Tonight the Streets Are Ours

She gave him a quick kiss and hightailed it.

Check-in time was at two, and it was 2:03 when Arden parked the Heart of Gold in the lot of the hotel on the other side of town. The receptionist asked to see her driver’s license, and even though she’d prepared for this, Arden’s chest tightened. She’d gotten a fake ID specifically for tonight but had no idea if it would pass muster. She’d paid Kirsten’s stepbrother handsomely for it, as he was older and “knew a guy.” She didn’t have a clue what would happen if the hotel saw this ID for what it was: an overpriced square of plastic. Best-case scenario, they wouldn’t let her into the room. Worst-case scenario maybe was jail?

But the receptionist had no visible reaction to Arden’s fake ID. She barely glanced at it before handing Arden a card key and saying, “Take the elevator to the fourth floor.”

So Arden did.

The room was clean and quiet and felt strangely immobile, like humans never disrupted it—even though of course they did; it’s just that the hotel had a paid staff to dispose of any evidence of that fact. There was a king-size bed in the center of the room, dominating the space. There was almost nothing else to look at.

Chris was supposed to arrive at four, so Arden would have plenty of time to prepare the room and herself for his arrival. Once he was here, she had a whole evening planned out for them: ordering in room service, watching as many old musicals as he wanted on the room’s big TV screen, and, of course, lots of time in that king-size bed together.

Arden had told Chris the street address to come to but nothing else, and had begged him not to look it up. “It’s a surprise,” she’d told him months ago, when she first started planning this whole day. “So don’t ruin it.”

He’d sworn up and down that he wouldn’t. “I’ll like the surprise, right?”

“Of course. And tell your parents that you won’t be home until the next day.”

“I’m intrigued. Are you kidnapping me?”

“Maybe.”

Planning this whole secret event had been fun: collaborating with Kirsten and Naomi to find the right outfit and practice her hair and makeup, getting the fake ID, saving up for this hotel room, and, especially, dangling the whole secret in front of Chris, a present he couldn’t open yet. It had seemed like he was actually interested in finding out what this anniversary surprise would be. For once it had seemed like Arden knew something that he didn’t, and he was interested to find what it was.

Now she set out the brownies on the dresser and changed into her dress. She studied herself in the mirror. The dress was made of slightly iridescent fabric that clung to her body, with thin shoulder straps and a cut-out diamond shape over her shoulder blades. She was pretty sure this was sexy, though it was hard to say. Kirsten had reassured her that guys were into it when girls revealed unexpected sections of skin, so Arden supposed she just had to trust her.

Her phone buzzed. Chris.

I GOT THE PART!

Arden’s heart leapt. IN THE COAL MINING MOVIE?? she texted back.

YES!!!!

She responded with a series of exclamation points of her own. For all his auditions, this was the first movie Chris had ever been cast in. His first step out of the Allegany High theater and into the real world of professional acting.

What could be better than celebrating an anniversary with your boyfriend? Celebrating your anniversary with your boyfriend who was going to be a famous actor, that’s what.

U R AMAZING! she wrote. SO PROUD OF U. NOW WE HAVE 2 THINGS TO CELEBRATE TONITE! CAN’T WAIT 4 U TO GET HERE.

A minute later her phone rang. She answered it immediately. “This is awesome!” she squealed into it, hopping up and down. “Chris, I can’t wait to see you on the big screen!”

“Me, too!” he enthused. “But the lame part is that I’m not going to be able to come tonight.”