“She went outside,” he says. “I came up here to find you. Ava said you went back to the fifth floor. There’s a fire!” He lunges forward to grab my hand, like he’ll be able to pull me to safety.
“It’s okay!” I shout back. I let him take my hand and I link our fingers together. “There’s no fire!”
“What?” he asks, and I’m not sure if he can’t hear me or if he’s just confused about what I said.
“There’s no fire!” I repeat. “I pulled the alarm.”
He’s still running down the hallway toward the back stairwell, pulling me along behind him. And then he stops suddenly and I crash into his back.
“You pulled the alarm? Why the hell would you p—”
“You came back for me,” I interrupt.
“Of course I came back for you,” he says.
And then before he can finish, before I can think it through, I kiss him. It must catch him off guard because it takes about three seconds before he reacts, but then he kisses me back, pulling me tight against his chest, wrapping his arms around me. The sirens must still be wailing but I can’t hear them because all I can hear is the heavy thudding of my heart. I take a few steps forward, pushing him until his back hits the wall, and then I press him into it. He brings a hand up into my hair and pulls me closer. We kiss for what feels like forever, and I don’t mind, because I could probably keep on kissing him for the rest of my life. When we have to part for air, I pull back and see his eyes flutter open.
“What are you doing?” he asks. Our faces are so close together now that we don’t have to shout anymore. I can hear him over the alarm, can feel his lips brush against mine as he asks the question. “Why did you pull the alarm?”
“I needed to find you,” I say, tightening my hold around his waist, like now that I have him, I won’t let him go. “I’ve been looking for you.”
He grins and I feel his smile against mine. “That’s my line.”
“I know,” I say. “But it’s true. I was with Dean and—”
At the sound of Dean’s name, Andrew’s head jerks up and away from me, looking in both directions down the hallway. “Did he hurt you? Where is he?”
“It’s fine,” I say. “Everything’s fine. But I was with him and I just . . . I wanted it to be you. I really wanted him to be you. I think, I mean, the thing is . . .” I can’t believe how hard it is to get the words out, even now.
“Say it,” he says, and he kisses me again quickly, the hope sparkling in his eyes giving me courage. “Come on, Keely, say it.”
“Iloveyoumorethanpizza,” I say, the words tumbling out of me so quickly they blend together. “I love you more than pizza,” I repeat, slower this time. “I got your note. Is it true?” I feel like I can’t breathe.
“Are you kidding?” he says. “Keely, I’m so stupidly in love with you.” He leans closer to me so our noses are touching. “I’ve been in love with you since middle school.”
For the first time in my life, I feel really and truly alive. I kiss him again, and it’s just the two of us, the only two people in the entire world. But after a minute, I pull away, remembering that’s not true.
“But you love Danielle,” I say. “You told me. You gave her that valentine.”
“Do you know how many times you’ve turned me down?” he asks, shaking his head. “How many times I started to tell you the truth and you made some joke as if dating me was the most ridiculous thing in the world?” I want to disagree with him, but I know it’s true. “So I started saying it before you could say it first. If I could convince myself it was true—if I could agree it was ridiculous, then maybe I could get over you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” I say.
“I made that valentine for you, you know, back in middle school. I was going to tell you how I felt. But then you made another stupid comment like you didn’t like me, and I chickened out. I gave it to Danielle because that’s what everyone else was doing.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say. “I’ve been such an idiot.”
“Yeah,” he says. “You have.” He’s grinning and I whack him on the shoulder. “But so have I.” He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “When you asked me who I was in love with, I thought you knew it was you. I thought you were trying to tell me you loved me back. But then you turned me down again, and I couldn’t handle it. I told you it was Danielle, because it was easy. I knew you would hate it. And then I felt so stupid and I didn’t know how to fix it. I wrote you that card on your birthday, and you never even said anything.”
“I didn’t see it!” I say.
“I should have just said something to you,” he says. “Could have saved us so much time.”
“You’re right. We’re both idiots.”
I kiss him again.
“You’re sure there’s no fire?” he asks.
“No fire.”
“Good.” He grabs my waist and flips us so that my back is against the wall, then presses me into it, covering my body with his.
“Hey!” A voice shouts from down the hall, and Andrew pulls away from me to turn and look. I miss the feel of his lips on mine immediately, and I wonder if every time we’re not kissing for the rest of my life I’ll be missing him. “Hey, there she is!” It’s the concierge from the front desk, running toward us. And with him is Andrew’s uncle Leroy, dressed in his full fireman uniform.
Before I can think about it, I grab Andrew’s hand and start running down the other end of the hallway, pulling him along behind me. I throw open the door to the back stairwell and we barrel through it and keep running, trying hard not to fall down the stairs and kill ourselves. When we get down to the main level we keep running, turning random corners, tearing down hallways until we’ve lost them. There are so many doors that I wonder if even the concierge knows every hidden nook and cranny. The alarm is still blaring around us, lights flashing.
“In here!” Andrew says, taking a sharp left and then opening a door to a storage room under the stairs. I follow him in and then he shuts the door behind us and immediately, the sound of the siren is cut off. It’s dark in here, almost pitch-black, and I should be worried about spiders or rats or something, but I’m not. Because Andrew’s arms are around me and then we’re kissing again and he loves me and that’s all that matters.
“I’m so losing my job for this,” Andrew says, his smile against mine.