Adam jerks his head at the ladder. We stay low across the roof and keep the guard in sight. We scramble down, and the guy keeps his word. His back stays turned and we slide through the door.
Adam races me out of the hall, pushing me to the left. “Take the elevator,” he says, dodging to the right. Behind me, I hear him clamber down the stairs.
I make it to the ground floor and push through the back door. I’m shaking from the adrenaline when Adam grabs my hand and pulls me over to the loading dock.
We lean against the wall, chests heaving as we try to catch our breaths. “Nothing’s ever boring with you,” he says.
“I could say the same for you.” I search Adam’s face in the half-light. I feel I’ve barely penetrated his layers, and it might take me longer to figure him out than it took me to figure out Duncan.
He raises my hand and kisses the tips of my fingers. “Tomorrow we send off Duncan in style, and then…”
I realize that our relationship has shifted to a new plane, and I have to wonder where tomorrow will take us.
The next morning, I hang around in the main hall after Drawing 101, hoping to run into Adam. My body hums at the thought of seeing him. It’s eight long hours before we’re supposed to meet and the day cannot go fast enough.
I prop myself against the wall with my sketchbook and pretend I’m working on an assignment while I sketch his face.
Bernadette goes by and her eyes lock on my feet, and it dawns on me that she’s checking out my shoes. Great. The rumors have started.
I go back to drawing Adam, rounding his lips and adding the tiny cleft in his chin.
Taysha comes up to me. “What are you smiling about?” she says, and before I can slap my sketchbook shut, she tips it toward her. “Mmm, is that Mystery Man?”
I blush and try to make my face a blank, but I can’t.
“Don’t even try to lie,” Taysha says. “He’s gorgeous. This is the guy you met at work?”
“Yeah,” I say, a little surprised Taysha doesn’t recognize him when she knows everyone including the cashier at the CALINVA snack bar. Still, it’s not like Adam’s in any of our classes.
“He’s a painter, right?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Those smoldering, soulful eyes.”
I bite my lip, because as soon as Taysha says “smoldering,” I’m finally ready to spill.
“Guessing from your face, I’d say things have progressed.”
I can’t resist any longer. “Promise me you won’t say anything to anyone.”
“When you say ‘anyone,’ you mean a certain anyone from Kansas.”
I ignore her. “We’re having a bonfire at the beach tonight.”
“Romantic…You really like this guy.”
“I’ve never been with anyone like him before. He’s not just interested in me, he loves my art—”
She sighs and shakes her head. “Girl, you need to guard your heart, because this man looks like he could pulverize it.”
Taysha walks off to class, and I settle back against the wall.
Only a few more hours, and it will be just me and Adam under the stars, burning the evidence of what I swear will be my last act of wrongdoing ever.
I barely make it through my shift at Artsy, I’m so excited. Adam and I are meeting where we always do, by the back door at CALINVA. Any minute now, he’ll drive up to the loading dock in the van he borrowed from the photographer he works for and we’ll be off.
The sun set a couple of hours ago, and it’s a lot colder tonight than it was yesterday. I button my jacket, glad I’ve got a hoodie on under it. Hands crammed in my pockets, I can’t wait to warm them over the bonfire we’re going to build.
I wait by the door, shifting from foot to foot. Adam’s late, but he could be inside already, getting the painting out of the locker, so I text him to let him know I’m here.
“Come on, Adam,” I mutter when ten more minutes go by with no response.
I can’t decide whether to stay where I am or duck into the loading dock and get out of the wind. My hair’s blowing into my face, so I pull out a hair band and tie it back. Fingers crossed Adam remembered his promise to bring a couple blankets, because we’ll need them.
Somewhere nearby a church bell bongs out the time. Seven thirty. Fifteen minutes late isn’t that late. Maybe Adam had to run a last-minute errand for Ofelo or one of the other professors like Hmong.
I pace and check the time on my phone. Why isn’t he answering? After a half hour, I’m panicked. Maybe Adam got caught by security. Krell’s painting was sent out to be professionally photographed today, but security might not know that. No, they’d see a guy trying to sneak a million-dollar artwork out the back.
I walk to the edge of the parking lot and scan it for a white van. Lots of Priuses, no vans. Okay, maybe Adam’s stuck in traffic. The 210 freeway can be a parking lot this time of night.
My fingers and feet are just about frozen when a figure moves in the shadows. My heart races. “Adam?”
“No,” a small voice answers. Julie steps into the circle of light by the huge black dumpster. Sweetie’s perched on her shoulder and Julie pets her absentmindedly. “You’re looking for your friend, but he isn’t here.”
At first, I wonder how Julie knows who I’m waiting for, but she’s seen Adam and me together and she might have even seen us here.
“How do you know he isn’t here?” I say.
“Green mountain truck’s not there.”
“He doesn’t have a truck.” He told me weeks ago he sold it because he couldn’t afford it anymore.
“Yes, he does.” Julie turns to watch the Metro clatter past, and I get the feeling she’s standing guard over me.
I zip my hoodie up to my chin and tuck my hair inside the hood. Julie’s in a ripped down jacket and tonight she’s wearing shoes. I check if she’s got socks on. Yes, but they’re cotton. I should bring her a pair of wool ones.
It’s freezing out here. How long am I supposed to wait?
A couple more minutes tick by and I can’t pretend any longer. Either Adam’s in trouble or he blew me off. As soon as I think that, I feel it in my gut.
Adam blew me off.
He never said he’d ended his relationship with his ex. I assumed it was over, but he never actually came out and told me it was.
A flash of his phone screen pops up in my head. REYES. That’s what he typed in with my phone number. REYES, not SABINE, REYES. Like I was just another contact. Like I could be anyone.
Now all the little signs I ignored, signs that this girl who is probably a student at CALINVA is still very much in his life, the signs that should have made me put on the brakes…they’re blazing.
The way his mood would run warm then cool like he couldn’t decide if he was in or out.
The way he’d disappear then reappear. How he always worked on Sundays.
And right now he’s probably with her, so he’s left me waiting out here in the dark. He couldn’t even text me to say he couldn’t make it.
I haul back and kick an empty soda can by my foot. It flies through the air and bangs into the chain link along the train tracks. “Prick!” I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid.