steadied me.
Gage’s voice echoed down the stairwell. “Azaleigh, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Shaking off the heart attack I almost had.
“I was looking for you earlier. I’m going out for a drink–I wanted to see if you wanted to go.”
I stopped to think for a minute and decided that I should just go rest. “No, I think I’m going to go lie down.”
“Seriously? You’re already dressed up. Come on, it will be fun,” he exclaimed.
I stared at him, looking into his deep green eyes, which–in my opinion–was one of his best features. I felt myself leaning towards agreeing to go. How was it that he was so easily able to persuade me? I gave up the argument in my head and went with it.
“Sure, I’ll go. Just let me…”
Cutting me off, he said, “You don’t need to change or anything. You look great. Now let’s get out of here.” He grinned, pulling my hand, and coaxing me back down the stairs.
With a small laugh I said, “Fine.”
We walked a few blocks down, looking in all the shops along the way. Their windows were filled with the latest and greatest fashions–costing more than I earned in a month. It was nice to get out and relax, which seemed to be pretty easy around Gage, who was the most out-going person I had known.
“So, where would you like to go?” he asked.
“Hold on a minute, you said you were going to get a drink. I thought you had it all plan out.” I elbowed him.
He looked away as if a little embarrassed, “Nah… that was just a ploy to get you to come out with me.”
I shot him a glance that was supposed to look angry, but I couldn’t hold back my smile. “You’re just lucky I said ‘yes.’”
He laughed at first then turned his look serious. “I don’t know, Az. I mean, what little time I’ve known you, you seem so sad. I guess I thought you might like a change of scenery. That’s all.”
I looked off in the distance, thinking about it. I knew he was right. Maybe it was time to be happy for a while.
“Well, then let’s change the scenery.” I placed my fingers to my temples, pretending to call upon my telepathic powers. “My senses are telling me that we should cross the street, the scenery on that side is much more interesting.”
He laughed. “Ok, come on.”
Gage grabbed my hand as we crossed the street. Once on the sidewalk, he kept a hold of it. It made me a little nervous, but I didn’t want to be rude and pull away. Then again, it felt good having someone want to hold it, so I tried to push that nervous feeling to the far back of my mind and just enjoy the moment.
Gage was rambling on with some story, causing me to grab my stomach and hold it together from laughing. Then out of nowhere a huge pink and blue neon sign grabbed my attention. It consumed the whole front window of a flower shop on the corner of the street. Gage’s voice became a distant background noise while I tried to wrap my head around where I had seen this before. It was so familiar. I slowed my pace as we came up on the bright colors hanging in the window.
“Hey, wait a second,” I said to Gage as I stopped and stood in front of it. The evening sun was fading, which caused the sign to reflect off of me, turning my dress mixed shades of pink and blue. “I know this place.”
“Really?” His question came out more of a confused okay .
“Yeah, I’ve been here before, only… it was more like in a dream.” I paused because honestly I hadn’t been here… that I’d known of.
“Well, do you want to go in?” he asked.
“No… no, I don’t think so.” Something was out of place, and I couldn’t figure it out.
Gage pulled on my hand. “Well, let’s go get that drink then.”
“Okay, sure,” I replied, following behind slowly. We stood on the corner, waiting for the light to turn so we could cross, but I kept looking back at the flower shop. As soon as I thought I would just let it go and forget about it, I looked down the street next to the shop.
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