"i've never been here," azure says as tyler holds open the door to the art museum. she's lived in miami all her life, and hasn't explored this deep in south beach, shes only stuck to the areas that she knows.
"really?" he asks as they walk in and up to the booth to buy their tickets. tyler has been here one other time, back in june when we first moved out here, but he hasn't been back until tonight.
azure nods and pulls out her wallet to pay the $8 for the ticket. "yeah—what are you doing?" she asks as tyler hands the boy behind the counter his—black, might i add—visa card.
"what it look like?" he asks as the boy swipes tyler's card and hands it back, along with two tickets. tyler hands one to azure, and she takes it and thanks the guy behind the booth.
"enjoy," he says drily, leaning against the counter with a sigh.
"i could've payed for myself," azure says, putting her wallet back in her purse along with the ticket. tyler gives her a look and shakes his head.
"you're not gonna let me live, huh?" he asks, running a hand through his hair. azure watches him pull at the strands and envisions herself doing the same. his hair looks so soft.
"nope," she says, snapping back into reality. her face burns as she turns away because she knows that he caught her staring, it was all over his face. "let's go!" she says, taking off on the direction of classical art.
tyler licks his lips and quickly catches up with her and they stop in front of a monet painting. "you know, he invented impressionism?" azure says, her eyes scanning over the painting. tyler looks at her, arms crossed.
"yeah?"
"yeah, in france," she says. he looks at her with an expression of impressiveness.
"you an art major or something?" tyler asks, earning a laugh from azure.
"no, i took a European history class in high school and paid attention during the art unit and i loved monet," she says, sliding over to the next painting. tyler smiles at her and follows her to the next painting, and the next one, and the next one....
the two of them walk out of the art museum, azure going on about all of the art she loved. "i can't believe i've never been!" azure exclaims as they walk down the sidewalk in the direction of all of the restaurants.
"me neither, don't you live out here?" he teases, nudging her with his elbow. she smiles and moves in closer to him as a group of people pass. tyler holds onto her elbow and steers her down the sidewalk until the amount of people around decreases.
he lets go of her elbow as they reach an intersection, and amari can't lie, she wishes that he was still that close to her.
"you hungry?" he asks, gently pulling her close to him by her upper arm. a jolt runs up her spine at his contact, and she tries not to tense up underneath him.
"uh, yeah, sure," she says nervously, looking everywhere but in his eyes. he was still holding onto her arm.
"cool, i know this one place around here," he says and leads her in the direction of the restaurant, his arm sliding down her arm and grabbing her hand. azures heart races as she gently grabs his hand back.
