Page 88 of Don't Be in Love

“You’re so demanding!” I threw my arms up, letting the door shut and running up the steps.

The rain said hello on my apartment windows as I pushed the front door open. Its hellos grew louder as I ran into my room to open the balcony.

The wind whipped my hair as I looked below at Dorian.

See, I’m safe, my arched brows said.

Stubborn, he shook his head. Rain was coating his hair. He resembled a shot from a romance film. With one hand in his pocket and the other holding the umbrella at a slant, he didn’t care if it was covering him anymore.

We just stared at each other for a moment before he pulled his hand out of his pocket and wedged the umbrella under his elbow. Cupping his hands together, he passed a glance between his hands and me.

You want me to do that?

He nodded and dug something out of his pocket. Walking right underneath the balcony, he tossed the item high in the air, catching me off guard. I threw my hands out and cupped the item between my palms as if I was trying to grab a guppy leaping from a pond.

Stepping back under the cover of the balcony above my head, I opened my hands and found a telephone booth keychain. It wasn’t the red ones I passed every day on my way to campus though. This was painted a blue-gray and had small streams of green that ran from the top to resemble vines. It matched the keychains hanging from my purse.

You did this?I let it dangle from my fingers and stared at him in awe.

It’s just something small. He scrunched his nose.

My chest filled with earnestness. I was a teddy bear stuffed with handknit hearts.

I twisted, glimpsing at my purse. Before I could second guess it, I grabbed one of the keychains off my bag and ran out of the apartment, retracing my steps to his outside.

“What are you—” I cut off his question with a suffocating hug.

The umbrella shuttered above us. Then, it fell altogether at our side as he wrapped his arms around me.

I breathed in the cold rain smell coating his hair and let the side of my face absorb the scent. My hands found the back of his neck and my heart found his. I squeezed, and he squeezed back.

“Thank you.So much,” I whispered. “That was the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

With one hand secure on my lower back, his other smoothed out my hair, twirling strands at the bottom.

“I’m so glad,” he exhaled. “I’m so glad.”

I could remain here all night. The rain could dissipate my clothes, soak the leather of my boots, and prune my fingertips. I didn’t care.

My toes ached as I pushed up on the balls of my feet to hold onto him.

Pick me up and kiss me, I wanted to tell him.

Swallowing one more gulp of this moment, I reluctantly pulled my hands from his hair. But not before clipping my Red Sox hat keychain onto his belt loop.

I kissed the side of his neck, felt him shiver, and ran back inside. I practically floated up to my bedroom. From my balcony, I watched him pull the umbrella back over his head. In a haze, he stared at the keychain attached to his hip.

Then he looked at me.

He opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head like a flustered kid. The smile on his face was no longer shy.

My heart raced as if I was struck by some shock of electricity.

Happy Birthday, Adelaide, he mouthed. And then he left. His figure was slowly taken by dark sheets of rain, like a tugboat tethered to a ship in an ocean. I felt myself leaning forward.

What if I went back outside? Took the stairs two at a time and got to the sidewalk before he could get too far?

I let the rain hit my face in thought. The old black paint of the railing chipped under my palm.