Chapter 27: Chapter Twenty-Seven

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Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lee intertwines our hands at the same time I open the front door to Sally’s, the diner next door. I try hard to act nonchalant and not see that we’re holding hands in public for the first time since ever. The bells on top of the door jingle as we enter.

The musty smell hits you right away.

Despite the scent, the diner has somewhat of a warm atmosphere. The sun is pouring through the windows, making everything look twice as bright. There are only a couple of men with beards at a booth and they’re all reading newspapers or talking. The only other person is a man sitting at the counter stools. I can’t tell what he looks like because his back is faced away.

“Welcome, young folks!” A short lady with wild red hair with some gray comes up to us. She’s in a yellow dress with an apron over it. Her smile is infectious.

“Hello,” Lee says, smiling. I can tell the lady doesn’t recognize him because she doesn’t treat him any different than she would to any other customer. I guess that’s a benefit for going to a random diner in the middle of nowhere. “Sally, right?”

“Yes, that’s me!” she chirps. Sally whips out a notepad and picks out the pen from her bun. “What can I do for ya’? A booth for two?”

Lee nods. “That would be lovely.”

“Thank you,” I add. Lee and his non-existent thank-you’s.

Sally smiles and leads us to a window booth near the back. There’s a jukebox right next to it. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen one in person since restaurants and diners don’t usually have these anymore. I’m beginning to wonder how old this place actually is.

We sit down and Sally hands us breakfast menus though there’s only about five to ten choices, including beverages and all. I decide on the “English Breakfast” which is just normal sunny-side up eggs and toast with bacon. It’s simple and cheap.

“I think I’ll get the pancake supreme,” Lee says to me.

I look at the menu and my eyes widen. The pancake supreme is $29.99 because it has about twenty pancakes and a bunch of topping options.

“No!” I say. “We have to save up our money. We already bought a bunch of stuff we shouldn’t have next door. There’s still an entire day left to spend money on.” I wiggle my toes in the knock-off vans we bought.

“But this is the cheapest breakfast I’ve ever had,” he replies.

“Too bad,” I say. “You’re going to get a English Breakfast with me.”

“I refuse.”

Sally comes back at that moment. “You sweet peas ready to order?”

“Yes, please,” I answer. “I’ll be having the English Breakfast and some coffee, please. And uh, he’ll have the same.”

“No, I won’t. I’m going to get the Pancake Supreme.”

“He’s kidding,” I say, kicking him under the table. Lee groans and grabs his knee as I finalize our answer. “Two English Breakfasts, one coffee, one orange juice.”

“Coming right up,” Sally says, jotting it down and then putting her pen back in her bun. “It’ll take about ten minutes, sweetheart.” She walks away to tell the chef.

“You are so abusive, Jesus.” Lee is still rubbing at his knee and I almost have to laugh because I didn’t even hit him that hard. “I don’t know if I should sue you or not.”

“Not,” I answer for him. “I’m too cute to sue.”

Lee smirks. “You’re also modest, too.”

“Thanks, I know.”

“I really want to kiss you.”

I suddenly look up at him. He’s so random, one minute we’ll be talking about grass and politics or whatever, and the next, he’ll get serious and stare at me in that way that makes me want to throw up because I can’t handle it.

“It’s just,” he explains, “you look really beautiful.” Lee’s hand moves a strand of hair that covers my right eye. “The sun’s shining down on your bare face and you’re dressed in this huge shirt too big for you and you’re smiling and I don’t know, it’s just, really great to look at. I enjoy looking at you.”

I blush and hit his hand. “Stop it. You just want to mess me up.”

Lee smiles. “Really, if there was a painting of Mona Lisa and a painting of you, I’d probably pay to look at you all day instead.”

I start coughing. I don’t know how else to respond. In movies and books, boys say cute things but in real life? Not so much. So when a boy actually says that to you, what’re you supposed to say back? “You too?” How are you supposed to respond?  Nobody ever teaches you that.

Grabbing a jug of water that’s on the table, I grab a cup and pour water and start chugging it down like I’m in the desert. What else am I supposed to do? I’ve never really been good at this romance stuff. In a way, I guess it’s good that Karen stole Peter way from me because if we’d actually dated, he’d probably run away from my awkwardness.

Lee laughs.

