Eleven
He picked me up three hours later at my apartment and as I climbed into his car, my heart pounded in a different way than when he’d driven me to the play party. He’d told me to keep it casual which was a relief. Since dinner itself was enough pressure, I didn’t need to stress about outfit choice and which fork was which at some high end restaurant. I’d changed into jeans and a black tank top with a sheer plum-colored blouse over top of it. Leo wore the same dark wash jeans I’d seen him in earlier and a navy blue and gray flannel with the sleeves rolled up his forearms. Again, the casual clothes suited him, but surprised me at first glance.
The smile on his face as we both buckled our seatbelts attempted to melt me. It was boyish and…almost giddy. I gnawed at my bottom lip for a moment, watching the road as he pulled out of my apartment complex. Soon enough his smoky voice pulled my attention back to his face and the hard line of his freshly-shaven jaw.
“How long did you say you’d lived here?”
“Eight or nine months,” I answered.
“Ah, so you’ve probably already been to Richie’s,” he started.
I shook my head. “Nope,” I said. “I don’t go out a lot. I don’t really have any friends here so most of the restaurants I’ve tried have been places Oliver’s bought lunch from.” My brow pulled together. I chased away the little wave of sadness I felt thinking about my lack of friendships when I remembered Melanie’s proposal and her number stored in my phone. I thought about telling Leo I’d run into her but resolved to keep it to myself and keep talk of the party quiet for the night.
Leo side-eyed me before he turned down Walton Avenue. “That’s a shame. Yeah, Oliver hates pizza, the blasphemous fool. So I guess you’re in for a treat. Best pizza you’ll ever eat is right through those doors,” he said, pointing as he pulled into a parking space near the entrance.
The little red brick building with its classic neon sign looked just as quaint as the rest of Salem and considering it was the last kind of place I expected Leo to take me to, it put a smile on my face. He had the unexpected down to an art. He held the door open for me and the smells of cheese and garlic made my stomach bubble with hunger. My smile lingered as I looked around the restaurant, waiting for Leo to tell the hostess we needed a table.
“I have an order for Calloway for pick up,” he said.
He glanced back at me then dug in his pocket. He offered me a quarter and nodded his head toward the old jukebox in the back corner of the restaurant.
“Play me a song while we wait?” He grinned.
“We aren’t staying?” I asked.
“No,” he said plainly. “Nothing off the Footloose soundtrack though, okay? When we used to come here as kids, Marie only ever played songs from Footloose. She was obsessed. My dad nearly unplugged the thing once when she swiped five quarters from my mom’s purse and put Let’s Hear It for the Boy on repeat.”
“Understood. Holding Out for a Hero it is,” I teased as I took the quarter.
An absent smile crossed my lips when I approached the old style jukebox. I hated the new digital kind I’d seen in bars. I scanned the pages of albums behind glass—nothing more recent than 1995—and breathed a laugh to myself when I flipped to the Footloose soundtrack. I glanced back toward Leo and saw him watching me with a kind but serious look. My eyes fell on Almost Paradise and I considered disobeying his orders despite the fact that this night didn’t feel like the kind of night that would end with a scene. Leo wasn’t just keeping me on my toes, he had me levitating an inch above ground, equally fearful of floating higher or coming back down to earth. My mind was too fuzzy, racing too fast to make a choice.
“Just wait, Sophie,” I heard a voice scold followed by a whine. I turned to see a young boy around twelve years old and his little sister who was maybe five waiting impatiently beside me. The little girl held a quarter between her fingers clasped to her chest as she fidgeted. A smile formed on my mouth and I crouched down in front of the two kids.
I held out my quarter to the little girl and sighed. “I’m having a terrible time choosing a song. Think you could pick one out for me?”
She snatched the coin from my hand with an opened mouth grin.
“Sophie, say thank you,” her brother prompted before her little voice squeaked out, “Thanks.”
“Make sure it’s a good one,” I said, straightening and winking at her. She nodded again and giggled as her brother hoisted her up to flip through the song pages.
When I made it back to Leo at the front of the restaurant, he held a pizza box and a short stack of paper plates in his hands and tipped his head toward the door. I opened it for him then he unlocked the car, placing the pizza box in the back seat.
“I just figured you and I could use some time alone…in a more laid back setting.”
“Sure,” I said with a hesitant smile as he started the car. “I trust you.”
He caught my eyes and I saw that same boyishness exude from him. I didn’t know where he was taking me, but it was true. I trusted him. It was difficult for me to admit as much though and the thought made my palms sweat a little. I watched as he drove us further away from the town and resolved to fill the car with something other than silence.
“So…Oliver and Wendy…”
“Finally,” Leo mused, keeping his eyes on the road. “I was starting to worry he’d be a bachelor for life.”
“You think they’ll get serious?”
His blue eyes lit up as he shifted his gaze toward me briefly, tilting his head to one side. “Come on,” he said. “They already are.”
“I guess I’m blind or something. I never even picked up on it.”
