3. valentine
THREE
VALENTINE
Cade
The door closes and I can’t see a thing. My heart picks up its pace, my breathing gets a little heavier, and I feel my mouth going dry. Get yourself together, Cade. Mel’s given you the perfect opportunity to shoot your shot, so do it. I close my eyes and take a couple of deep, and quiet , breaths. Luckily it’s dark so she can’t see how nervous I am.
“Sooo.” She breaks the silence and my eyes open.
My heart slows and my head feels less foggy, her voice soothing my nerves.
“Just us in here, the first victims of the game.” I’m trying to sound as casual as I can but I think using the term ‘victims’ was a little too casual. “I mean, I’m glad it’s you and me. I’m glad that I’m here with someone I’m comfortable with.” As my eyes adjust to the dark, I see her lips slide into her sweet smile. And just like that, I’m brought back down to earth, her presence always being the thing to calm me down.
“I’m glad I’m here with you too, Cade. Wouldn’t want to spend my Valentine’s Day in a closet with anyone else.” She giggles a little bit at that, so I’m not sure if she’s joking or not, but I’ve been talking with Mel about her for a while, so I just have to trust that Halle’s at least kind of into me.
“Wouldn’t want to spend your Valentine’s Day with anyone else, huh?” I smirk at her, trying to disguise my nerves as confidence, but my ever rising heart rate is going to rat me out, I think.
“Ya know what? Maybe I would rather be in here with someone else actually.” She’s teasing me now. I feel the limited time we have in this closet dwindle down, faster and faster. I have to make my move before it’s officially up, and Mel can’t count too slow without drawing suspicion from anyone.
“C’mon, Hal. Honesty hour. There’s no one I’d rather be in here with right now.” It’s now or never, I’m scared but I have to ask before I can think about it any more and chicken out, “and I was thinking, wondering, if you’d want to be my valentine?”
She’s staring back at me, and I can’t tell what’s going on behind those beautiful green eyes. The seconds pass by and I feel like I can hear the clock’s tick-tock-tick-tock before she smiles and says, slightly above a whisper, “Cade, there is nothing I’d like more than to be your valentine.”
I can’t help but grin like the Cheshire Cat. “My Valentine, I like the sound of that. Maybe that’s what I’ll call you from now on.”
“Can’t say I’m opposed to it, sounds cute.”
I wipe the sweat from my hands on my jeans before I find hers and lace our fingers together. I take her in, she is so beautiful. I’m thinking about the day we spent together, seeing her laugh and smile so much is becoming a core memory.
“Well, Valentine, ” the new nickname rolls off my tongue like that’s what she’s been called all her life, “what do you think we should do with our remaining four minutes? Give or take. I think Mel’s a slow counter.”
“Whoa, whoaaa, slow your roll, Loverboy .” She smirks at me, like she’s got the upper hand.
I frown back at her. “I’m not sure I really like that. Try again.”
Her brows knit together in reaction.“What? You don’t like Loverboy? It’s so on theme with Valentine, though.”
I just shake my head no, still holding her hands. It’s kind of fun seeing her get worked up over something as minuscule as this.
“Fine, what about Rockstar?” Halle stands on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear, despite no one else being able to hear us. “Because I know all about your little secret dream of making it big with your music.”
I draw my mouth to one side of my face and shake my head ‘no’ again.
“Cade, this isn’t fair. Why can’t I give you a fun nickname?” She pouts and tries to pull her hands from my grasp.
I tighten my grip, but not too much to hold her against her will, as I tell her “I just really like the way you say my name.” Which earns me another smile from her and I can’t help myself but take my right hand out of hers and push her hair behind her ear. She flinches at my touch when I first grace her temple, but my hand seems to have a mind of its own and stays anchored to her face, softly holding her. I’m taking a mental photo of this moment to come back to. Right when I think this moment couldn’t get any better, I feel her lean into my touch.
“Well, lucky for you, I really like saying it.”
I don’t know what I did to deserve being here in this moment with her, but I need to figure it out so that I can keep coming back again and again.
“Cade,” she drags out my name. The sound of her voice rings out in my head, like the angels in heaven are singing, but it’s Halle in this linen closet.
My every thought revolves around her. Wondering if she’s wearing the maroon leather jacket because she actually likes it or because I picked it out for her. Hoping that she wants to be in here with me and not someone else. Thinking about how she’s wearing her usual vanilla lip gloss and if it tastes as good as it smells. Feeling the heat of her body so close to mine, surely warming up this closet space. Welcoming the unfamiliar feel of her cheek in my hand, praying that it becomes something I get to know so well.
Next thing I know, she’s lifting back up onto her toes and I think I might be losing my mind, because what she says next has me spinning. “Are you going to kiss me or are we just going to stand here staring at each other until Mel yanks open the door?” Mel . I forgot that that’s why we’re in here. If I don’t make a real move tonight, Mel’s going to yell at me and never be my wingwoman again.
“Thought you’d never ask, Valentine, but I don’t want to be thinking about Mel during our first kiss.”
“First kiss? So, there’s going to be more?” She wiggles her eyebrows at me and I can’t help but laugh, but I also know I’m running out of time, so I guess it’s now or never.
Before I can think of what to do next, she brings her hands to grip the collar of my jacket and pulls me down to her and our lips finally meet. Mel’s going to kill me for not making the move, but honestly, Halle did it better than I ever could.
Her lips are soft, a little sticky, and taste like vanilla from her lip gloss. I’ve watched her fish the clear tube with a white cap out of her bag and apply it a thousand times before—I’ve always wondered what it would taste like. This is better than anything I ever imagined, and it does taste as good as it smells—better. Our lips move together in sync, like they’ve practiced this dance before.
I push my hand through her blonde locks and find myself twirling it around my fingers, the motion quickly becoming second nature. Everything about this feels right. This is how it’s supposed to be. None of my past kisses have ever been like this. They’ve never been with Halle.
When I pull away, I’m immobilized—all I can do is stare at her with my mouth agape, waiting for words to form. Do I say thank you? No, that’s too weird. I’d never get a second kiss from her in this lifetime if I did that. Instead, I manage to smoothly say, “Valentine, I think we’re pretty good at that. But, you know what they say, practice makes perfect.”
She grins back at me. I close my eyes and bring her in tight to my chest and breathe her in. She smells like summer—warm, sweet, the perfect mix of flowers I don’t know the names of. I’m annoyed with myself that it took someone else pulling strings at a Valentine’s Day party of all things to get here, but I guess I can’t be too mad if we’re finally here. I hear her sigh, contentedly I think, so I pull back a little and lightly kiss her forehead. “And as much as I wanna practice some more, I feel like our time might be up soon and I don’t want someone coming in to ruin the moment.”
“I think you’re right, Cade. But as long as you’re here with me, this moment won’t be ruined.” I don’t even have a chance to respond before the closet door opens and the light invades our space.
“I hope you had a good long seven minutes, but time’s up and apparently no one else wants to play. Huh, weird.” Mel’s face contorts into one of mock confusion. “We’re going to turn on a movie instead, see ya down there.” Mel walks off with a wink, unsure if it was to me or Halle, maybe it was for both of us.
She slides her hands down my arms and into my hands. “C’mon, let’s see what they settle on.”
I let her lead me down the stairs to the couch with all our friends. If there’s one thing I’m sure of it’s that here with Halle is the only place I want to be.