Sincerely, Vantae

ANTIQUE CAFÉ

I lay in bed on Friday night—anxious and unable to fall asleep. There was a light rain falling outside my window, and rounds of thunder were roaring in the distance.

My heart was begging me to text vantae, to ask what he was up to and if he wanted to come over, but my brain overruled it. Mostly because he'd just left my house a few hours ago.

God, I can't be this infatuated with him...

I rolled over and grabbed my headphones, thinking that maybe music would be all I needed to fall asleep, but then my phone vibrated. A text message from vantae.

Hey. What are you up to?

Attempting to fall asleep. You?

Same. Would you like to go somewhere tonight?

Absolutely.

I'll pick you up in twenty.

Practically jumping out of bed, I slipped into an old summer dress and flats. I pulled my hair into a low ponytail and decided to put on a little makeup. I brushed some shimmery pink eyeshadow over my eyelids and accented my eyes with mascara.

Just as I was putting on lipstick, vantae sent me a text—letting me know he was outside.

I looked myself over one last time and grabbed my purse before running downstairs.

"You're meeting me at the door now?" I stepped back once I opened it, shocked to see him standing there. "You normally wait in the car."

"You're putting on makeup now?" He smirked, lightly tracing the crease of my left eyelid with his fingertips. "You usually don't wear any if it's just me and you."

"I was already wearing makeup. I was trying a few different looks in the mirror."

"I thought you were attempting to go to sleep."

I blushed and looked away, caught in an easy lie.

He let up an umbrella and held it over my head. "You want to walk along the beach?"

"No," I said, dodging puddles as he led me to his car. "Even if it wasn't raining, hell no.'

"Why not?"

"Because you and late night strolls on the beach never end well for the girl..."

"Fair enough." He laughed. "What about the movies?"

"We did that yesterday."

"Yes, but we didn't actually watch the movie. Maybe we can actually try to pay attention to it this time."

I fastened my seatbelt, now remembering how one second we'd been sharing popcorn in an empty theater, and the next he'd had me in his lap—saying his name until the credits rolled.

"No to the movies," I said. "I don't trust you. What's the best place you think you've ever taken one of your um..."

"Girlfriends?"

"Yeah." I realized we still weren't attempting to address what we were. "What about that nice grove where you took sinha? Oh! And didn't you take mia to that old train station? I remembered you telling me you loved that, so maybe there? Or, what about where you took—"

"Stop." He leaned over and pressed his finger against my lips.

"You know how we've somehow adopted the unspoken rule that we're not telling anyone that we're having sex, how we're continuing to hang out with our other friends—pretending like we're not fucking each other recklessly every night?"