Eastern Lights, стр. 18

I laughed. “This is the opposite of lame. This is amazing.” I walked up to the wall and crossed my arms, reading some of the wishes that had been left against the bricks.

Some wishes were material things: expensive cars, expensive games, purses.

Others’ wishes were a bit deeper.

I wish for my ex to love me again.

I wish to get out of toxic relationships.

I wish for a home.

I wish for a cure for cancer.

I felt that one deep in my bones.

I looked over at Red, who was reading the words, too. I loved the way she took them in, holding her hands over her heart as if she were connecting personally to each word written upon the pieces of paper.

“Ready?” I asked her, walking over to the stack of unused Post-it Notes and grabbing a pad and a pen for us to use.

She took a deep breath, stepped away from the wall, and nodded. “Ready.”

“How many do we get to write?”

“Three seems like a magical number to me.”

Three wishes. If I had three wishes, how would I use them?

Number one: I wish my mother’s cancer would never come back.

Number two: I wish no kid would ever go hungry or be without shelter or love.

Number three:

I turned to Red, who was in deep thought as she bit her bottom lip and scribbled on the Post-it. Every now and again, she’d pause and nibble that lip. I couldn’t stop watching her stop-and-go writing process. Everything about her, I found so damn attractive.

I went back to my last Post-it and scribbled down my last wish.

Number three: More nights like this. More nights with Red.

We put the notes up on the brick wall. I knew they’d probably blow away at some point in time. I knew they would roll up and tear at some point. But, at that moment, it felt powerful to put our wishes into the atmosphere.

Red walked over to my notes, and I walked over to hers. She wished for longevity, she wished for love, and she wished for more time.

I couldn’t help but wish for more time, too. Each second I spent with her that evening felt like something important was slowly evaporating from my life. There I was, hoping to make her fall in love with me as a way to help her get over her ex, and there I was, falling quickly for a girl who wasn’t going to stick around after sunrise.

Oh, the situations we put ourselves in, Con.

“More nights with Red,” she said out loud before turning to me. “You wished for more nights with me?”

“Yes. More nights with you.”

She laughed a little and fiddled with her hands. “That’s funny,” she said, pointing toward the wall. “Because I cheated a bit and wrote a fourth note.” She revealed the sticky note in her palm then handed it over to me. “I wished for you, too.”

I read the words: More Captain America.

I smirked and brushed my hand against the back of my neck. “More of me?”

“More of you.”

Fuck.

My heart.

I’d always known it was there, but I hadn’t known it could beat like that, like a million fireworks all exploding at once into a damn masterpiece.

I held my hand out toward her. “Dance with me.”

“What?” She giggled. And my gosh, I loved her giggle. “There’s no music.”

“Don’t care. Just dance with me.”

She gave me her hand and I pulled her toward me. Our bodies swayed slowly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her head against my chest.

“I can feel your heartbeats,” she told me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was a corny guy. When it came to being the cornmaster, I was the leader of the pack. But I didn’t want to go full-blown corn and tell her that heart she was feeling was beating for her.

But let’s be honest…that heart was beating for her.

“Mario never danced with me. He said it was stupid,” she told me. Everything she told me about that man made me hate him that much more.

“Do you like dancing?” I asked.

“Yeah. I love it.”

“Can you make me a promise, Red?”

“Yes.”

“Never again fall in love with a man who won’t dance with you.”

She looked up at me for a second before laying her head against my chest. “How many times have you been in love?”

“In the normal sense of the word? Never.”

“What do you mean by that? ‘In the normal sense’?”

I smirked. “I’ve never had a girlfriend. Therefore, I’ve never had that normal boy meets girl, boy and girl see each other nonstop and talk nonstop and fall madly in love kind of love story.”

“If you’ve never loved a woman, then you’ve never been in love. Easy as that.”

I smiled. “I disagree with you on that. If only it were that easy. But I feel love all the time. I call it flashes of love, small or big moments of connection with a person. It’s the small moments of love that I like the best. Like when a person rushes to open the door for you when your hands are full. Or when a little kid falls into a laughing fit and can’t stop giggling. When an older couple walks by holding hands. Those are moments when I feel love. Those are the moments I fall head over heels. I love the flashes of love.”

“See, I hear what you’re saying, but can I be honest for a second?”

“I thrive on honesty.”

She pulled away a bit, bringing our dancing to a stop, and she scrunched up her face. “When you say all of that, 99% of me believes you, but the other one percent is like, That sounds like some major fuckboy stuff,” she joked.

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you could see it that way. Honestly, that’s why I wanted this night to be only tonight. Do I want more time with you? Absolutely. But am I aware that I’m not in a place to give you the love and time you