He actually laughs. I expected him to look at me strangely or maybe even ask why I was so weird whenever he did something or said something romantic. But no, he laughs and he leans back, and covers his mouth as he laughs, like he’s afraid his laugh will get too loud and bother the bearded men cult two tables away.

“You are too funny,” Lee says as he leans back to the table. “Come here.” And then he just holds my face and leans in too close. I open my eyes wider. He cups my face with both hands and my cheeks squish against his hands. I must look like a fish. “No escape now, huh?”

“Wait,” I mumble but I don’t think he hears me because my face is too squished.

“You’re so adorable.” Then, Lee kisses me. It’s not long or slow. It’s a quick peck and then he backs away and stares at my squished face. “Too cute,” he murmurs before going back and kissing me quick again. And again.

I must look so hot with my fat cheeks squished so hard that they touch my nose.

Lee gives me one more kiss before Sally comes up and announces, “Here are your two orders.” She’s toppling plates on plates. I’m surprised they don’t fall. She looks between us. “Sorry, was I interrupting?”

I back away so fast I probably pulled a muscle. “No, no, no!” I push my hair behind my ears. “Of course, not. Thank you for the food.”

After setting down the plates in front of Lee and I, she smiles and says, “Enjoy your meals, kids!” She’s about to turn away and but she adds, “Oh, and the jukebox works if you kids wanna use it, by the way! It’s brand new.”

“Thank you, it’s fine,” I tell her, grinning. Sally nods and walks away to talk to the bearded men that haven’t ordered yet.

Lee picks up a knife and fork. “We could be having the Pancake Supreme, but, nooo, we had to get this plain, stupid, normal breakfast.”

“Don’t be so immature,” I say, smiling. I’m still recovering from the series of kisses from just two seconds ago. I’ll never get used to it. Or used to Lee, for that matter. Before I launch myself into thoughts, which lead to negative thoughts, which leads to reality, I pick up my utensils as well and dig in.

Lee and I eat in silence and just talk about small things. It’s relaxing and probably the best way to start my morning. Simple and bright.

“Brent is probably calling the cops right now,” I say. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the FBI came out of nowhere and surrounded this diner right now. One time, I forgot to tell him I was going over a friend’s house for a sleepover when I was, like, nine, and he biked around looking for me. It was so embarrassing when he barged into the house all sweaty and muddy in front of my friends.”

Lee chuckles as he eats his toast. “That’s not embarrassing. That’s great. Brent cares about you a lot. Not many brothers are like that these days.”

“I know, I know, I’m lucky,” I say, smiling down at the table. “I do love my brother but he’s such a worry-wart. What’s contradicting is that I’m the only thing he worries about because he parties and doesn’t really do good in school.”

“That’s good because you matter to him.”

“Yeah,” I say, “I guess.” I add more salt to my eggs. “So, what about you? Any siblings or anything?”

Lee’s smile wavers. “No, not really.”

“Any other family?”

“No, just my mom and me. I don’t really have close relatives, just distant aunts and uncles, and a lot of business partners,” he answers.

“Business partners aren’t really family.”

“Well, in my family, our uncles and aunts are business partners because they all own their own subdivision of the hotels and resorts.”

I nod my head at this new information. “Any best friends? Secret girls?”

Lee chuckles and I relax mentally because his smile is back. “No, no actual girl friends. There was this one girl, but we weren’t together. But other than that, maybe a couple of small ones I had when I was young and stupid, but no.”

“You still are young and stupid,” I tell him. “You just act like you’re eighty.”

He glares at me and drinks his juice. His face scrunches up. “Ew, what is this? Orange juice? I don’t think I’ve ever actually drank this in my life.” He sets the glass down in disgust. “And I am not eighty, I am twenty-one.”

I push the drink back closer to him. “Well, you need the nutrients. I bet you’ve drank coffee since you were taught how to even eat. Coffee’s not even that healthy. It makes you short and your teeth turn yellow. Orange juice is healthy and nutritious.”

“I’m good,” he says and then swipes my coffee before taking a drink.

I roll my eyes. “And what about friends? Any close BFF’s?”

“Did you seriously say B-F-F?” he asks, putting my cup back. “And well, I don’t have time for stupid things as friends. And all they ever do is betray you or take your money. It’s always one or the other.” His attitude takes a complete one-eighty turn.

