it?”
“That would be wild,” he said with a laugh. “I scootered one over, set it next to the fountain, then went back for the other.”
“Oh. Duh.” I looked down at the scooters, in awe of the intentionality he’d put into this outing. “That’s very logical.”
“I’m a very logical guy,” he said. “So are we scootering to the Castle or not?”
“Hell, yes, we are,” I said, putting my hands on the top of one of the machines. It’d been a while since I’d taken a scooter anywhere, but I’d always found them to be a fun mode of transportation. “Let’s go.”
And then we were off. He dipped into the street and I followed, riding beside him as we headed in the direction of the White Castle closest to my office. The streets were pretty busy with lunch traffic, so we didn’t really talk on the ride over, but that didn’t detract from the fun.
The fresh air, the warm sun, the smiles he shot at me as he regularly glanced over to make sure I was keeping up—it was everything.
But when we got to the fast-food restaurant, he insisted we take the drive-thru lane.
“You don’t want to eat inside on a day like this, do you?” he asked with a challenging grin as he pulled up in the line behind a minivan.
“No,” I said, pushing my hair out of my face as I stopped beside him. “But I don’t think we can take these things through the drive-thru.”
“Why not? They’re vehicles,” he said, as if it was absurd of me to doubt him.
“I don’t actually think they are,” I disagreed. “They’re more like bicycles.”
“Agree to disagree,” he said, his smirk daring me to chicken out.
“Fine. But you order first so if they yell at us, you get the heat,” I said, following as he pulled up to the speaker.
“Can I please get eight original sliders,” he said, making me giggle as he ordered like this was normal behavior. His voice was unapologetic and straightforward as he added, “Large fries and a Coke Zero.”
I struggled to order my food because I was laughing too hard, especially when I looked over my shoulder and saw three cars lined up behind us.
“This is insane,” I muttered as the person on the other side of the speaker gave us our total and told us to pull up to the window.
“I can’t believe you eat like this during the season,” I said as we moved forward. “I would’ve imagined you only eating chicken breast and eggs.”
“Today’s lunch is the exception,” he replied as he looked over at me. “I’m back on chicken and eggs for dinner.”