“Does it make a difference? You aren’t going to fall in love with me anyway.”
She offers me a wry smile. “You’re right about that.”
The longer I hold her gaze, the more details emerge and hold my attention. The unique pattern of black flecks encircling her pupils, the warm brown of her irises that remind me of colored glass, catching and transforming any light that touches them. Her lashes are thick and long, gently curled at the tips, each one perfectly defined beneath a careful layer of mascara.
The small details draw me closer, desperate to learn each one, even as the space between us remains taunt with uncertainty.
Alice curls her fingertips into my chest. “We still aren’t moving.”
“I know,” I reply softly, my hand gliding over her finger and gently tracing down to her wrist, hoping the motion will soothe her anxiety.
Panic flickers in her wide eyes. “Something is wrong.” The fear is unmistakable, raw and vivid as it fills her gaze.
“Almost done,” I try to reassure her, though the tension in the air remains thick and unyielding.
Her words tumble out in a rush, each one sharper than the last. “What if the lever got stuck or broke or something? What if we really can’t get down? Silas will probably call in the fire department, but that could take—what, ten? twenty?—minutes for them to get here? By then, I could be in full-blown diabetic shock. I could go into a coma. I could?—”
“Fuck it.”
I can’t let her spiral any further. My fingers slip into her hair, anchoring her to the present as I pull her close, and I press my mouth to hers.
She doesn’t even hesitate. Alice melts against me, surrendering as if she’s been waiting for this moment all along.Her hands clutch my shirt, gripping tightly over my chest, drawing me closer as though I’m her lifeline. She tastes sweet, like fresh watermelon on a scorching summer day. Like the relief we both desperately need.
The Ferris wheel turns beneath us, and we slowly part. Our breaths hover in the space between us. I rest my forehead on hers and close my eyes.
“Well, that sucks,” Alice murmurs.
My eyes snap open in shock. “Excuse me?”
“You ruined the experiment.” A smile tugs the corner of her mouth, drawing my attention back to her luscious lips. “Now we’ll never know if it worked.”
It might just be me, but I swear she almost sounds…disappointed.
“I guess not.”
We move a respectable distance apart as the wheel completes another full turn, stopping at the bottom on the second rotation.
“Come on, Firecracker. Let’s get you a Coke.”
We step off that Ferris wheel as if we didn’t just alter our relationship. An echo of that moment lingers, subtle but undeniable, changing how we see each other when we walk away from the ride back to our normal.
24
Alice
Ever since Sutton kissed me,I've been in a fog.
The memory of that moment lingers, clouding my thoughts and coloring every interaction with a new, unspoken longing.
While I recognize, and can even appreciate, his quick thinking in a moment of panic, I’m left with a quiet but constant reminder of how much that single kiss has changed everything between us.
And nothing all at once.
For starters, he’s still sleeping on the living room couch after refusing to claim his prize two weeks later.
“Morning,” he grunts, hunched over the coffee pot as if it contains the answers to the meaning of life. The percolating slows to a drip, and he fills the two mugs in front of him.
“Thanks,” I murmur, accepting the hot porcelain from his hands. I pour in a splash of heavy cream before placing the carton back in the fridge. Sutton doesn’t use any. He only started buying it after I began sleeping at his house.