“I’m sorry, did I touch a nerve?” I say, hoping I don’t ruin our good mood but I’m also curious about his past. He’s never told me anything before about his past and his family and today’s the only opportunity I actually have to ask. I don’t want to know nothing about the guy I supposedly like. How sad is that?

Lee continues chewing and looking at his plate. “No, it’s fine.” I stare at him as he does so because I don’t know if it’s actually fine. He looks up. “What?”

“Nothing,” I say, continuing eating.

“No, say it.” I really don’t want this to turn into a fight. Not today.

I set my fork and knife down. I want to be honest with him. “I…I’m just curious, okay?” I say. Playing with the fork in my hands, I try to find courage to say what’s on my mind. “It’s just—I know nothing about you. Yes, I know your favorite colors and all that now but I don’t know anything really. Nothing big or anything about your life or past. But I’m just a big open book. You already know everything about me and there’s really nothing to tell. I just feel vulnerable, you know? You have an upper advantage.”

Lee’s eyes press together in a sad way. I don’t want to make him upset or angry but I just want to know more about him. If I’m going to like him, I want to know everything, no matter how long it takes to figure it out.

He surprises me by placing his hand over mine. I’m still holding the fork so I let it go and squeeze his hand back. “What,” he says, “what do you want to know?”

I look up, taken back. I didn’t actually think he would let me in. His eyes look at the napkin holder by the window and I know this is hard for him so I’ll take it easy and slow. I don’t know where to begin or what to say but I’m excited and happy. Lee is actually giving me access to his head.

“Um,” I say, “what’s your mom’s name?”

I want to crawl into a hole and stay there. I can’t believe that’s the first question I asked. Lee is basically opening the gates to heaven and to everything in his life and the first thing I ask is what’s his mother’s name? I am ready to die.

Lee looks at me and smirks. “You want to know what my mother’s name is?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a funny girl,” he says, laughing as he looks out the window. And then he turns back to me and looks me in the eye to show that he’s serious. He’ll answer any question I give him. He wants me to know he trusts me. “It’s Jane.”

I smile because Lee actually is willing to open up for me, me, some random small-town girl he met months ago because of a lie. This means so much more than the kisses and the hugs—his trust. “That’s a pretty name.”

“Thanks,” Lee says, smiling, like he finds this too funny.

“Okay, that was a stupid question,” I say. “But give me a break, I have to think.” It’s funny because I’ve had a billion questions about Lee Richardson since I met him but now that I can actually answer them, it’s all blank in my head.

“Take your time, we have all day.”

“I got it,” I exclaim, holding up my fork. I set it down and try to act serious. “Why… why…um—”

“Just spit it out,” Lee demands.

“Why do you and Mark hate each other?” I ask. I look down at my plate instead of at him. I’ve always wondered why, but I never had the chance to ask why. “I mean, when you met, you had this angry growl undertone in your voice. And time after time, you guys take jabs at each other.”

Lee sighs, tracing the rim of his glass with his index finger. “I knew I’d have to explain this to you sooner or later.”

“Do you want me to ask another question instead?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Lee replies, putting his hand down to his lap. “So, you remember the girl I just talked about? The one I never got a chance with?”

“Yes.” A woman. This is about a woman. A little part of me wonders if I want to go down this path. To know about someone who meant so much to Lee.

“Well, it all started there,” he says. Lee looks out the window. “Okay, actually, it didn’t. Let’s start from the top. I was born on December 28th, 1993 in Oxford, England. I don’t really remember anything about England since I was there only until I was around four. Dad’s work went international and we decided to move to the heart of the business, New York City. I grew up there and consider it more my home than the U.K.”

“I knew you had a faint British accent! The way you say some words, like, ‘kitchen’ is keet-chuh-n to you,” I say.

Lee glares. “Shh, this is my fairytale,” he jokes. I have a feeling this won’t be.

“Okay, continue, Snow White.”

“Thank you,” he says. “As I was saying, New York is my home. Went to elementary, middle, and high school there. College, too. Mark and I went to the same high school but we really got close in college. We both went to New York University and majored in business because of our families. The reason we both became best friends is because we both loved music and wanted to be hoodrats in Manhattan. We ended up forming a band—”

“Red Burritos,” I whisper, remembering the name.

“Yeah,” Lee says, sending me another glare for interrupting. “It was great. We had a lot of gigs. I played bass and Mark played the drums. Our singer? That’s the girl I never got, Anne.

