Page 70 of Somewhere Only We Know
Her eyes shone bright under her new cap. A full minute passed before she spoke. “Well, then what’s the deal with my name?” She smiled.
“Is your name actually Lucky?” I had to ask it.
“Oh my God, what do you think?” She swiped another piece of chicken and took a bite.
“Well, I don’t know! What’s your real name, then?”
“You can Google it.”
“I don’t want to Google it! I want to hear it from you, the star herself.”
She made apfftnoise. “You sound like a journalist.”
My stomach fell out of my body. I made apfftnoise in response. “You’re not going to tell me?”
“Today is a fantasy day. So, you only know the fantasy. And that’s Lucky.”
There was something so sad about that. I shook my head. “Are you saying that you haven’t been you? That you’ve been Lucky? Because, for me, you’ve onlyrecentlyturned into Lucky.”
She looked thoughtful as she chewed. “I think you’re right. Today was a fantasy dayawayfrom Lucky.”
“Are you saying I’m a total fantasy?” I waggled my eyebrows. I was expecting a specialized eye-roll or some kind of withering glance. But instead she blushed.
“Iama fantasy?” I couldn’t help it.
“Well. Actually, yeah,” she said, her face still pink. “I don’t get to hang out with guys. Ever. And… you’re a pretty good one.”
It was crazy because sitting across from me was a literal untouchablestar. And she was saying thatIwas a fantasy for her. She was probably the fantasy of a bazillion people across the world. And at the thought ofthat, my fists clenched. Like some chest-thumping caveman.
“You’re okay, too,” I managed to say. What the hell, Jack.
“You know, pop stars need to hear they’re hot on occasion,” she teased.
That was all I could take. I tipped my stool forward, my body stretching across the table so that I could cradle her face in my hands. Up close, Lucky had freckles scattered on the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones. She had a darker freckle on her chin. Remnants of makeup under her eyes. A very tiny blemish near her nose. Human through and through. Yet.
“You’re unreal,” I said, my voice so quiet that I could barely hear it myself.
And then my lips touched hers. Finally.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
LUCKY
When you get kissed like this, after a guy says in a breathy voice,You’re unreal, it’s very hard to keep your head about you.
Jack was good at this. Truly, he was too masterful. The head tilt was perfect. The soft touch of his hands on my face. The pressure of his lips.
The stalls full of steaming food disappeared. The people sitting on the plastic stools around us melted away. The string of lights hanging over us dimmed. All that existed was Jack in front of me. Jack kissing me. This delicate and hungry exchange of breath. The sweetness and heat of it.
Then he pulled away and looked at me, eyes kind of bleary. “Um, was that okay?”
Lord, did I like,flinchor something when he Frenched me? Was I twelve years old?! “Yes! It’s so okay!”
But the moment was lost. He looked a little embarrassed as he sat back.
So I got embarrassed. It hit me then how unusual this was—my first kisses being with this total stranger who I would never see again. I guess I had always imagined it would be with my first love.
I know that’s some old-fashioned nonsense but when you wait this long for your first kiss you getnotions, okay?
