6. Maggie
6
maggie
“I love Meerkat Monday! Where are you taking me?”
“How can you know if you love it?” His fingers are laced with mine as he keeps his grip tight as we walk through the streets of Paris. We cannot be cuter.
“Last week counts, and that was fun. I loved that.” Once he came back from masturbating, we never left the room. We talked and fooled around all day and night.
He smiles. We’ve been playing the ‘everything except’ game for the last week. I sucked him off yesterday. Not sure if it was good or like pizza. In an even ‘bad head is good head’ kind of thing. Mak gave me some pointers, but he coached me as well. I like when he tells me what to do.
“Hey, I was wondering, would it be possible for me to maybe someday meet your family?” I ask because I want them to like me. I feel like that’s key to keeping this perfect boy.
“I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
“Mak’s going to Tony’s big 18th birthday thing. I could tag along and maybe see you, and meet them. And I won’t be any trouble. I’ll just smile, wear the best clothes I own, and dazzle them.”
“You could dazzle anyone and no matter what you where you’ll always be better than them. And the most beautiful thing in the room.”
He swings me around, then tosses his arm over my shoulder, pulling me close. Then he tickles me just as we’re walking down the street and I scream wildly, flipping my hair back and forth. It’s a little chilly today. “You’re so damn fun.”
“I can totally inject that into your family. I know all the card games.”
“I’ll bet you could. It’s just you make me so happy. And they don’t. And I don’t want…”
“What? There’s no damping down happy. There’s enough for all of us.”
I brace against him as I calm down and it feels so good like it will never stop. We pause at the corner and light rain falls around us and he pulls me to him. It’s chilly but he looks at me, and there’s a halo of mist all around his head. His beautiful, down-turned eyes, with their green flecks, look at me. They’re so earnest that I feel like I’ll break open every time he gazes at me like that.
“Mags, it makes no sense. We’ve only known each other for a minute but you’re all I think about. I know we’ve been with each other 24/7 except for sleeping and class. But I think about you even when I’m with you. I feel like the luckiest. I know you just said it like a joke, but I do. I love you. And it’s been clawing at me, waiting to come out. Every time I hold you or think about you, I want to yell it louder than Tony can be.”
I gasp and grin. I barely know him, but I know every piece of him more than he will ever know himself, yet somehow that doesn’t scare me.
“I’m so fucking excited about all the things we’re going to get to do together. This is fantastic news.”
He laughs, kisses my forehead, and shields me against the bracing wind. I feel as if the drizzle is sizzling every time it touches us. I murmur into his jacket. “You know I love you too, right? Like a whole lot.”
“Yeah, Mags, somehow, I knew that. In the same way, I know you’re worried about the board that sticks up a little by your desk.”
“I never told you that.”
“You scowl at it every time you catch your toe on it. And I fixed it.”
I kiss him and then clutch his hips tight to my body. I’m floating and yet grounded. That’s what Colt does to me. Makes me feel like I could fly but also do almost anything.
I look up at him and he backs us under a green striped awning that looks both festive and typical. “I knew from the very beginning. I knew that from the moment I looked at your gummy bear lips.”
“I’ll do you one better. I knew when you held the door open that I will never love anyone like I was going to love you.” I gasp, and he slants his mouth over mine. We heat up the dreary day all around us. My body swirls and lifts as his tongue slides against mine. He dips his head and nips at my neck. He mumbles on my neck, “How is it I see forever in you already? I had a girlfriend for two years and never felt anything close to what I feel for you.”
I speak while we’re starting to do private things in public. “Because she wasn’t me, and everyone I’ve dated wasn’t you.”
He lifts his head up, his face is stern and his eyes are set. “You’ve dated no one before me. You’ve never been with anyone else and I’m the only one to ever kiss these lips.” He traces my bottom lip with his finger, and I melt into a puddle of goo. The beautiful, old wall should be cold and rough at my back but we’re overheated so I feel nothing.
I whisper, “I think this is a really good thing. We’re only eighteen and have already found each other. That way we can start all the adventures now. There’s nothing I won’t want to do with you. I know I’m supposed to think like, uh there’s other men…” He shakes his head violently no, and I grin at him. “I’ll be told that I should date others, but I don’t want any other fish in the sea. I don’t even like fish, really. I’ll eat tuna fish salad but not salmon because salmon is weird and pink. Why is the fish pink on the inside but…”
“Focus.”
I’m immediately settled by his words and actions. I open into his kiss, and it’s as exciting as the first time. He smiles against my mouth as we finish that round of kissing. Then he guides me around the corner to a large garden. It’s March and nothing’s really blooming. It’s really kind of ugly. As ugly as Paris can be. We’re entering gates that say, Jardin des Combattants Espagnols de la Nueve. “Garden of the Spanish Fighters? Not very romantic there, bub.”
“Bub?”
“Seriously, why this rando brownish garden?”
He looks at me. “We don’t leave for another couple months, and this is gonna grow and bloom. And apparently has the most beautiful magnolia trees. I want to come here every week even if it’s just a part of our Monday. We can watch the progress as it blooms. Apparently, when the flowers come out and the grass and the bushes and everything it’s stunning, or so my mom says. I thought it’d be kind of cool to watch it go from nothing to everything with you.”
And that’s exactly how I feel about him. We went from nothing to everything.