She was beautiful. She had this red hair that kind of sprung to life and caught your eye, you know? I was in love with her the minute I saw her. When I figured out she could sing, Mark and I immediately asked her to join and she did. We all became the very best of friends until…”

Hearing this sends knives up my heart every second, but I want to hear what he has to say though. It was my question, anyways. I know he’s about to say the hard part so I give his hand a squeeze.

Lee smiles in this sad, wistful way. It’s more sad than seeing him cry. He continues, “Well, I was going to ask her out. I was. I made a reservation at this huge restaurant. It was supposed to be perfect. College was halfway over, we were about to be true adults. It was perfect timing…except it wasn’t. Before I was going to leave, I got a phone call. It was about my father. He was in the hospital and it is the worst phone call I have ever gotten in my life.”

He shuts his eyes and presses them shut tight to hold back tears. Lee takes his hand from my own to pinch the bridge of his nose. And then he takes a huge breath and releases it. “I’m sorry, it’s just, I’m still recovering.”

“No, no, I understand,” I say. “You can stop, Lee. You don’t have to answer me anymore.”

Lee’s eyes snap open and he blinks a couple times before focusing back on me. “No, I’m sorry, I’m ready. I want to show you every fold of me. I trust you.”

I take his hand and kiss his knuckles. “Take it slow.”

He kisses my hand back. “Thank you, baby.”

My knee slams onto the bottom of the table. “Shit, ow!” I let go of his hand and rub my knee. I don’t know why that just happened. It was a reflex of some sort to his words. He called me baby…I don’t know, I’m going insane.

Lee’s eyes are worried. “Are you okay? Jeez.”

“Uh yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay—wow weather’s nice today, uh—”

“Ivory?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you acting like that?”

“No reason, I’m always weird like this.”

“That you are,” he agrees. “But you’re really red and you’re not looking me in the eye.”

“I am!” I respond, giving him a quick glance before looking over his shoulder at the bearded men enjoying their morning coffee. How do I hide my heart spasms?

“Ivory, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I won’t tell you the rest of my deep dark secret past,” Lee says, smirking and crossing his arms.

“Fine!” I yell. “Fine, you little twat, you win! I, I’m freaking out because you called me that thing and I don’t think my heart was ready for that—”

“That thing? What thing?”

“You know! That thing.”

“I’m a little lost, baby. Can you explain?” Lee’s smirking. The nerve of this boy!

“You did it again!” I exclaim, crossing my own arms this time. Lee stays quiet and he wants to me to elaborate. I groan. “Fine. You called me ‘baby’ in this really sweet tone and I’m sorry I lost it, Mr. Richardson. I’ll try to keep my feelings to myself.”

He chuckles and brings his head back into the air and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if I want to pick up the fork from my plate and stab him where the sun doesn’t shine or kiss him until he forgets his own name.

But I’m glad for our little detour from his serious face and talk.

“You like it when I call you that?” Lee asks, raising his eyebrows and giving this sexual-tension-frustration-causing look.

“I just,” I explain, “— you said that in my dream last night and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. And then you just said it out loud and I was just caught off guard.”

“Oh? You were dreaming about me?” Lee leans in and rests his chin on top of his fingers as he rests his elbows on the table. “Do tell.”

“Nothing much, we just got married and stuff, ya know? Normal stuff,” I say, rolling my eyes to make it nonchalant. “Nothing special.”

“Wow, I didn’t know I was such an easy play,” Lee says, grinning. He leans back into his seat, crossing his arms as he examines me. “First, you agree to the lingerie thing and now you’re dreaming about me? Signs, I tell you.”

“Signs about what? It’s not like we’re going to actually get marr—” I shut my mouth immediately. My eyes widen. I let it slip. I let reality slip. We’re supposed to be ignoring the real world but it’s so hard because I can’t help the little voice in my head that’s chanting all the truth.

Lee’s eyes are wide and he frowns. He looks away and stares at Brent’s car parked in the parking lot instead.

“Lee,” I say, “you know I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine,” he cuts me off. His tone is a little harsh. Lee faces me again and smiles but his eyebrows are tight. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No, don’t worry. I know. Just…continue with your story?” How did our completely playful and funny conversation take such a dark turn? Stupid me and my mouth.

