“That was…interesting,” I said a few minutes later as we continued walking. Gage calmed down some more, but he was still holding onto my hand firmly.
“He isn’t your fucking keeper. Nothing you do with me should matter to him.” He grunted. “He lost his shot with you.” Gage said the last part quietly, but I still heard him.
I rolled my eyes. “Ethan has never liked me. He just thinks he has to act like my brother at times.”
Gage muttered something I couldn’t quite hear, but I didn’t press it.
“Let’s just get something to eat.”
***
The rest of the week flew by in a flurry of homework, studying, and just hanging out with Gage. Midterms were getting closer and closer, which made me even more nervous. I literally spent my time studying and being with Gage. Most of the time we hung out, we’d do homework together or just sit at either of our dorms and watch TV.
Because I was so busy the rest of the week, I completely forgot about my date with Gage. The day Ethan and Gage almost got in a fight was the day Gage asked me out on a date this Saturday. When he asked me, his cheeks had turned slightly pink, letting me know he hadn’t asked a lot of girls out before, thankfully.
I had no clue what this date was going to entail, and I would be completely fine if we went to dinner and a movie; I was fine with simple. I tried to tell Gage that we didn’t have to do anything big, but everything I said he waved off. He clearly had his mind set on something.
So here I was getting water splashed in my face, with Macey demanding I get up.
“What the hell?” I glared at her, wiping my face. Thank the Lord she only had half a glass of water.
“Carter, get up right now. You need to shower and get dressed. Gage will be here soon.” At the mention of Gage, I sat up straighter.
“What do you mean, he will be here soon?”
“For your date, duh! I was asked to make sure you are ready on time. So get your ass up and in that shower.” I started to say something, but she stopped me. “I won’t hesitate to throw more water on you.”
“Fine, I’m up.” I pushed the covers away and slowly got up, stretching. “Who made her the boss of everything?” I muttered softly as I moved past her to head to the bathroom.
“You are lucky I am in a good mood or else I would slap you,” she called after me. Shaking my head but smiling, I closed the door and got ready to get in the shower. I did what Macey asked of me, and about ten minutes later, I was out of the shower heading back to my room, bracing myself for the mess that Macey had no doubt made.
Opening the door, I learned my assumptions were right. My room looked like a hurricane had gone through it. Everything I owned was thrown on my bed and the floor.
“Macey!” I exclaimed, clenching the towel around me as I moved further into the room.
“I found an outfit for you!” she yelled at me as she stood in a mountain of clothes.
“How…just…I can’t with you.”
“You need to get dressed and get your makeup done.” She made her way toward me.
“It isn’t that big of a deal.”
“Isn’t that big of a deal? Carter, this is your first real date with Gage!”
“No, it—” I paused, thinking about it. Sure, we hung out this week and I took Gage to the astronomy museum, but that didn’t really count. The “date” was part of the bet, and he didn’t ask me to be his girlfriend until afterwards, so…
“Crap! This is our first real date!” I yelled. Now I was freaking out! How could I have forgotten this was our first date?
“That is why I am here to help you. I got the outfit picked out, and I will do your makeup perfectly.” She shoved a pile of clothing into my arms. “Get changed.”
“You clean this up.” I gestured to my room as I walked back out to get changed. Trying hard not to overthink this date with Gage, I quickly got changed. I had no clue when he would get here, but seeing that it was almost ten, I figured it would be very soon.
The outfit Mace picked out for me was simple yet so me. I was once again glad my best friend had styling skills like her mother. I wiggled on the black skinny jeans that hugged my legs tightly. The knees were intentionally ripped, making them look kind of worn. Next, I slid on a black and white-striped long-sleeved shirt that stuck to what few curves I had. Once I was done, I left the bathroom knowing there was more to the outfit that Macey picked out.
The second I walked into my room, she grabbed me by my arm and plopped me right down in front of my small vanity mirror. She wasted no time in quickly doing my hair and makeup. I wasn’t going to complain at all, so I sat there silently as she worked. While she did her magic on me, I thought about what Gage had planned. Because it was still early in the morning on a Saturday, it had to be something different than I thought it would be. There was no denying the fact that I was giddy about going out with Gage and doing something great. I also had a small suspicion that Macey had a say in this date.
In no time at all Macey was stepping away from me with a grin on her face. I finally looked at my reflection, smiling widely. She added very little makeup to my face, but enough around the eyes to make the blue pop out a little more, and she’d applied some nude lipstick. My hair was in soft ringlets framing my face. Simple and cute.
“I’m amazing I know!” She grinned. “But anyway, finish getting dressed because Gage will be here any moment. On your bed are your shoes, jacket, and bag.” With a nod, I went over to my bed and pulled on some grayish boots that I had no idea I even owned. The jacket I was just going to hold until I needed it. I was putting stuff in the bag and reached for some money when Macey smacked my hand.
“Ow! What was that for?” I pulled my hand back.
“No money.”
“What?”
