Dark Wild Night

Luckily I have experience hiding this . . . though who am I kidding? There’s not a single person—except perhaps Lola—who didn’t realize I’m wildly in love with her.

I head out to the front of the store and begin helping customers. One of my regulars is searching for the newest issue of Hawkeye, but when I check I see we’ve sold out. There’s a man in his forties looking to sell a box of miscellaneous junk he got at a garage sale, and after poking through it, I know there’s nothing I’m interested in buying. I help a couple looking to buy their first big comic together, and I sell them Captain America 61. Released in 1947, it depicts Cap and Bucky discovering that the Red Skull, believed to be gone, is indeed still alive. Classic.

And through it all, I can feel Joe watching me.

The crowd thins a bit and I walk to the counter, reaching under for a rag to wipe down the pinball machine.

“Place has been crazy lately,” Joe says, pulling a stack of twenties out of the register to face them.

“Yeah, was thinking of bringing someone else in.”

He pauses for a moment and looks up. “Someone else to work here?”

“Sure.”

Joe perks up. “Would I train them?”

He follows me toward the back, and I look at him over my shoulder. “Sure.”

“So, I’d be in charge. Second in command, even. Wong to Doctor Strange.”

I laugh. “Absolutely. Robin to my Batman.”

“Batman? Let’s not get too far ahead of yourself. Foggy Nelson to your Daredevil. The movie.”

I stop near the back and start straightening a shelf of Choose Your Own Adventure books. “Sure,” I say again with a shrug.

Joe knocks on the counter, loudly. “Okay what is up?”

“Up?” I repeat. “Nothing’s up.”

“Ben Affleck’s Daredevil? You’re just going to let me throw that out at you?”

I move back to the front of the store. “What? It was an okay movie.”

“An oka—”

The bell over the door rings, cutting him off, and I hear one of our regulars up front call out to Lola.

My body goes tight, heart taking off in a sprint.

It’s one thing to decide I’m not telling Joe, or Finn, or Ansel, or even letting on to anything, but am I expected to act like nothing happened? Is that even possible? I feel like one look at her and all of last night will be written all over my face.

Glancing over my shoulder, I see Lola’s hair is pulled into a dark ponytail that swings behind her as she walks. When she isn’t in a hurry, her stride is even and serene and her hair rests gently down the middle of her back. But when she’s moving like this—with purpose—it swings behind her, propelled by the sway of her energy.

She’s headed straight toward me, and she’s definitely moving with intent.

I turn fully to face her. “Hey, how did the video chat go?”

Casual, calm. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Joe watches as she breezes by him, ignores my question, and stops just at my feet before reaching for the back of my neck and pulling me down to her. With a tiny sigh, her lips meet mine and all other sound in the room is sucked out in one giant rush of air. My blood heats, and lust flashes through me, hot and dizzying.

Lola smells exactly like she always does—the sweet honey scent of her soap—and her lips are just as soft as they were when I kissed her goodbye through the open window of her car only hours ago. My brain spends so much time wondering at these things that it takes a moment for me to realize that Lola is kissing me. Now. Right here, in the middle of my shop.

Fuck it.

My hands push into her hair to tilt her head, my tongue slides against hers, and it feels like the perfect way for us to announce what’s happening. I only wish everyone was here to see it, to get it over with in one fell swoop.

A throat clears somewhere nearby, and when Lola takes a step back the rest of the world slowly comes into focus. Joe is leaning against the register, ankles crossed, with his eyebrows raised to the ceiling.