If You Love Me

15

d e a n

I HAVE SPENT SINGLE EVERYDAY with Avery since the night she opened up to me about her mother. Our time was spent at her spot underneath the tree, in her dorm room watching an endless supply of movies, or on walks where she would surprisingly keep a hold on my hand for the entire duration of.

A part of me was still waiting for the day that she would go running for the hills, having regretted the time that we spent and the things that she had shared with me. I had expected all of the progress that we had made to go tumbling down the drain leaving us both back at square one.

— but, she was still here a week and a half later.

Last night we had spent the evening wrapped up in the blankets on her bed watching the bright lights as the movie illuminated the entire room. Her head was placed on my chest, one of my arm wound around her back as I held her. The moment was completely foreign to the both of us, yet it felt so familiar. As the credits began to roll, I let the words that had been on the tip of my tongue since she answered the door flow freely: I asked her to come over to my house for dinner tomorrow night. She didn't say anything for awhile, making me think that her silence was the answer before she let out a small okay.

I sit in my car in the front of her dorm waiting to pick her up. She had called me an hour ago, her voice in a state of panic as she was still unable to find, and I quote, the perfect outfit. My telling her to wear whatever she wanted ended in dial tone.

I fiddle with the small black dial of the radio, my fingers falling short as the automatic glass front door slide open. Her hair, having grown out in the past month, slipped past her shoulders. She is dressed in a green dress, a sweater thrown over her shoulders, and paired with her signature shoes, doc martens.

She could be wearing a paper-bag and still look absolutely breathtaking.

As she moves closer the car, I lean over the console and open the door for her. She takes a hold of my hand as I hold it on her seat and makes her way in.

"Hey, pretty girl."

"Hi." Her eyes meet mine, a smile fighting to overtake her lips. "You were no help."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"It looks like you didn't need much help at all." I say as my eyes dip down to where she fiddles with the hem of her dress.

"Eyes up here, buddy." Her hand finds my chin willing me to look up at her. Her eyes slowly scan the perimeter of my face.

Leaning forward, I place a kiss on to the centre of her forehead and turn to start the car. The engine hums as I place my hands on the steering wheel and pull out of the dorm parking lot and make headway on to the street.

"May I remind you that you have met my parents before."

"Yes, but we weren't—" She starts and then stops abruptly but I understand her immediately.

We were not whatever we are now, then.

"I promise you look great and they will still like you. It's kind of hard not too." I take her hand into mine and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"Aren't you the flirt tonight?" She asks and I laugh.

She reaches forward and turns on the radio. Within seconds, Heath's band begins playing over the speakers like a comforting symphony. She rests her head against the back of the seat.

"I meant to ask if you have any food preferences." My mother has been hounding me about it all day, yet it still managed to slip my mind until this very moment.