The door opened and Colin appeared. He jumped at the sight of me, and so did I. “Fuck!”
Well done, Tatiana. “God. I’m sorry.”
“What are you doing?” Colin was clutching his head. He was wearing just a pair of basketball shorts and a tank top, with hair that screamed ‘I just woke up.’ Somehow I felt like I lost a battle, especially because despite his dressed down appearance, he was mind-numbingly gorgeous. “Are you okay?”
“Yes!” I realized I’d been quiet for way too long, just staring at him. “I was wondering what you were up to today?”
Colin cocked his head to the side and my heart did a tiny cheer. It was so cute. “What?”
“What?” I asked.
“Why do you want to know what I’m up to today?”
I bunched my brow. “I can’t ask?”
“You can. It’s just unexpected.” Colin crossed his arms. “I don’t really have any plans for today.”
“Well…” I took a breath. “There’s this food festival today. It’s called A Trip Around the World, or something. Do you… Uh, would you like to go?”
“With you?” Colin’s eyes got wider.
My blood was pumping so fast I could hear it in rhythmic thrums in the back of my ears. “I mean, I’d also be there.”
Colin smiled and it was like a knockout punch. “I’d love to.”
“Okay. Well. These things are always better earlier in the day versus later. Could you be ready to go in like thirty minutes?” I asked.
Colin’s grin got even bigger. “I’ll be ready in fifteen.”
God damn it. All I needed was for him to be a little less… him. A little less like a warm blanket on a cold day. A little less like the first flowers in spring. Just… a little less.
“I’ll be ready in thirty,” I hissed back, trying to keep my demeanor even, but Colin chuckled in response. “Meet you downstairs.”
I returned to my room before I could say or do anything stupid, and had to take a minute to gather myself. I pushed all the thoughts, both sweet and spicy, flooding my brain and went for the jeans I’d picked out earlier. I picked out a different hoodie, a dark green one that I hadn’t worn in a long time, and put my hair up in a ponytail. I grabbed a pair of comfy tennis-shoes for walking for a long time and opened my bedroom door to head back out.
As I walked out, Colin emerged from his room as well, wearing a pair of tan cargo shorts, a black zip-up sweatshirt, and had his hair hanging loose under a black baseball cap.
Have mercy.
If I had three wishes, I would use all of them to wish that Colin was just a tiny bit uglier. He smirked. “You beat me.” Then again, maybe I wouldn’t.
He allowed me to lead down the stairs. By my parents’ expressions, you could have thought we walked in stark naked. My mom looked like she was going to spit out her coffee.
“Good morning,” she greeted.
“Hi,” we replied in unison and then exchanged an amused glance.
My dad started to smile. “I didn’t expect you two to be awake so early, and here in the kitchen, at the same time… and so close.” I took a large step to my left, putting some distance between Colin and I, and glared at my dad. “Sorry.”
“What’s up?” My mom asked.
I sat down at one of the barstools and Colin sat down next to me, making my body heat up exponentially. “Uh, there’s this food festival downtown today. I was wondering if we could take one of the cars.”
My mom stood up and went to stand by my dad with a silly, amused grin on. “Together? You’re going together?”
I rolled my eyes so hard I thought I was going to sprain them. “Yeah, mom. We’re going together!”
“Sorry!” My mom side-eyed my dad and I wanted to murder them both. “Of course. Take my car. No use risking your dad’s.”
“Hey. My Corolla is solid.”
“Yeah, a solid piece of crap.” Colin giggled at my mom’s joke and it caused me to laugh as well. It was such a joyous, contagious sound. She reached on top of the fridge and grabbed her purse. She dived into it and pulled out her keys and handed them over, then she opened her wallet. “How much do you think will do it for the day? $200?”
I was shocked and I could see Colin’s jaw drop out of the corner of my eye. “Um, $200 would definitely cover it.”
My mom nodded and then pulled a small handful of bills out of her hands. She often carried cash. As a personal consultant for people’s small businesses, they often paid her in cash. She’d make every other day trips to the bank so she never had too much on her at one time. She counted out $200 in $20s and handed them over to me. I started to fold the bills to put them in my own wallet when I noticed her start to flick through the bills again. I watched in amazement as she counted out an additional $200 in $20s and handed the cash to Colin.
Colin reached out wearily. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Are you kidding?” My mom snapped her wallet closed and returned it to her purse. “I’m so happy you two are going out to do something together that you had room to negotiate. I got off easy for what I would have paid.”
I shook my head at her. “You are the weirdest.”
“Do you need breakfast or will you eat there?” my dad asked.
Colin looked at me and in a split second, I knew we were on the same page. He looked back at my dad. “I think we’re safer going in with empty stomachs.”
I nodded in agreement and my dad clapped his hands. “Alright. Have fun then, you two.”
I stood up and Colin followed suit. We said our final goodbyes and went out to my mom’s Chevy Equinox. It made my dad’s car look like an antique. Colin looked at it and laughed as he climbed into the passenger’s seat.
“I can’t believe your dad still has that car.”
I started up the engine. “It’s really astounding that the wheels haven’t fallen off. It doesn’t track miles anymore. It maxed out.”
Colin laughed. “I didn’t even know cars did that.”
“Me either.”
The car ride was a ping-ponging of awkward silence and both Colin and I’s attempts to start conversations just to break that silence. It felt like a huge relief when we were finally getting out of the car at the downtown event space where the festival was being held, but then we had to navigate walking next to each other. How close was too close? How far was too far? When we got to the ticket counter, we both sort of hesitated as we approached. Do we buy tickets together? Separate? It was exhausting to navigate. Finally, Colin stepped up to the ticket counter and purchased two tickets. I was standing several feet behind him when he stepped up, expecting him to just get one, so when he said two, I took a giant step towards him to not seem even more awkward, a mission I failed when he turned and we collided.
Colin reached out and grabbed my arm to keep me from toppling over and I wanted to die. Why was it so hard? We used to hang out all the time and it was never that bad, and I was in love with him then too.
“You good?” Colin asked, his hand still gripped around my arm.
“Yeah, sorry.” He released me and then handed over the second ticket. I took it, wanting terribly to turn back time. “Thanks.”