Page 24 of Joy

---

“Yeah.”

“And they’re cool with it?” I confirmed.

“Sure.”

“But I guess there aren’t a lot of pickings in a small town.”

“No, not really.” Silas looked at me. “I’ve had boyfriends before. And it’s not that I’m desperate. It was just… serendipitous, our meeting.”

I smiled. “No one’s ever said that to me before. You’re glad I hit your car?”

“Maybe not in so many words.”

“You don’t really know me, though. You might actually hate me.”

“No one knows each other in the beginning.”

“Uh—true.”

“I’m attracted to you. And I like… talking to you,” Silas said. He looked out over the dark tree line, whistling loudly.

His dog came running from the woods a moment later and sat obediently at the porch steps.

I put the drink on the little table between our chairs. “What next, then?”

I’m not sure what I expected. My last relationship hadn’t started out with my then-boyfriend saying he liked me and it gave him butterflies. We just fucked and decided to date after. Bad idea in retrospect. And the guy before him had been my first, but it didn’t last long. Neither of them were the strong, silent type. Neither of them had the sweet undertone that Silas had.

“I would like to… take you out.”

I laughed, but it was more out of surprise than anything. “Like a date?”

Silas looked at me briefly. “Do you not want to?”

“No, it’s not that. I mean, I’ve never been asked on a date.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I agreed. “But I like it. It’s so high school.”

Silas laughed. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’d be good to have some buildup before jumping in the sheets, if I’m understanding you right.”

“You are.”

“Then a date sounds nice,” I said, grinning like an idiot at that point. “I’ll even wear my shirt without the coffee stain for you.”

“Sounds serious,” he said, and then we were both laughing, and those precious seconds felt so unbearably right that I could have cried.

This was happiness.

Silas stood and moved in front of me. “Have you looked up? Since getting into town?”

I raised a brow. “What does that mean?”

“I’m being literal.”

“I suspected as much.”

---