I rub my cheeks working out the muscle sting from laughing so much. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.

“Mr. Star’s face got so red when you read orgasm instead of organism out loud in biology. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack right there,” Archers laughing so hard his words are coming out in bursts of high and low.

I shake my head as a high peal of laughter erupts out of me.

“I told you to stop reading the romance books before class,” Archer says wiping a stray tear from my cheek. “I missed you, Nicky.” His tone sobers us.

In the course of an hour we changed from slow dancing, to swaying on the dance floor laughing at old times to now. Stopped dead center in the dance floor our gazes locked on one another.

“I missed you too, Arch,” I tell him truthfully.

“I shouldn’t have let you go. You’ve always had a stubborn streak. If I would have pushed you harder I know I would have gotten you to see it my way.”

The hair on the back of my stands straight up at his declaration. Old wounds rip open right there on the make shift dance floor. “I wasn’t being stubborn I was being practical. I had a plan and I made room for you. It was you who threw us away.”

“Threw us away, huh. No it was me making our dreams come true. Not relying on the safe way.”

People around us start paying more attention to us than the music floating through out the sound system. The tip of my nose starts to burn a sure sign I was about to start bawling. With a shake of my head I walk quickly out of the gym and once again away from Archer.

“Nicole wait. You don’t get to run away this time. We need to talk.”

I spin around and push my hands to my hips afraid if I didn’t restrain them I would ruin my resolve and touch him. All the feelings I had for him in high school were still there. The undeniable attraction my body felt when he is near is intense. I confessed to him the night of prom that I was sure he was my soul mate and seeing him tonight confirmed it. But hearing him shows me that he still hasn’t grown up and would eventually break my heart.

“Why? What could we possibly need to talk about?”

“Us. Our future. I know you feel it. Don’t deny it.”

“Of course I feel it, Archer but this chemistry we have with each other isn’t enough. I begged you to go to college with me so we could start our future together. Build a life where we weren’t struggling with money as we watched both of our parents do. But no what do you want to go? You want to go backpack through Europe and spend all of our savings on some grand adventure. I grew up unstable I wanted to get out of it not dive deeper into it.”

“College wasn’t right for me and if we’re being honest with each other it wasn’t right for you either. Tell me the truth; do you like your job?”

I bristle at his question opening and closing my mouth in silence.

“See you can’t even pretend you like your job. You’re an artist. I wanted to go to Europe for you. So you could be inspired by the pure beauty and talent of Europe’s artists. The paintings you did in high school were brilliant.”

“But they were just paintings. I can’t make a living on paint and canvas. Why couldn’t we have gone to college and got our degrees first. I could have still painted on the side. I wouldn’t have given it up and I would have had a stable job it was a win win. Why can’t you see that?”

“Have you painted since you left here?”

“No, but I’ve been busy. I can still paint,” I argue.

It was as if Archer and I had passed through a time warp. This argument although different was exactly the same. He couldn’t see how much stability meant to me and I couldn’t understand his immaturity.

“Does your saving account make you happy? Your steady paycheck in a profession you weren’t meant to do. Tell me Nicole does that bring a smile to your face? Because I can tell you the most sincere smiles I’ve ever seen grace your lovely face were when you were creating your art. I was just trying to nurture you.”

“No Archer you were asking me to throw away a stable future on a whim. You were asking me to give up my dream of getting out of the poverty I grew up in. I don’t know why I even came here. We obviously are still as mismatched now as we were ten years ago. We just aren’t right for each other. Bye Archer.”

My body pulses in pain as I speak. Even though I agreed wholeheartedly that we didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell at working out I still want to throw myself in his arms and say fuck it.

“Aren’t right for each other, huh.” Archer’s long legs reach me in three steps and his warm calloused hands land on my cheeks.

My eyes widen as his soft lips land on mine. We stare at each other as his mouth assaults mine. When his tongue passes my lips I can’t keep my eyes open and I let them drift closed.

We kiss to the precipice of pain. His taste is everything, running through my blood and igniting passion only Archer could reach. My arms lock around his neck as I stand up on my tip toes wanting him. Needing him. Drowning in him.

Archer’s lips rip from mine and I whimper at the loss. My head falls back when his lips burn a path down my neck. He suckles on my earlobe a secret place that drives me crazy and only he knows about.

“Come back to my hotel room,” he whispers in my ear tugging on the lobe lightly with his teeth.

My mind is gone. It left as soon as he touched me. Now I was a starved maniac craving only his touch and unable to think of anything beyond that.

“Nicole, please say yes.”

I blink but he has stolen my words just like he stole my heart. I nod not bothering to conjure up some semblance of a vocabulary.

Archer winks at me and before I realize what he’s doing he picks me up and runs across the street into the hotel not stopping until we are in the elevator.