MICHELLE
The sun set an hour ago and I've been enjoying the intimacy created by the darkness. Just him, me, and a million tiny sparkling lights. David stands and extends his hand. “Shall we?”
"We shall." I place my hand in his, marveling at the rough callouses on his palm.
David offers me his elbow on the way back to his car and I take it willingly, glad for an excuse to be even closer to him. I'm tempted to rest my head on his shoulder as we walk, oddly comforted by the fact that I kind of knew him a little bit, once upon a time. We almost never spoke when we were kids. Our connection is tenuous. But knowing he's my childhood friend's older brother makes him feel less like a stranger, and the familiarity reassures me. We drive for a while and I don't even try to figure out where he's taking me as we chatter about all the little things that make us who we are.
"What's your favorite kind of music?" David asks, glancing my way as we speed down a long country road.
"Oh man. That is not a fair question. I don't have a favorite. I kind of like everything."
"You don't have a favorite?" David looks appalled.
"Nope. I like classical just as much as I like pop. I like rock and rap, as long as it's not the shouty, angry kind. It all depends on my mood." I shrug. "What about you?"
"Guess."
"Talk about something not being fair."
"What's not fair about it? Use what you know about me and take a guess."
"Hmmm. You're a farmer with a sports car. A pro-quality football player who turned down the spotlight to take care of his family. You're hot as sin, but act like an angel—"
David's laughter cuts me off. "Hot as sin? An angel?" He runs a hand along the back of his head. "I think you've got the wrong guy."
"Nope. Not the wrong guy." I gather my hair over my shoulder, glad that he can't see my face because I just managed to embarrass the hell out of myself. "I'm definitely talking about you. First of all, don't even pretend you don't know how good looking you are. And any man that lets a little girl name his kitten, who shows up to a date bearing not just flowers, but also a gift card to my favorite coffee shop?" I trail off, realizing that probably means he noticed I couldn't afford to buy myself a coffee.
"That's just the right way to treat people," David says, looking my way. "It sure doesn't make me an angel." He pauses. "As far as music goes, you're right. It wasn't a fair question. If I had to choose, I love me some Elton John. Tom Petty. Ed Sheeran. But I also like Deadmau5 and Knife Party. I'm pretty eclectic, too."
The more we talk, the more I learn about him, the more I like him. And that is utterly and completely terrifying. Ever since Russell moved out, the plan has been that I would raise Claire alone until she grows up and moves out, and I adopt a cat or three.
After letting myself fall for Russell's manipulations, after letting myself worry so much about what would please my directors at the ballet, after spending so much time worried about what other people want instead of what I want, I have zero intention of letting someone else have that kind of power over me ever again. I like David so much that my internal warning bells are going off like crazy. He could be the thing that makes me break that promise, and a lifetime of experience has taught me that no matter how good things feel right now, it'll feel devastatingly different in a month or two.
David interrupts my thoughts when he pulls into a parking lot hidden out in the middle of nowhere. "Do you know where we are?" he asks as he puts the car in park and kills the engine.
"Not a clue."
"You're kidding, right?" He looks appalled. "This was the place to take a date you wanted to impress back in high school. The Narrows?" David looks at me like I might figure it out any minute now.
"Ahh." I hold up a finger. "That explains it. Remember, I pretty much didn't exist through high school? I kind of grew up in a bubble."
David sighs. "And here I thought I was taking you somewhere nostalgic." He swings open his door and hits the trunk release button. He stands and then pauses, crouching down to look at me where I still sit in the passenger seat. "Are you telling me no one ever brought you out here?"
I shake my head. "Not even once."
"I'd consider it a tragedy if I wasn't so honored to be your first." He drops me a wink and straightens.
As I climb out of the car into the clear night, David retrieves a blanket from the trunk and spreads it out on the hood of his car. "Climb on up," he says, offering me his hand. "You've never seen the stars until you've seen them from here."
I take his hand and carefully climb up and lean back on my hands as David stretches out beside me, his fingers interlaced behind his head and his ankles crossed. "It's better if you lie down, you know," he says without taking his eyes off the stars in the sky.
I ease myself down beside him, fold my hands together, and press them to my stomach, aware of the long line of contact between our bodies. I didn't intend to be close enough to touch him, but now that I am, I don't want to move.
"Look how beautiful," I say, talking about the sky. Every star ever created is on display. "I can't remember the last time I had a chance to stare up at the stars."
"It's worth doing every now and then." David takes a long breath. "It helps me remember that I'm just a tiny speck in a vast universe. It makes even my biggest problems seem small."
"Small enough to be considered almost speckish, I bet," I say, turning to him with a smile.
He turns his head and his face is just inches from mine. The darkness hides his features and I can't begin to guess what he's feeling by studying the set of his eyes or the twist of his mouth. I'm lost, untethered in the dark, overwhelmed by the sudden urge to know how his lips feel against mine. Would he consume me? His kiss born of passion and fire? Or would he seduce me? Brush his lips against mine, sweet and sultry, so gentle until I begged for more, breathless and desperate?
David props himself up on one elbow, his profile blocking out the stars. He cups my face, his thumb running along my cheek before he lowers himself down and presses his lips to mine. The kiss is sweet, tentative, and chaste for as long as it takes me to draw in one deep breath. But then my hand grips his arm and a fire lights in my belly as David parts my lips with his tongue. He takes charge without being demanding, leading me through the kiss without trapping me. He acts and I respond, partners in this dance.
I run my hand up his arm and onto his back, gripping the corded muscles that shift and bunch beneath his shirt, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will sleep with this man tonight. That even though we're strangers, even though good girls don't fuck men after just one night, that I won't be able to stop myself with him. He's more than I bargained for, and all thoughts of good and bad have fallen out of my head because all I can think about is that the two of us together is right. Just as he slides his fingers up into my hair, turning my head to improve the angle of the kiss, as his other hand blazes a trail under my shirt, a harsh light washes over us. David sits up and we squint into the spotlight glaring at us from the top of a police car.
"The park closes after dark." The cop's voice comes booming at us from a megaphone. "Please get in your vehicle and vacate the premises."
We slide off the hood of the car, calling out our apologies to the police officer, and David fires up the engine while we laugh until I'm breathless. Making out with a guy on the hood of a parked car? Giving myself permission to sleep with him on our first date? Getting chastised by the police? Who am I? When was the last time I’ve had this much fun?
"I'm getting a cramp," I say, gasping for air while my lips ache for his and my body tenses with desire. "I haven't laughed like this in a long time."
"That's a shame," David says, his gaze traveling from my eyes to my mouth. He pulls out onto the road and speeds through the dark, hitting the gas so hard I should be afraid. But I'm not. Not with him. In fact, sitting next to this man I just met, in a car going way too fast down dark country roads, I feel safer than I have in a long time.