Page 50 of You've Got a Place Here, Too
“No. No.” I shake my head. “I get it now,” I say. “I do.”
His brow arches, then a hint of a smile lifts the corner of his mouth. “Took you long enough.”
I burst out laughing and the tension that had entered the air dissipates as quickly as it appeared.
“Can we enjoy what’s left of the second line now?” he asks, holding his palm out to me.
I place my hand in his and let him lead me back to the celebratory procession. Something has changed in these last few minutes. Something I can’t name, but I can feel its significance radiating between us.
We stand on the sidewalk for a minute, but then, before I know what’s happening, Kendrick tugs me out into the street.
“What…what are you doing?”
He points at me. “Dance.”
Heat rushes over my face and neck. I am so mortified I just may choke on it.
But then I look around and realize that no one is paying attention to who is dancing or who is not. Everyone is just having a good time.
“Come on,” Kendrick says. “Like this.”
I watch as he skips back and forth, snapping his fingers in time with the music coming from the brass band. Tentatively, I mimic his steps.
And trip over my own two feet.
“Whoa. Hold on there,” Kendrick says.
He grabs me by the waist, and my breath arrests in my lungs. The heat that shoots through me this time has nothing to do withembarrassment and everything to do with Kendrick’s fingers pressing against the strip of exposed skin that peeks out underneath my crop sweater.
I feel his lips graze my ear again.
“You okay?” he asks.
I am, and I amdefinitelynot. I’m a jumble of sensations and emotions, unsure what to think or feel. I’m standing in the middle of the street, dancing with the person I have been crushing on since freshman year.
The wildest part in all of this?
I get the sense that this attraction is no longer one-sided. Maybe it has never been, and I have just been too afraid to see it.
“Can I ask you something?” I say to Kendrick before I lose my nerve. “Are you feeling me too?”
His head jerks back, and in that moment I would give anything for a bus to come out of nowhere and roll right over me.
But then that smile returns. The one that makes my skin tingle and my heartbeat quicken.
“It takes you a long time to catch on, Jordyn, but it’s good to know you finally have.”
He lowers his head and, in the middle of a rowdy second line, presses his lips softly against mine.
I can admit when I’m wrong.
I may not like it, but I can do it on the rare occasion when it happens. And I must admit that I was wrong about so much when it came to the Mardi Gras Extravaganza.
As I look out at the jubilant crowd that fills the UniversityCenter’s ballroom, I know I made the right call by handing over the committee’s decision-making to the New Orleans natives. From the decorations, to the food, to the song list, it is everything a night honoring the city’s most famous celebration should be.
And the best is yet to come.
I search the crowd, looking for Kendrick. I spot him near a side door and quickly make my way to him.
