Page 52 of Reel Love
Desperate…and a little unhinged sounding.
“Yes?” Ethan gently prompted me, and I peered up at him. The same honey-brown eyes that had caught my attention on the plane searched my face, reminding me of a thousand small moments with him. Time spent together that I didn’t know would matter now seemed like everything to me.
Ethan mattered to me.
That was it. That was the phrase I wanted to say. Taking a deep breath, I pulled my shoulders back.
“If you are here for the nine-fifteen display, please follow me.”
Not for the first time, a museum employee’s voice made both of us jump. I tried not to resent them for ruining my perfect moment a second time. Ethan’s face appeared stunned, as if someone had thrown a football directly at his head and barely missed.
“Thanks for arranging this.” I sighed, feeling the courage I’d managed to scrounge up disappear under the expectant gaze of the museum employee. Why was I such a wimp? People put themselves out there and got rejected all the time. Instead, I seemed doomed to miss the moment forever.
“Oh, of course,” Ethan said. Gently, he rearranged our hands so they were properly clasped, then looked down at me, checking to see if this was still okay. I smiled up at him, praying that it would convey all my unarticulated feelings. The ones I understood and the ones I didn’t, all of which added up to the idea that Ethan felt like my person.
Even though, according to my parents, I was too young to have a person. And according to BamBam, this particular “young person” was meant to be in my no-person zone. But I’d worry about all that after I was brave enough to tell Ethan everything.
“We should go.” Ethan nodded in the direction of the employee who was now walking out of the park. We wandered back across the street as the guide walked us through a series of murals focusing on the unsung heroes of Las Vegas.
“You could totally make a movie about this,” Ethan whispered as we moved to the next mural. “Old Las Vegas.”
I eyed him to see if he was serious. When he didn’t laugh,I leaned into him playfully. “I feel like it can’t be a heist movie, though. That’s been done. Maybe I’ll make a love story.”
“A Las Vegas Love Story.”Ethan moved his hand in an arc as if seeing a title on a marquee. “Has a nice ring to it. I’d see it.”
“At this point, it is clear to me that you will sit through anything,” I joked.
“Only if you make it.”
My heart seemed to beat twice as fast as he smiled down atme.
Our guide stopped at the entrance to another outdoor park, pulling my attention away from Ethan as they said, “And this is where we keep the signs we can’t repair. It’s also where our show starts. It’s set to music that is gonna make you want to shake what you got. We’ll leave everything lit up after the show, so don’t worry about taking pictures now. Just enjoy the experience.”
Ethan and I exchanged glances, then tried to swallow our giggles. The employee looked like the kind of person who would shake what the good Lord gave them any day of the week to any song, including a polka if it came on. Part of me hoped they would play some of Ethan’s old-man music to see if he could resist the urge to dance along with the show.
As the employee went over the rules about filming (don’t do it), Ethan whispered, “This is what I wanted you to see. I watched that video you did where you colorized all those old photos of BamBam. I bet you could do something like this with that skill.”
I felt my eyebrows creep up my forehead. That video ofBamBam was a couple years old, back when I was experimenting with different photo-treatment techniques to see what people would click on. I’d loved it, but it hadn’t been popular, so I’d stopped doing it. Apparently, Ethan not only went that far back in my creative history; he remembered it.
“What—” I wanted to ask him what he saw in those videos, when the lights dropped and we were plunged into darkness.
Moments later, a projector reincarnated the long-dead signs, as an old jazz standard about love and Las Vegas played. The lights displayed on the signs weren’t neon, but in some ways, they seemed more magical, like someone had colorized an old photo and placed us in it. Suddenly, we were back in time, the reanimated neon transporting us to the early days of the city with all the glamour and mystery that entailed. With the lights swirling around us, it felt like I was on a dance floor waiting to be swept up in Ethan’s arms.
I’m not sure that either of us made the conscious decision to stand closer to one another. All I know is that by the time another slow jazz standard came on, Ethan’s arms were around me. I leaned my head back to rest on his chest. The rhythm of his breathing and the warmth of his body against mine was soothing. Like it was just us two living in the illusion the old signs cast.
Eventually the music faded, and we were left with the sparkle of projected lights. Other guests started to take pictures, but Ethan and I didn’t move—unwilling to let go of the last little bit of magic. Nestled against him, I let my mind drift back to the museum and the words I’d been trying to find. I could stillsay them now. Even if he never kissed me, Ethan deserved to hear the truth. Closing my eyes, I took one deep breath, before reaching up to take hold of Ethan’s hand again. Exhaling, I leaned away from him, slowly unwinding our bodies so that I could face him.
Ethan swung our hands back and forth, then smiled at me. “Are you ready to leave?”
“Not yet. I want to tell you something. Or, I don’t know…talk about something.” I shook my head, my eyebrows drawing together in concentration as Ethan’s smile faltered slightly. Taking a deep breath to slow myself down, I tried again. “I mean, I want to talk about you. Us. I want to talk about us.”
“Uh-huh.” Ethan’s brow furrowed even as he tried to keep his surprise out of his tone. “Okay. What about?”
The little piece of me that wasn’t freaking out about opening up wanted to laugh at how nervous he sounded. The rest of me was pretty sure that even though it was cold out, I might anxiety-sweat through BamBam’s sweater.
After taking a careful, slow breath, I said, “When we were talking at Red Rock, you mentioned that you were interested in someone new and I—”
“Oh.” Ethan’s entire body relaxed. Stepping a few inches closer to me, he said, “To be clear, the someone new is you. I’m interested in you.”
