The Dream Before the Dark ✓

10 | Heavenly Fire

THE FIRST THING ROBERT DID when he stepped into her apartment was grin, which concerned Jen a little bit. She knew that her living arrangement wasn't exactly impressive, but she didn't think it was that bad. Was it really laughable?

She awkwardly crossed her arms, further wrinkling her already-wrinkled shirt. "I'm kicking you out if you make fun of me," she said stubbornly.

"Make fun of you? No, there's nothing wrong with it," he laughed. "It's just that it's the same layout as mine, so it feels a lot like home and nothing like it at the same time."

She supposed that nearby buildings having the same floor plans wasn't that unusual—and he couldn't have lived very far from here, after all, since he'd said his place was within walking distance of St. Catherine's.

It would probably do her some good not to immediately assume that every single person she encountered had poor intentions.

"Oh." She cleared her throat slightly. "So, where are we going?"

"I'd think the birthday girl should get to pick."

That was nice of him, but she wasn't the most decisive person on the planet when it came to food. "Um..."

Her mind was usually tired and fuzzy after crying, but him standing here in her living room made her hyper-aware of her own presence and her surroundings. She was simultaneously thinking about the dirty cup in the sink that needed to be washed out and the thin film of dust on the top of the bookshelf that she hadn't wiped off yet and the small lock of hair that was on the verge of slipping out of her ponytail. It was like she'd taken Celie's strongest cup of coffee and then injected it directly into her veins.

She nervously shuffled her weight from one foot to the other and asked, "What's the best Italian food around here?"

He thought about it for a second. "Probably Bertolo's. Have you been?"

She shook her head. "No, but I trust your judgment. I just need a few minutes to get ready. Do you, um, want tea or water or anything while you wait?"

He politely declined and assured her that she could take whatever time she needed to freshen up, so she left him sitting on the couch and scurried back to her bedroom, her heart hammering in her chest.

This was fine. Totally fine. She just looked like a dying animal and her co-worker who she'd been daydreaming about kissing was sitting in her living room and waiting for her to get ready so they could go out to dinner together. Just a typical Wednesday night.

Jen could feel that she was blushing furiously, but she forced herself to come to a halt in the center of her room, take a deep breath, and figure out how to make herself look presentable in ten minutes or less. She didn't want to keep him waiting forever.

Her hair tumbled down her back as she pulled it out of the elastic a little too aggressively. There wasn't enough time to do much with it, so she'd simply have to brush it out and hope it looked okay down. Tossing the hair tie onto the floor, she flocked to her bathroom to fix her makeup. Step number one was just making sure she no longer looked like she'd been crying.

Given the time she had, she thought she did a decent job. Her eyes were still visibly pink if one looked closely enough, but it was unlikely that anyone besides Robert would and he had already seen her tear-streaked face. She found herself putting a little more pink on her cheeks than she normally would just so that it would be less obvious when he inevitably made her blush—she had an embarrassing tendency to do that in front of him.

When she retreated from the bathroom and strode towards her closet, Jen silently scolded herself for almost never buying anything whenever Celie dragged her to the mall. She barely had anything that would be appropriate for this sort of outing – or, at least, she didn't think she did, but she still wasn't entirely sure what sort of outing this even was.