Page 125 of Going Viral for Christmas
We linger a while longer, moving from canvas to canvas, exhibit to exhibit, letting the hush between us say what our mouths won’t.
Ava stops to study a shadowed portrait titledThe One That Got Away, I watch her instead—how her brow furrows in thought, how she bites her lip, as though she’s holding something fragile behind her teeth.
Eventually, I slide my hand into hers again. This time, she squeezes back.
Neither of us says it, but we’re both feeling the weight of what’s clicking into place between us.
Outside, the December air nips at our cheeks, but Ava doesn’t let go of my hand as she veers toward the car, cheeks flushed, eyes still sparkling from the exhibit.
I tug her back gently. “Not so fast. We’ve got a Blind Date with some books.”
“What?”
I nod toward the indie bookstore glowing down the block, windows fogged and shelves lined like a siren call to every reader with a TBR taller than their fridge. “You’ve got three minutes. Grab whatever you want. As many as you can carry. I’m paying.”
Her jaw drops. “I—Are you serious?”
“I’m rarely not, but…” I say, leading her across the street. “Clock starts once we walk through that door.”
“Are you insane?”
“Yes.”
The bell chimes when we step inside. She does a little spin in the entryway, trying to absorb every shelf at once. Then something clicks behind her eyes, and Ava Bellactivates.
“I’m going full gremlin,” she warns.
“Do your worst.”
And she does.
In the first thirty seconds, she clears the new release table. She dual-wields tote bags the store owner hands her with sheer fear in her eyes.
At one point, she’s muttering to herself in a frenzy: “Need the special edition. Ooh, sprayed edges. Oh my god, the romance section.SORRY!” That last one is to an innocent display she knocks over in her sprint.
Ava grabs all of my books—twoof each. When I raise a brow, she shrugs. “One for reading. One for collecting. Duh.”
By the end of her spree, she’s red-faced, grinning, and wobbling under a tower of books that defies basic laws of physics. She dumps another stack on the counter, and I brace myself for the bill.
The total?
Astronomically high.
The cashier reads it aloud, and Ava chokes on her laugh. “Would you look at that,” she says sweetly, elbowing me. “Dating is expensive.”
“I regret nothing,” I pull out my card.
Watching her glow like this is worth the thousands I just spent.
At the car, I grin and open the door for her. She slides in, her eyes scanning the dashboard, the heated seats already warming.
Once I put several heavy bags of books into the trunk, I hop in andput the car in reverse, pulling away from the curb, merging back into the pulse of the city. Streetlights blur past in ribbons of gold. The silence is charged with high energy from two very successful agenda items.
Ava leans back against the headrest, watching me from the corner of her eye. “So... what’s next, Pembry?”
My pulse jumps. “Dinner. Somewhere that I hope surprises you.”
“Is it a dungeon?”