“No, Oliver’s just… We’re all different when it comes to relationships, me, Oliver and my sister. Oliver is the cautious one; he overthinks everything and it takes him forever to make a decision. But when he does, he means it. Marie is the reckless one; she acts before she thinks and she’s always in over her head, usually with the wrong person.”
“And you? What are you?”
His mouth popped open as though his mind had mustered a quick reply for me but he hesitated. He sighed softly then shrugged. “I’m the middle child so I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. A little careful and a little wild,” he said before side-eyeing me. “You know, leap in first then think of a plan.”
My cheeks tinted rose for a moment and I considered the fact that he’d just alluded to us while talking about relationships.
“What do you think of living in Salem so far?” Leo asked.
I sighed. “It’s quiet. Kind of a little storybook town, you know. I like it. But everyone seems to be confused about the fact that we aren’t in Massachusetts.”
Leo laughed and nodded emphatically. “Fall and Halloween—the witch stuff—have always been a big deal around here. Growing up, Oliver and I were always the two smartasses reminding people that there are about twenty-six cities named Salem in the U.S. and ours has no historical significance.”
I chuckled. A few miles away, up a meandering, tree-lined hill that wound like a hidden path, Leo finally slowed down. He parked the car and when I noticed where we were, I smiled. Oliver had mentioned the bluff once or twice. He told me it was the coolest place in Salem and what he called make-out point at one time. Sitting far enough away from the streetlamps of town seemed to make the night sky even clearer; all I saw were stars and all I heard were crickets.
Leo rolled down the windows and flicked on the radio before he turned the car off and motioned for me to get out with him. He grabbed the pizza and paper plates from the backseat and handed them to me while he leaned in again, emerging with a blanket in one arm and a small cooler on the other. I watched as he spread the blanket out on the grass a few feet from the car, lit by the headlights he’d left running.
“Are you serious?” I laughed.
Leo took the pizza from my hands and sat on the blanket then patted the spot beside him. “Completely.”
I let go of a breath and recalled for an instant the handful of times Warren had taken me out after I learned he was married. It was always extravagant, over the top, and ridiculously expensive. Whether he was trying to hide me from the eyes of the general public by taking me to the places few could afford or if he was trying to buy my complacency, I was never sure. There was something special about Leo’s choice. It wasn’t boastful or showy and while it was surprisingly sweet, it didn’t feel like a ploy to gain anything from me but time.
“Perfect night,” he reflected, looking up at the navy blue sky speckled with stars.
I tilted my eyes skyward and sighed. It was beautiful. My ears suddenly picked out the love song station coming from the satellite radio in his car. Every detail had romance written all over it and my brain struggled to comprehend exactly what Leo was doing. Glancing down, I saw he’d pulled two beers from the cooler and popped the caps off, and was holding one out to me where I stood.
Sinking to a place on the soft blanket opposite Leo, I reached for the bottle and frowned.
“I thought you said this was just dinner…”
Leo made a face and put a slice of pizza on a paper plate and offered it to me. “We’re going to eat, aren’t we?”
My eyes drifted to the vast skyline in front of us where the hillside dropped down, showing every tree top for miles lit mostly by the moon. I took my first bite, finishing it before looking over at Leo as he swigged from his bottle of beer.
“This is like a date.”
Leo’s dark brows dipped down in the center but one corner of his mouth lifted. “Yeah…” he started. “And? So was dinner at Gabe and Mel’s.”
“It was?”
He scooted closer to me and concern clouded his expression. My ears pulsed with my heartbeat and the smooth sound of some cheesy love ballad I barely recognized.
“Is a date a bad thing?”
The hurt that waved over his face as he asked unsettled me. “No,” I blurted. “Just…confusing. I didn’t know…or I guess I didn’t think that’s what we were doing.”
A smile parted his lips and out of nowhere, I flashed back to kissing him. “Unconventional, remember?” He laughed. “Maybe I should’ve been clearer. I like playing and having fun—I really like hearing you come,” he said and I blushed. “But I also like you. I want to get to know you and spend time with you. Doing both of those things at the same time… that’s what dating looks like for me.”
“Does Oliver know you want to date me?”
Again, he smiled and I clung to the image, blinking to burn it into my mind. It wasn’t exactly Jekyll and Hyde because the domineering side of him didn’t frighten me, but he had these two sides that I found equally intriguing. In fact, I didn’t know which I craved more in this moment. If he were to slip on the black gloves right now and tell me to shut up, I think I’d mourn this confident yet gentle man before me.
“Do you mean, does Oliver know we’re dating? Because this is happening, Sloane. You’re dating me,” he replied with a laugh behind his words. “Sorry you missed the memo.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, pulling my bottom lip in between my teeth.
Leo’s eyes fluttered and he softened. “No, I haven’t said anything to him.”
“So—”
He cut me off, placing a hand on my knee. “I just want to enjoy you in any way you’ll let me. And right now, I want to eat pizza, drink beer, and get to know one another. That’s all I’m asking of you tonight.”