“I have strict instructions saying you are not allowed to bring any money.” I knew from her firm tone that questioning it wasn’t going to work, so instead I kept my mouth shut. Just as I put the shoulder bag on, three loud knocks came from the living room.
I shot a wide-eyed look at Macey, who just grabbed my arm and basically pulled me out of my room to the front door. She even opened the door for me as I stood there like an idiot. Seeing Gage standing there, I relaxed just a little bit. He calmed my fears slightly.
“Hey.” He breathed out.
“Hey.” I couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Okay, enough staring deeply into each other’s eyes.” Macey interrupted us. I rolled my eyes at her.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
Saying a quick goodbye and a quiet thank you to Mace for helping me, I was out the door with Gage. He wasted no time in grabbing my hand and lacing my fingers with his. A stupid grin was plastered on my face, and there was nothing anyone could do to get it off.
“So where are we going?” I asked as we left the dorm building, Gage leading me in the direction of the parking lot.
“It is a secret.” I had a small flashback to me saying the exact same thing to him when I took him to the astronomy museum.
“You are lucky I don’t mind surprises,” I muttered.
As we walked, I checked Gage out from the corner of my eye. As per usual, he looked very handsome. His white t-shirt and blue pullover made his shoulders look bigger than before. Just looking at him made me want to kiss the crap out of him. This hot guy beside me was all mine. Yes, all mine!
In no time we were in his car and driving to who knows where. I was trying so hard not to ask Gage again where we were going, and instead turned up the radio. When I heard the song, “Closer” by the Chainsmokers start to play, I turned it up louder, turning to Gage.
“You have to sing with me!”
“Hell no.” He shook his head at me.
“Come on! You have to know this song!” When he didn’t budge, I decided to sing first.
I belted out, turning in my seat to face Gage head-on. When he made no move to sing the chorus, I did it for
him.
As I sang, I forgot I was totally embarrassing myself in front of Gage; instead I pretended that I was at my own concert singing the words. My hands moved on their own as I sang. While I was having my own music video/dance party, Gage glanced at me from time to time, but made sure we didn’t crash the car.
“Those are some moves you got there,” Gage said as the song came to an end. Now that I remembered he was in the car with me, my cheeks flamed up.
“You just wish your moves were as great as mine.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder trying to stop blushing.
“Pretty impressive for being in a car, I must say.” Peeking in his direction, I noticed him smiling at me, which made me feel slightly better.
“I’m super talented. What can I say?” I said, shrugging.
“Super terrible.”
“Hey!” I smacked his arm. “Don’t be jealous of my moves and my singing voice!”
“Jealous of a sound that makes a whale dying seem pleasant? Nope.”
“I’d like to see you do better.”
“I don’t sing, Princess.”
“Well then, how do you know I’m not better than you?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.
“Dylan sounds better than you, and he sounds like a cat screaming while being dragged across town.”
“Like you can do better. Sing!”
“Oh, look at that. We are here,” he announced, changing the subject.
“Saved by the bell.” I shook my head at him. “But don’t think I will forget this, Gage Harper!” I pointed a finger at him before turning to look out the window. The sight took me by surprise.
“Central Park?” I asked, glancing at Gage. He didn’t answer as he hopped out of the driver’s seat and came out to open my door. Grinning at his gentlemanly behavior, I took his hand and slid out of the car. Before closing the door, I quickly grabbed my jacket as I felt a slight breeze.
As Gage locked the car, we started walking down the pathway in front of us. It had been a long time since I had been to Central Park, and it was just as beautiful as ever. Just miles and miles of green grass and big trees. Because it was slightly chilly, not a lot of people were out. A few joggers here and there and the occasional dog walker. This was definitely not where I expected Gage to take me, and I was beyond happy to be here.
“Don’t worry, we aren’t going to just walk through. I have a surprise coming up,” he reassured me, although I would have been perfectly fine walking around with him, doing nothing else.
With my hand in his, we strolled along the pathway, going under big pine trees and other trees that were now changing colors due to it being fall. Nothing prettier than seeing leaves change color; it just showed it was starting a new life. Getting rid of the old and coming in with the new.
In this moment, with Gage’s hand in mine as we walked around, I thought things couldn’t get better. I was actually happy. It was a different kind of happy I’d never experienced before. Nowhere in the back of my mind was I thinking about my family, friends, Ethan. Nothing. I only thought about Gage and the warmth seeping into my hand from his. How protected I felt when he was right beside me. I just wished I had my camera here to take a picture of this, so I could remember it for the rest of my life. With no camera, I settled for soaking in the feeling instead and taking a mental picture.
Going around a bend in the pathway, I became speechless. In front of us on the grass were rows after rows of paintings and pictures on display. People walked slowly through them as they gazed at the artwork. I looked up at Gage in surprise.
“It is the annual Fall Art Festival in Central Park. I thought you’d like to see it.” He was smiling hesitantly down at me, looking nervous. I was so touched. No one had ever done something so sweet for me. Gage knew I loved art and photography, so he took me to an art festival for a date.
