Chapter 14
A few days later, my best friend dragged me out for coffee and demanded details.
I gave her none.
She retaliated by giving me all of hers.
Apparently, her boyfriend’s “family guardian” had now fully accepted her, which explained why she had recently started getting lucky enough to win giveaways and almost never hit red lights anymore.
“Love really does improve your luck,” she sighed dreamily.
“Or maybe your spirit weasel just likes you,” I said.
She clutched her heart.
“Can you stop saying it like that? It’s ruining the romance.”
“No.”
Then she leaned over the café table with narrowed eyes.
“So. Have you kissed him yet?”
I took a sip of coffee.
“No.”
She looked deeply disappointed.
“Why not?”
I set the cup down slowly.
“Because I’m not in a rush.”
That was partly true.
The other part was that I had started to understand something about him.
For all his stupidity, panic, and dramatic dependence on talismans, he was earnest in a way that made me cautious.
He liked things seriously.
If he stepped forward, he meant it.
If I let him, I would have to mean it too.
That evening, when I went to his apartment, Lucky was asleep in a sun patch by the window and he was in the kitchen trying to make dinner.
Trying being the important word.
The vegetables were unevenly chopped.
One pan was smoking.
He looked up as I walked in and said defensively, “I was experimenting.”
“With fire?”
“With effort.”
I laughed and went over to rescue the stove.
He stepped aside immediately, then stood there watching while I fixed the mess.
After a while he said, “Summer.”
“Mm?”
“When you said heaven should be fair…”
I glanced at him.
He was not looking at me.
He was looking at the simmering pot.
“I kept thinking about that.”
I waited.
Then he said, “I used to hate being able to see things other people couldn’t. It made me scared all the time. But meeting you again made it feel different. Like maybe there’s a reason.”
I turned the heat down.
The kitchen was quiet.
Then I asked softly, “And what reason did you come up with?”
He finally looked at me.
His voice was almost steady.
“Maybe so I could find you.”
For a second, everything in me went still.
Then Lucky, naturally, chose that exact moment to wake up, sneeze, and bark like a broken rubber toy.
The spell shattered.
I laughed first.
Then he did too, a little helplessly.
But after dinner, when he walked me downstairs, he stopped under the building light and held my wrist very gently.
This time when he leaned in, he moved slowly enough for me to stop him.
I didn’t.
So he kissed me.
Soft at first.
Tentative.
Then warmer when I didn’t pull away.
By the time he stepped back, his ears were red again.
I touched my mouth and said, “You’re still a little stupid.”
He smiled.
“But?”
I looked at him.
“But I can work with that.”