“Yeah…sure,” he says. “As I was saying, my father was in critical condition from a heart attack. We weren’t sure if he was going to make it. My mother and I stayed overnight, waiting, hoping, that a doctor would just come up and tell us it was just a false alarm and we could all just jolly along home.

Except that’s just not how life works. My father’s funeral was a week later and I was in a blurred haze for the entire week and many more weeks to come. I completely forgot about Anne. Mark had gone in place of me because I had told him to. At first, Anne understood. But when I wouldn’t step out of my phase and all I did was throw myself into my father’s work and drink at night and ignore everyone, she couldn’t take it and I got it. I wouldn’t be able to handle it either. So she left me. Said that Mark and her had connected. Said the whole “it’s not you, it’s me” thing. And if my life wasn’t already bad—my father was dead, I was taken out of college, I was pushed into this business without even finishing my degree—I lost the only girl I seriously cared about. To my own god damn best friend. Well, supposed best friend. It was so cliche and stupid but I fell for it. Mark and I had a huge fight and we haven’t spoken since until this year.”

Lee takes a deep breath, finishing his story. I try not to let my jaw hang open from all this information. So that was it—why they hated each other. Mark stole Lee’s only true love during one of the most toughest times in his life.

“Any questions?” he says, smiling but I can tell it’s forced. I’m glad he’s forgotten about our little marriage mishap just now.

“I have one and then I’ll stop because I don’t think I can handle any more information for today,” I say, laughing lightly because this is the farthest thing from a joke. I take a deep breath and rush out my words. “Um…what about Penny? Who is she to you?”

“Penny?” he says and I nod. “Well…Penelope Adams is one of my childhood friends. We grew up in the same penthouse building, her on the twentieth floor and me on the twenty-first. That’s really it.”

“That tells me nothing,” I deadpan. “Tell me about your romantic involvements.”

“Romantic involvements?” Lee laughs a little. “Well, all right. Penny and I grew up together and our parents know each other. Her parents own ‘Adams & co.’, the law firm. They’re pretty famous for their cases. Penny and I once did go out when we were, like, thirteen, but that was way back and just puppy love. We were being silly young kids.”

“And how’d she end up being your fiance?”

“Thought you only had one question left.”

“Well, I don’t. Now elaborate, Mr. Richardson.”

“Okay, I see your point. Don’t call me Mr. Richardson and I won’t call you Miss Ivory,” Lee says, grinning. “Deal?”

“Deal,” I say, smiling. “But back to the topic.”

“Well, I was going through a tough time when my dad died. I was in a really dark place. Penny didn’t give up on me. She’d come over and try to get me to stop drinking and being a sloth all day. I was either working all night or drinking. My mom saw what Penny was doing and she decided that maybe I’d feel better if Penny and I were together instead of Anne, who she never liked. Too punk rock for my mother’s taste. My mother saw a business opportunity—and she always does—with Penny. For my happiness again, she made Penny and I get engaged. Marrying would mean that our company would get legal help in incidents where customers would sue us or we’d sue them. Basically, for people like you.”

“Me?” I ask, appalled.

“Yes, you,” Lee says. He has a playful smile. “People like you who I should sue for slander and lying on my behalf.”

“Shut up, Romeo,” I joke, hitting his arm gently.

“Okay, Juliet, or should I say baby?” Lee asks, his lips slipping up into a smirk. “I have to use the bathroom. Excuse me, miss—I mean, Ivory.”

“Wait,” I say, grabbing his arm as he stands.

He takes a seat back. “What is it?”

“I…I have one last question.” Lee sighs. “Okay, last one, I promise for real this time,” I say. I gulp and search for the courage to ask him this. “Do…do you love Penny?”

“Yes.” Bang. It feels like a bullet went through me. Lee didn’t even hesitate.

“Oh,” I say. I let his arm fall back to his side. “I understand.”

I do. Lee and I haven’t known each other for that long and we’ve barely had a stable, normal relationship. I get it. Penny is gorgeous and smart and she probably knows everything about him. I don’t know if what Lee and I have even escalates to love. We just got past confessing our true feelings about each other last night and even that didn’t go well with Mark and all. But it hurts still.

Lee’s standing to probably go to the bathroom. Instead, he walks over to me and holds my chin with a finger so I’m looking at him. Can he see my forming tears?

