Page 60 of Leo and His Love Bunny

Her family drives away, and I take her hand. We’re some of the last to leave, and it’s dark and quiet as we come down off the hill and start walking on the sidewalk toward the apartment building on the other side of town. It’s not a long walk, maybe a mile at most, so I only have another twenty minutes with her.

“It would be a nice time to get ice cream, but I ate so many of your strawberry cheesecake cupcakes that I couldn’t eat ice cream if I tried.”

She laughs, and I can tell she’s pleased that I like her cupcakes. I’m not exaggerating about them either. They are the best thing, bar none, that I’ve ever eaten.

“I’m stuffed. I don’t know how you can even say the word ice cream.”

I laugh, and we keep going down the street as the thunder rumbles closer and the wind picks up.

“I’m not sure we’re going to make it to the apartment building before the rain blows in,” Nora says, glancing at the sky. We can no longer see the stars for the clouds.

“That was perfect timing for the fireworks to end.”

“It would have been perfect timing if people could actually walk home and stay dry.”

I don’t know. I’m not much of a romantic, but I’m not afraid to walk in the rain, especially with Nora. I guess she makes doing anything sound more fun.

And sure enough, big drops of rain start to splatter down. She squeals a little and says, “I’d suggest we make a run for it, but I don’t want to run that far.”

“I’m sorry, if I were a good date, I would have brought an umbrella.” As soon as the word “date” is out of my mouth, my heart freezes. This wasn’t supposed to be a date.

“This is a date?” she says, the smile having died on her face.

We’ve stopped on the sidewalk, and I don’t know where everyone else is, but they’re smart enough to be out of the rain.

We’re looking at each other, and I barely even notice that the rain is coming down harder. I’m trying to think of what I’m going to say. I’ve messed up twice today. Allowing her brother to call me her boyfriend, and now calling what we’re doing a date. Obviously, that’s the direction I want to go, but I don’t know if Nora feels the same. And I don’t know if it’s the right direction.

Plus, there’s my dad to consider. Maybe I’m just more emotional than I normally would be, even though I don’t feel that way. Of course, I don’t go around admitting to being emotional at any point.

She shivers and steps closer automatically as rain hits her in the face.

I’m still holding her hand, but I let go, pulling her close and putting my head over top of hers to block a little of the rain from her.

“I guess it wasn’t. Since I didn’t ask, I just showed up,” I murmur, and I’m not sure if the rain or the pounding of my heart is louder.

I want to kiss her.

“It was a happy surprise,” she says, and though I can’t really see her eyes through the sheets of rain that’s blocking all but a dim glow of the streetlights from reaching her face, I can hear the smile in her voice.

My heart trembles, and I can’t stop my hand from touching her hair, which is pretty much plastered to her head, or running my thumb down her cheek, and I can feel her shiver under my arms.

I suppose she might be cold from the rain, but I hope it’s my touch that elicits that response. Goodness knows my heart is shivering. And it’s definitely not cold.

I should ask, should find out what’s going on, what we’re calling this relationship, these feelings between us, but I don’t. I just lower my head and kiss her like I’ve wanted to for a really long time. It’s not a short kiss, and it’s not a friendly kiss either.

I feel her arms slide around my waist, and she presses herself even closer to me. Maybe that means she’s enjoying it as much as I am.

A huge bolt of lightning splits the sky not far from us, and the entire world lights up and blinks for several seconds before the crack of thunder booms immediately after.

I rip my lips from hers, even though I don’t want to, but I don’t want her to be struck by lightning because I’m a stupid idiot standing in the street kissing her.

“Come on,” I say, grabbing her hand again. I know she said she didn’t want to run to the apartment building, but I feel like that might be the wise choice now. So that’s what we do.

I admit, I am hoping in my heart that once we get to the apartment building, we can take up that kissing from where we left off, but as we open the door and step inside, cold air from the AC hits us. Both of us are soaking wet, and I’m not going to make her stand here and freeze in her soaking wet clothes.

Instead, we walk straight to the elevator, neither one of us saying anything, and I push the number for our floor.

As we stand there in silence, waiting, I think of all the reasons why I didn’t want to have a relationship, and they all still apply. They also apply to the reasons why I shouldn’t have kissed her just now.

---