Between the Stacks

Chapter 31

In the past ten minutes, I must have slipped into some sort of alternate reality. It didn't seem possible that a few hours ago I was in a humid conference room, doing my best not to puke on the audience. Now it felt like I had been transported to this new, beautiful world, one with funnel cakes and caramel apples. The sunset was a riot of pinks and oranges, as if someone had spilled a tub of ice cream into the sky.

Wesley had held true to his promise and had purchased me popcorn. For a moment we were tempted to buy something called "taco in a bag," although we were both mildly horrified and impressed to discover that it was ground beef and cheese dumped into a bag of Doritos. The popcorn seemed less likely to give me food poisoning.

We hadn't spoken much as we wandered through the carnival, silently figuring out which activities we wanted to do. The bumper cars would be a hard pass – I didn't want to remind Wesley of anything about our accident.

I eyed the Gravitron, the UFO-looking contraption. Wesley noticed me looking.

"I dare you."

"Hmm?" I licked the last of the popcorn salt from my fingers, and I couldn't help but notice that Wesley followed the movement with his eyes. "You're daring me to go on that?"

"Absolutely. You don't like being pinned down by the crushing force of gravity?"

There was a new tone in his voice: something playful with a bit of heat behind it. As if he were asking if I wouldn't mind being pinned down by something else – or someone.

A lineup snaked towards the entrance of the ride. "Notice how everyone lining up is under the age of fifteen? That ride would kill us. As senior citizens, we need to think about our health. My neck aches just thinking about it."

"It's not fair that kids get to do all the fun stuff," Wesley said. "I checked out the bouncy castle. It was only for anyone under twelve. I thought if I crouched, I might be able to sneak on."

"Oh, now here's a story," I said. Despite not having any alcohol at dinner, I somehow felt tipsy. I wanted to grab Wesley's arm and take him on every ride here – including the damn Gravitron. "Right when I started at the library, I wanted to make a good first impression. I thought I would write up a proposal for a summer event."

"Go on," Wesley said. I'd paused to throw out the plastic bag from my popcorn. I was already eyeing the gelato cart nearby. The tapas from earlier hadn't been filling at all, even though they'd been delicious.

"I sat down and made a list of things people like. I wrote down everything from dogs to chocolate to sprinkles. I wondered how many things I could combine into one event."

"Don't tell me you rubbed a dog with chocolate and poured sprinkles on him."

I lightly punched him in the arm. "Ha. I did not. Anyways, one thing on my list was bouncy castles. And I thought, it's so unfair that adults can't go in the bouncy castle. I looked it up and it's a weight requirement thing. So then I thought, surely someone has encountered this before? I can't be the first person to want a bouncy castle that adults can use. And if they didn't have bouncy castles, then maybe one of those big inflatable slides. All that to say, I went to Google, and I searched for 'adult inflatables."

"Oh no," Wesley groaned, already seeing where this was going.

"Yeah, it was as bad as you could imagine. Sexy blow-up dolls and all sorts of, um, creative things. Some dude from IT sent Lakshmi a very strongly-worded email the next day. It was something like, Your employee is accessing inappropriate content on the network. Thankfully she thought it was hilarious - she even sent the email to other staff for a laugh. It's how Matteo and Melissa and I became such good friends."

"Over adult inflatables?"

"Exactly."

I could still remember the four of us sitting at a table in Sunrise, Rob's bar, and debating if we could host an adult-only event with taxpayer money that featured a sex dungeon. Those were the days when Lakshmi joined us, when I felt like I was part of the team - instead of someone barely clinging to my job.

Wesley could tell I was taking a turn towards melancholy. "How about we ride the Ferris wheel?" He asked, nudging me. "Unless you're scared of heights?"

"Are you trying to give yourself a way out?" I teased. I banished any sad thoughts to a dusty, remote part of my brain. "Let's do it."

The Ferris wheel turned out to be a fantastic idea. The carriage was open-air and just the two of us, our knees pressed tightly together. Twilight was falling quickly, and this far up, the nightscape was a swirl of billboards and skyscrapers, advertisements and flashing lights. I wanted to reach out, grab the city, and tuck it safely away in my purse so that I could pull it out later.

A soft breeze swept over us as we slowly revolved through the air. And, as if we were in high school, Wesley reached out to grab my shoulder and pull me closer. "I wish I had a sweater to give you," he murmured in my ear.

An alarm went off in my head: it sounded something like a fire alarm, something like a nuclear air raid siren, and something like the call of a succubus.

I leaned into him, and the alarm blared even louder.

This was the danger zone, and I couldn't have been happier. I read somewhere that going through a stressful event could create a bond with people - was that what was happening here? Was all of this just the sequel to the car accident, or was it something else?

I knew I couldn't kid myself: I'd been feeling something for Wesley since I first saw him walk through the doors at Northern Ridge, when he was snarky and rude and devastatingly handsome. I'd felt something when he caught me being a terrible spy; I'd felt something when he destroyed Jack at board games; and I felt something now, suspended in the sky and listening to the music from below drift up towards us.

And that's why I leaned over and kissed him.

---

That internal alarm in my head was instantly silenced. It was replaced with an absolute silence, something soft and fuzzy. If my eyes hadn't been closed, I probably would have been dizzy.

At first Wesley tensed beneath my lips - and I didn't blame the guy, because he had just started talking about a book that he hated. Then he softened in the embrace.

I'm in trouble, I thought as his hand snaked into my hair. I reminded myself I was technically an adult, and perhaps too old to make out on a Ferris wheel, before deciding that not making out on a Ferris wheel was a terrible decision. And then I stopped thinking at all.

The kiss in the bar had been frantic and fast. This was a new beast altogether: something slow and deep and meaningful.

Quite simply: Wesley took his time.

I was the one who had initiated the kiss, but somewhere in the moment the tide had shifted, as if gravity itself had changed.

If I had to be technical about it, my first kiss was with a picture of Zac Efron in a magazine I had stolen from a friend. Looking back, twelve-year-old me was clearly not thinking properly, because my lips were the size of his head and the magazine paper tasted weird (there was, unfortunately, tongue).

Twelve-year-old me would have passed out if she knew I would one day kiss a guy as attractive as Wesley. But I would certainly keep the details from her - the way his fingers pressed into my neck, the way his stubble rubbed against my cheek, the way I really, really wanted to get off this damn Ferris wheel and somewhere else. I just wasn't sure how to imply that.

Then, at the back of my mind, a memory popped up.

In a breathless moment between kisses, I managed to whisper, "Do you want to go to the cheese bar?"

Wesley huffed against my neck. "Is that what the kids call it these days?"

"Well, we might need to stop by the hotel to get changed," I said. "But you've really sold me on this cheese bar idea."

"I love..." Wesley trailed off as he kissed behind my ear. "Cheese."

"Perfect," I said.

As we got off the ride and escaped back into the carnival, I knew one unarguable fact: Zac Efron had absolutely nothing on Wesley Takahashi.