“You didn’t let me finish, stupid,” he whispers. “I love Penny.” Wow, thanks, Lee, that helps a lot. Say it again. Stab me and then twist the knife in my gut, why don’t you?

“Lee—”

He puts a finger to my lips. “Listen to me first. I love her…but I’m not in love with her. There’s a huge difference, trust me. It’s true Penny will always be someone important to me. She picked me up when nobody else did. My dad always did approve of her too, but…this is my life and I’m saying I’m not in love with her. She’s just a really good friend to me—more of my sister than wife.”

“Lee—” I manage to mumble.

His fingers press harder against my lips. “Jesus Christ, you love interrupting me, don’t you?” Lee kneels down because I’m sitting down. “No, I am not proposing to you, don’t get your hopes up. My legs hurt and it’s easier to kiss you this way.”

“Rude!” I try to yell but his finger is still on my lips. I’m tempted to bite it.

He laughs. “Anyways, I just wanted to clear that up. Penny means nothing to me in that kind of way. You’re the one I like. My heart? It doesn’t go crazy, like the way I drive, around anyone else. My mind? It doesn’t get more messed up, like the way your room is, when I’m with anyone else. My eyes? I’ve never looked at someone so much and never gotten tired before. It’s you, Ivory. It’ll continue to be you. I’m in—”

I kiss him on the lips before he finishes his sentence. I don’t want to hear it yet for some reason. Not the ‘L’ word, not yet. Not until he truly means it and definitely not until we’re at a stable place. I don’t want him to tell me he loves me and then tomorrow we have to go back to who we were months ago.

And I’ll wait.

I’ll wait for a long time if I have to. Because it’s worth more when he says he loves me when we both mean it rather than a one-day-date-thing.

Lee knows this too because instead of pushing me away and saying anything else, he wraps his left hand on my waist and his other in my hair. I kiss him so hard because I want him to know that I do—I do…love him…but it’s too early. It’s not time yet. Not here. Love is all about timing.

I back away for a second and give a quick peck before I say, “Now go pee.”

I am so good at this romance thing, am I right?

Lee guffaws and it’s so loud that everyone turns around—the chef, Sally, the bearded men. The guy with his back turned to us looks like he could give a less shit than spend his morning hearing teenagers so he doesn’t do anything but send a sideways glare.

“Yes, madam.”

While he goes to the bathroom, Sally comes up to pick up the plates and collect the money. I give her the wad of cash and a little tip because she’s so nice and she grins. Sally asks, “That your boyfriend, hun?”

I grin. “Yeah, that goof is.” It’s technically not a lie. We’re sort of together.

“Reminds me of the good ole days with Bobby,” she says, smiling. She points to the pudgy man behind the counter. He grins. “My husband and I used to be crazy and in love and active once before too. Y’all are too cute.”

I don’t want to know what she means by active but I just smile and nod.

“Babe, we still got it!” Bobby yells from the kitchen, waving his spatula in the air.

“Yes, we do, babe!” Sally yells back, sending air kisses. I don’t know if I’m awed or disgusted but I decide to go with both. “Here’s some quarters, sugar.” She puts some coins in my hands. “On the house for the jukebox. You and your boy listen to one good song before y’all leave, ya hear?”

I nod and send her a smile. “Thank you so much, Sally.”

“Y’all welcome,” she responds. “The jukebox new from Walmart. It cost a ton! Bobby said we could either relocate our diner with the money or decorate the diner, and ya know, those things are antique and priceless.”

I’m about to walk over to the jukebox but she stops me by talking.

“It’s not old, though! It has one of those tablet-iPad-thingy’s. It’s a newly remodeled jukebox ‘cos me and Bobby went all out!”

“All right, thank you,” I say politely as I try to escape again but it doesn’t work.

“Oh! And—” I turn to face her and smile and wonder if she’ll ever stop talking, “—it has new songs! Like from this century so you can just search up whatever song you’d like, okay, doll?”

“Sure, thanks, Sally,” I reply.

“Welcome, sweetheart.” Sally finally turns around with plates balancing on her arms and walks to the kitchen. I sigh and thank god she didn’t start talking about the whole industrialization about the jukebox because it would’ve been no surprise if she had.

