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At least both of us are dismissed at the same time. Winter holds the door open, and I step outside, the sun already low in a sky painted in shades of orange and purple. He promptly turns left, towards the back of the theater instead of right.
“Where are you going?” I ask, confused.
“To the 441 building?” he answers, sounding even more confused.
“The building is this way.” I point with my thumb over my shoulder.
He follows the direction I’m showing, then frowns at me.
“You come through the park?”
“You don’t?” Is this a joke? Is he about to tell me he teleports here?
“I use the tunnels,” he says, pointing with his thumb behind his back.
Now I’m convinced he’s really joking. “What tunnels?”
I never in the ten months I’ve been working here ever heard of there being tunnels in this park.
“Luiza, please tell me you know about the theater tunnels.”
“I…”
He grabs my wrist and pulls me behind him, rounding to the back of the theater, where a small door is hidden behind a tall hedge. The door unlocks with a beep after he scans his employee ID, revealing stairs going down.
“Every theater stage in the park has one of this. How did you not know about it?”
“Because no one told me!” I protest. “How was I supposed to know the theater department had secret passages around the park?”
I’m so outraged about being kept in the dark, that it takes me a second to realize something.
“Wait,” I pull his arm to make him stop. “That day we both arrived late. The second day of rehearsal. That was how you got to the theater before me! You knew about the tunnels, and you didn’t tell me?”
“I thought you already knew!”
“So, it’s your fault I’ve been crossing the park, sometimes running through the crowds, for months?”
“We were not exactly friends back then, Sunshine.”
“Still,” I insist because I don’t have a good argument against that. The truth is, I probably wouldn’t have given him the chance to tell me about it anyway. But he doesn’t have to know that.
“Anyway,” he says, realizing I’m not fighting back, “I have an invitation.”
“No,” I snarl. “You’re not gonna charm me out of being mad at you.”
“You find me charming?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
“I think you find yourself charming,” I retort like the fifth grader I am.
At least that earns me a laugh from him. And the laugh is made even sweeter when he follows it with a quick, chaste kiss on my lips.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the tunnels,” he says cupping my face.
“You’re forgiven,” I tell him trying my best to sound solemn but failing miserably because he’s giving me puppy dog eyes, and it’s just too adorable not smile at him. “What’s this invitation you have for me?”
“Ali wants to meet you,” he says casually, resuming his walk through the tunnel. I follow him.
“Your best friend? You told her about me?”
