Page 76 of Little Gray Dress

As soon as he leaves I hunt for the stairs to below, as he called it. I need to find a bathroom and see just how bad this eye thing is. A tight doorway off the side of the kitchen opens to a very narrow stairway which I hold my breath through for reasons I don’t quite understand. Three doorways are off the small hall so I crack open the first door and walk into a bedroom decorated in all blues and golds. Along the top of the walls are the same tinted windows. Not seeing a bathroom, I head back to the next doorway which opens up to the back of the boat. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a small deck illuminate a bedroom I could only imagine seeing in a movie. Everything is turquoise and white and spotless. I’m afraid to touch anything, but I do see an opened door near the far corner so I walk towards it and into a bathroom so stark white I’m almost afraid to enter it. Luckily a whole wall is covered in mirrors, which is both good and bad because my eye is an awful shade of purple but the swelling isn’t as bad as I’d expected. My mascara is smeared partway down my cheek, but because of the color of my bruise, you can hardly tell. “No amount of makeup could fix this mess,” I say to myself, wishing it could.

I pull out the makeup I have in my purse anyway. It’s worth a shot. I don’t buy this mineral powder for nothing. It takes me a good fifteen minutes to get the purple down to an almost lavender. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than it was.

“Hello?” I hear Jack upstairs, probably wondering if I ran away from him.

“I’m down here.” I try and scurry back up to the top floor, but the hallway is so tight it feels like a pinball machine as I bounce between the walls on the way up the stairs. “Sorry, I…”

“Wow, it looks a little better.” He reaches up and gently runs his thumb across the swelling just under my eye. I bite my lip, hoping that he won’t wipe away all my hard work I just did. “Does it hurt?”

“A little.”

“I’m sorry, again. I feel like I can’t apologize enough.” He frowns at me.

I shrug my shoulders. “It’s not like you did it intentionally.”

“Right, totally didn’t mean for this to happen. Although if I ever wanted a unique way to meet a girl, this would make a great story.” He winks at me before stepping aside and allowing me to walk back into the kitchen. “I got pasta, is that OK?”

“More than OK.”

“I thought we could head out to a spot on the river I like, and eat on the deck?”

“Sounds good. You actually know how to drive this thing?”

“It’s my first time, but how hard could it be?” He winks at me with a laugh. “I’m kidding. I’ve been driving it since I was fourteen.”

“Good.” I smile at him, nervously.

I follow him out onto the deck and into a small cabin, resembling the cab of a very luxurious car.

“Have a seat.”

“Aren’t your friends going to be upset you ditched them for the day? I know I would if I thought I was going out on this.”

“They’ll get over it. They all agreed to help me mee—” He stops mid-sentence and glances over at me nervously. “They agreed to help me make sure you were OK.”

“What were you going to say?”

His head drops down with a small nervous laugh. “I threw that Frisbee your way on purpose, but not to hit you with it. Just to maybe meet you when it landed near you.”

I can feel the smile creeping up on my face before forcing it away. “You wanted to meet me?”

“Of course. You’re beautiful.”

“Well, I was…”

He laughs to himself. “No, you still are, black eye and all.”

“Is throwing Frisbees at girls something you do all the time?”

“Not all the time. Sometimes it’s footballs.” He winks at me again. “I actually don’t do a lot of dating. I’m a law student so I don’t have a lot of time.”

“It was different with me, though?” Why am I asking all the questions? What if I end up with an answer I don’t like? Am I going to swim back to shore? I’m stuck out here with him until he brings me back.

“It feels different to me. Are we not feeling the same thing?” He suddenly looks nervous when he looks at me.

“I’ve been feeling it for a long time, but I don’t exactly hit on random gorgeous men who come through the drive-through and never talk to me.”

“You think I’m gorgeous?” His nervous face turns into a giant smile, his dark eyes sparkling as he leans towards my seat. “You should have said something.”

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