But the jukebox is totally as cool as Sally makes it out to be. There’s an iPad connected to the shiny jukebox and I look through the songs. Many songs are pop but there’s also classics and other varieties. I totally need one of these one day, I think as I find a familiar song.

“What’re you doing?” Lee breathes against my ear. He’s so close that I have to jump to my side a little. I can feel his chest against by back.

“Uh, nothing,” I say. “Sally gave me some quarters and said I should use their new jukebox. Isn’t it cool?”

“Yeah,” Lee says but I know he’s just acting surprised for me. He probably owns a billion of these and has probably seen much cooler things that only rich people see. “Hey, you’re about to play Kiss Me?”

I look down at where my hand is hovering. “Yeah,” I say, smiling as I reminisce back to the blizzard night where Lee and I danced to this.

“You’re remembering that, too?” he says, smiling just like I am. I play the song as I nod. “That was a great day for me.”

“It was?”

“Yeah,” Lee says, still holding the gentle smile I want to kiss. “I got to dance with a princess that suddenly had to go feed her cat when I was about to kiss her.”

I start swaying to the slow beat of the song without realizing. As he was talking, Lee had managed to sweep me in his arms. His hand is on my waist and the other hand is holding my hand as we sway gently. It’s one of the perks to being in a deserted diner—to be able to dance freely.

“I don’t even think I have a cat,” I admit as I giggle. I had been freaking out and couldn’t think straight. It’s when my first hints of feelings for Lee had surfaced.

“You lied to me?” Lee says, grinning. He pulls me closer to we’re chest-to-chest which kind of makes me wonder if he can feel my breasts but I push the weird thoughts away because oh wait, I don’t have any.

“Don’t I always,” I respond to his remark.

“You do. And in punishment, I think I deserve that kiss.”

He spins me in a circle and I twirl a little before returning to his arms. His hold on me is back and secure. “Yeah?” I ask him, questioning.

“Yeah,” he whispers. I wonder why he’s whispering and then I realize we’re so close that he doesn’t even need to speak loud so I can hear him. I reach up and give him a quick kiss before returning to dancing. “That wasn’t a kiss.”

“Really?” I say. “You need to google a kiss.”

“You know what’ll be there when I google it?”

“What?”

“This,” he says. He lets go of my arm and uses both hands to reel me in like a fish to a fisherman. My hand is left in mid-air as he reaches down and kisses me. Really kisses me too. Not short and sweet, long and slow like the song we’re dancing to. It’s not urgent or needy, it’s just passionate and heart-spasm-causing.

“Wow.” That’s all I say and all I really can say when he backs away, taking his spectacular lips with him. “Wow,” I repeat again. I think I’m going to go faint now.

“Wow,” Lee whispers, kissing me on the forehead. His hand goes back to my hand in mid-air and picks up where we left off as if I didn’t just die and come back to life with that kiss. He swings me around gently and I lean in so I’m resting my head on his chest as I dance. I recover from the kiss as I sway gently, listening to our song and listening to his heartbeat.

We spend the next minutes or so just dancing around in a deserted diner at seven in the morning with no worries or thoughts. Just true happiness. I don’t think I’ve ever been so content as I have now as Lee whispers the lyrics in my ears and I hear the humming of his voice and heart. All I can think about is the ‘L’ word and how much I want to tell him but the actual words that come out that mean just as much are, “Thank you, Lee.”

He responds with a “You’re welcome, baby” and continues treating me like a princess.

Hey! I'm back. Sorry for the partial long wait. Nothing compared to the wait that spanned over one year, haha. I have finished exams and school and let's go, summer! I was going to upload it yesterday but then I saw this beetle in my room and I almost jumped out my window. :))

But thank you for all the support and artwork! If you have any covers, banners, trailers, you should inbox them to me, because I truly do appreciate them! Who knows? Maybe the next chapter, you'll get a dedication towards yours.

I might be gone for a little while again because summer vacation + world cup = disaster.

So, y'all now more about the Lee Richardson now. I hope it answers your questions to why he's such a way. Anyways, please vote, comment, and share! I read your comments all of you and you guys made me almost pee my pant because you're so hilarious and sassy and dirty-minded.

Love you lots,

Cordelia

P.S. Those jukeboxes really do exist, search it up. And thank you for 12k fans and 9.5+M reads! OH AND I'M going to self-promote myself... Go check out my new story "Wesley Beach"!