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“You don’t need to be embarrassed, DJ,” I tell her, when really I’m the one who feels the wash of red crawl over my face. But I’m not gonna dwell in it.
“That’s not it.” She removes my jacket from her lap and hands it back to me. “Would you mind if we get out of here?” she asks. I don’t hesitate to give her what she’s asking for and help her up out of her seat and we make our way out of the theater entirely, even with a little over thirty minutes left of the movie.
Outside, the sky is dark, and the air is a little cooler.
“Take this.” I hand her my jacket back, layering it over her shoulders and she looks up at me, smiling.
“Thanks.”
We continue to walk in silence for a few minutes. And just when I think she’s about to say something, she just sighs.
I don’t know what’s going on in her mind. Or what happened at the theater to make her shut down. Maybe it was what she literally felt. Was that a turn off for her? I couldn’t help that she was deep-breathing warm air into my neck, my arm wrapped around her as she sought safety. But whatever it was, I hated knowing that she wasn’t being herself right now.
“Everything okay?” I ask as we head down toward an alley.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just started feeling uncomfortable.” Her admission has me worried that I did something to make her feel that way. But she reassures me. “It’s nothing you did, Nolan. You can relax.” Her tone is laced with that sexy attitude I’m used to. And just like she read my mind, I let out a breath of air I didn’t know I was harboring.
We’re almost to the other end of the alley when rain drops start falling from the sky. She looks up and lets a few drops land on her face. The beauty of this girl has me feeling insanely lucky to be standing next to her right now. I can’t stop staring.
She stops walking and takes a few breaths, head still facing the sky. I stop and turn to watch her.
“Tell meone thing,” she asks of me as she lowers her head to look at me.
“One thing?” I ask.
“Listen, I know you’re an old man and all, Nolan. But you can’t possibly be too old to play a game, can you?” She smirks at me before she tilts her head back up to the sky to let more rain drops fall on her perfectly freckled skin.
“One thing. Well, I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid my eyes on,” I admit. And she doesn’t waver. “Besides my little girl of course,” I add.
She takes another deep breath and finally closes some of the distance between us.
“That’s really nice of you to say.” Her eyes meet mine; the rain starts to come down just a little heavier, still not much but it’s raining, nonetheless.
“You tell meone thing,” I counter.
“Well, I hate popcorn. I was just eating it because you bought it and I needed a distraction.” Her words render me enthralled.Is she being serious?
“Am I being punked right now?” I joke, but in all seriousness, how in the world did she know what I wasalsofeeling?
“What do you mean?” She straightened my jacket around her shoulders before crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“I don’t like popcorn either. I bought it because I didn’t know what to do with my hands.” She chuckles at my admission, and I feel really silly having said that. But I feel like I can be honest with her, feed her my raw thoughts just as she does with me.
“Okay,Ricky Bobby.” She smiles, and I have no idea who Ricky Bobby is but I don’t have time to ask before she’s asking me another question.
“Tell me another thing.”
“You’re really beautiful,” I say, and we both laugh together.
“You already said that. Do I have to worry about dementia with you?” she quips.
“I didn’t know what else to say.” I take a step closer to her, and she takes a step back nearing the brick wall to one of the buildings we’re standing between.
“You can’t say the same thing for yourone thing, Nolan.” She rolls her eyes at me.
“Oh, so now there are rules?” I take a step forward; she takes a step back.
We both get distracted as we hear a group of people walking alongside the main street at the other end of the alley. Rain is still dripping lightly from the sky.