He’d convinced me in a split second. His crystalline blue eyes staring deep into mine and his warm, soft touch at my knee ricocheted a complicit thought through my insides.
“Can you do that? Can you have dinner with me here under the stars and let me get to know you?”
My face tingled as a light breeze drifted over us and I breathed, “Yes.”
***
Leo tossed the clear cellophane wrapper from the mint he’d just popped in his mouth into the pizza box and leaned back on his elbows with a huff. Our conversation had started light. We talked about books and of course, I left out any mention of my recent reads courtesy of his order of the complete fetish collection. Then we talked about Wendy and Oliver a little more.
“What about your family? Are they around here?”
“My parents passed away. My sister, Ellie, is in Blacksburg. She lives with her boyfriend, teaches fifth grade,” I replied.
“I’m sorry about your parents,” he said softly. “Are you and your sister close?”
“We used to be closer but she’s really in to micromanaging me lately. She worries too much. She didn’t agree with me moving here. She doesn’t get why I left and until I started working at the bookstore, I think she was certain I was going to end up on the street or something,” I said with a half-hearted laugh.
“But you weren’t working when you first moved here because you were writing, right?”
The leading question made my stomach tighten. I swallowed hard and stared at one red stripe on the blanket beneath me before pushing a hand through my hair, nodding.
“Am I allowed to ask what the book is about now?”
Something about him asking my permission felt strange, but not unwelcomed. A deep breath filled me and I met his eyes squarely as I resolved to give him what he wanted.
“It’s about the dissolution of a relationship that shouldn’t have begun in the first place.”
“Is it autobiographical?” he asked, drawing out his words cautiously.
“No. Not really,” I lied.
“But there was a guy. In Blacksburg.”
His tone made me feel transparent. As if I was so predictable, it was almost amusing to him. He didn’t even ask. He just stated it and waited for me to confirm.
“Isn’t there always a guy,” I retorted, defeated.
“I’m sorry. You don’t want to discuss it—”
I shook my head and exhaled. “No, it’s okay. Yes, I moved here because I got out of a relationship and I started writing to work through it. I moved here…to help myself stay away. I had a bad habit of taking him back so moving away and starting over kept me from changing my mind. Backsliding.”
My chest tightened as the harsh reality spilled out and I wondered what Leo would think of me. Weak, gullible, pathetic?
“Did he hurt you?” His voice snuck out as a throaty rumble and when I glanced up at him my stomach sank. I realized how much my explanation sounded like me breaking some kind of abuse cycle.
“No,” I breathed. “Not like that. He hurt me in a lot of ways, but he never laid a hand on me.”
Being honest with him didn’t feel as bad as I imagined it would. Telling that small sliver of my history with Warren felt oddly liberating. I wanted to turn from Leo’s gaze, but I couldn’t break my eyes away from the stern look that’d washed over him at my last words.
As a new song poured from the radio, I broke a smile. I hooked my thumb toward the car and breathed a laugh, taking power away from Warren by pushing him from my mind and removing his presence from our date.
“This is the song I was going to play at the restaurant!”
The tension melted from Leo’s expression and he glanced at the car then shot me a wide-eyed look. “Almost Paradise?” he barked. “What did I say about the Footloose soundtrack?” he teased. His hand brushed against mine as he repositioned on the blanket and I let my wrist turn, rolling into his touch. Choosing to float a little higher before planting my feet on solid ground again, I seized the moment and inched closer.
Leo erased the remaining space between us and a sigh slipped from my lips as his fingers stroked my cheek. The feeling of his bare hand on my face rippled warmth through my body. I’d never had the pleasure of his skin against mine like that. There was a time and place for those black leather gloves and his stern touch, but under the starry night sky with a love ballad on the air, I didn’t want anything as a barrier between us.
He brought his face close to mine and the air between us filled with the scent of the red and white mints he’d pocketed at the restaurant. I shut my eyes when the tip of his nose brushed the apple of my cheek.
“May I kiss you, Sloane?”
My eyes blinked open and I reared back to look at him. It wasn’t condescending. It wasn’t a joke or a trick. Leo waited for my answer, his eyes dancing across my face. When I swallowed hard and nodded, he moved in and pressed his lips to mine, giving me the most beautiful kiss I’d ever experienced. His hand cupping my jaw and his lips moving against mine set my skin ablaze in a way completely different from the way he ignited passion in me with his commands.
As his tongue barely touched mine, parting my mouth before pressing a lighter kiss against my lips, the center of my chest lit up and radiated shockwaves out to my limbs. The song swelled in my ears and the gentle force of his kiss captivated me. Once again, my consent had led to surrender and as Leo’s other hand reached up to capture my face, there was no doubt in my mind he was well aware he’d earned one more piece of me tonight. The threads lacing us together strengthened and with every second, I felt more compelled to let go of the past and let Leo show me a future.