I literally had no words to describe what I was feeling, or how to express how touched I was that he did this for me, so instead I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. I pressed my face into his chest and breathed in his warm, minty smell. His own arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer to him.
“Thank you,” I whispered into his chest. He heard me, and I heard him reply softly, “Let’s go see some artwork. What do you say?” He pulled back and grinned at me. With the world’s biggest smile, I nodded and headed for the first row of paintings.
For the next thirty minutes the both of us moved from one piece of art to another. Every single one was different. One second you were looking at a painting with bright, vivid colors, and the next you were looking at a photograph someone took in black and white of a child’s hand in an old, weathered one. All of them were so beautiful and stunning, I was speechless.
I wasn’t sure if Gage was enjoying this half as much as I was, but it was the thought that mattered. Here he was doing this for me, just like I’d done for him last week. We were both doing something the other loved, even if we didn’t necessarily enjoy it ourselves.
Every so often I would feel his eyes on me, so I would look up at him to find him looking at me with a weird expression on his face. I couldn’t place what it was, but it made my heart pound a little faster.
As we walked, I told Gage a little bit about each painting—whether it was about the colors, what I thought the image portrayed, what kind of paint the person used—and the entire time he listened to me. He even made his own comments every once in a while.
This entire thing was enough to make my heart soar. I knew without a doubt, as we came to the last photo, that my feelings for Gage were deeper than I thought. This wasn’t some sort of mini high school crush. No. This was something bigger. I wasn’t sure quite yet if I was in love with him, but I knew if things continued, I would be in love with him in no time. Sure, we had only started dating a week ago, but love wasn’t measured by time. And we knew each other before, and I had been crushing on him a whole lot longer than I realized.
Once we were done looking at the last photo, I turned to Gage.
“This is incredible! I’ve always heard about a small art festival in Central Park, but never was able to go or to get to it on time.”
“Well I am glad you were finally able to see it.”
“I know art isn’t really your thing, and you probably—”
“Princess, I liked it. More than I thought I would. Plus, there is something very sexy about the way you talk about art.” He wiggled his eyebrows, which made me laugh.
“You pervert!” I smacked his arm softly. We started walking away from the art, back the way we had come. Over the time we had looked at the paintings and photographs, the sky had gotten darker, the air colder. The sky was now gray, and it seemed that it might rain at any moment. Pulling my jacket tighter around me, I moved a little closer to Gage’s side.
“How are you not cold?” I asked, looking at him with only a thin long-sleeved shirt on.
“It is not that cold out here, wimp.”
“Oh, right, dough boy,” I said, smirking at him.
“I am not a dough boy.”
“Whatever you say, dough boy.” At first I thought he was actually angry at me, but then I noticed the corner of his lip tilt up.
“If you call me dough boy one more time, I won’t be held accountable for my actions,” he warned. His brown eyes flashed down at me playfully. Of course I could do only one thing now.
“I’d like to see you try to hurt me…dough boy!” Just as I said it again, I yanked my hand out of his and took off running. I laughed loudly as I ran away from Gage, cutting across the grass. I didn’t want to look back, in case he was right behind me, so I kept running.
“Princess,” Gage called out, the sound of his voice dangerously close to my backside. Yelping, I picked up my pace and turned to run in a different direction. Thank God we were in an open space right now. How did he catch up to me so fast? I mentally yelled at myself. Because you are out of shape and he has hard muscles all over his body. Of cou
rse my mind had to show me mental images of Gage shirtless, which just distracted me.
With my mind occupied with mental images of Gage shirtless and his hard abs on display my pace had slowed down. Too busy mentally drooling I didn’t notice Gage reach out for me until it was too late. A pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled me back.
Squealing, Gage twirled us around keeping a firm hold on me. My squealing turned to laughs as I closed my eyes. When Gage slowed down he brought his head down to my ear and whispered huskily in it.
“Got you, Princess.”
I turned in his arms, so I was now tilting my head back to look at his face. My hands went automatically to his hard chest, and his arms stayed tight around my waist. My cheeks were slightly pink from running, and the tip of my nose was even a little pink from the cold breeze.
“I guess the big bad wolf got me, didn’t he?” I said, my own voice dropping a few octaves, and that surprised me. He grinned wolfishly down at me before dipping his head and capturing my lips with his.
My arms immediately moved up his chest until they were around his neck, my fingers in his soft hair. One of his big hands moved from my waist to the back of my head, holding me in place.
I melted into the kiss, the front of my body molding with his as our lips moved in sync. Gage’s kisses were so addictive, but they were the best addiction. I just wanted to kiss him over and over again. I tugged on his hair, which made him groan into my mouth. Taking my chance, I slipped my tongue softly between his lips. His hands tightened at my waist as he noticed what I was doing. Our tongues battled for dominance and I quickly submitted.
Even though we needed air we kept on kissing, not getting enough of one another. Gage’s lips were hard and firm against mine, and it had to be the best kiss I had ever experienced. This wasn’t a gentle, soft kiss. No, this was a demanding, I-am-yours-type of kiss. A kiss that made my toes curl.
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