Written In Ink ↬ Wilbur Soot

8; the question

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Birds kept chirping around the pair, more flying near after Will showed Taylor how to feed them. The birds eventually flew to the wooden feeders or left the fenced-in area completely.

Will turned back to Taylor, who was already facing him.

"What?" Will grinned goofily.

"Nothing, that was just really cool."

Will looked down, a blush coming to his cheeks when he noticed the book on the bench beside him. He grabbed it and raised it up.

"I was going to tell you my thoughts, but you and the birds distracted me."

"Me?!" Taylor confirmed, putting her hand over her heart in 'offense.'

Will laughed and opened the book to the spots he had marked with sticky notes. Taylor's eyes widened. He had written notes on almost every page.

She listened to him talk about his thoughts and experience while reading it. He went closer to the end where the main character's traumas were unpackaged.

"So funny enough, I started crying during these parts. I noticed stains on these pages as well. My guess is that someone read the book in store and cried on these pages too," Will explained, Taylor, humming along. "The trauma of the main character, is well, traumatizing. And..." he paused, hesitating to say his next thought.

"And...?" Taylor softly pressed forward.

"Every tear-soaked page reminds me of you in the best way possible."

Taylor was taken aback by his comment, but not in a bad way.

"I guess that's why I love it so much... it's relatable," she shrugged.

Will compassionately smiled at her. "I enjoyed the book. Thank you for the read."

The pair cleaned up their trash and went back inside.

Will turned around to face Taylor.

"That was a nice lunch, thank you for inviting me out there," he told her.

"Of course. It was really nice hearing your thoughts on the book."

They stared at each other for what felt like hours, but in reality, was only a few seconds.

Will breathed in hard.

"T-Taylor? Would you be interested in going on a... date with me?"

She stared at him before nodding. "Yeah, that'd be fun."

Will beamed. "I'll phone you the details. See you when I see you, Taylor," he waved and left the shop.

Taylor stood still. She couldn't believe Will asked her out. She was over the moon as she definitely felt something towards the man with glasses.

"TAYLOR!" The girl was broken out of her trance, jumping at the loud noise. She whipped around to see Tommy with the goofiest grin on his face.

Taylor shushed him with her hands. "Tommy!" she hissed.

Tommy lowered his voice to a near whisper. "He asked you out! That's so epic!"

Taylor turned red and laughed. "Yeah, maybe he did. I guess my feelings were reciprocated," she shrugged.

"And to think! Will was so worried about your ex earlier," Tommy laughed, recalling his conversation with the man.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, nothing. Now, uh, get back to work," Tommy told her, holding in a laugh.

"You're barely the boss of me," Taylor complained, walking off.