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I gave Colton a nod. ‘I did. The crowd was getting a bit too much, so we decided to leave.’ There was a chance that Colton might have mistaken me for someone else, but his timeline fit mine, and from what I remembered, the team only threw one party that month.

‘I didn’t know you were at the party; I didn’t catch a glimpse of you all night. ’

A teasing smile appeared on his lips. ‘Were you looking for me, sweetheart?’

I playfully slapped his chest again, and a deep laugh came out of him as a response, while I tried to fight the scarlet from entering my cheeks a second time. ‘Shut up. I wanted to save myself from the embarrassment in case you remembered me from our little encounter.’

‘Oh, I remember you, all right,’ he deadpanned. ‘You’ve been on my mind ever since.’

That tug in my heart made an appearance once again at his words. ‘Well, what happened next?’

‘For a while, I thought about asking the people at the party if they knew who you were, but something held me back. I couldn’t really explain what it was; I just had this gut feeling that I’ll run into you again someday.

When the time is right,’ he continued, ‘and it turns out, I was right. Because the next time I saw you was at our first ASL class. Imagine my surprise when I found the only empty seat was next to yours. I couldn’t believe it.

The girl I had been looking for was right there, in front of me. ’

I tilted my head to the side. ‘And what were you planning to do about it?’

‘To be honest, I don’t know,’ he answered truthfully.

‘I never actually thought about it that far ahead. I thought about bringing up the bathroom incident to break the ice—to see if you remember me, but I figured that wasn’t really something you could just casually bring up to a total stranger.

When Mr Albert had us partnering up, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know you.

But you were pretty apprehensive about us working together,’ he explained.

‘It was never about me being too busy, was it?’

I shook my head. ‘I mean, I knew you were going to be busy, but that had nothing to do with me not wanting to be partners with you.’

‘I thought as much.’ Colton nodded. ‘Anyway, when we did eventually become partners, I thought about just letting the whole thing go. I wanted to brush off whatever gut feeling I had as some nonsensical thing I had made up, and the fact that I kept missing you at every turn was just nothing more than a coincidence. But then, we had started spending time together and I realized that maybe there was something to this whole thing, after all. I kept finding myself wanting to know more about you and just wanting to constantly hang out with you. I was crushing on you so hard,’ he let out, pausing momentarily before saying his next words.

‘I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t believe in fate before, but I couldn’t ignore the events that led me to you.

Whether or not there is such a thing as fate, I’m just glad it brought me you.

In some sense, I didn’t realize I was waiting for you.

I’ve waited for you all this time, Clara.

And I’m willing to wait however long it’ll take, so don’t worry about taking it slow, okay? ’

But how does one want to take it slow, after hearing all of that? Because now all I wanted to do was kiss him until I was of breath. It seemed like the perfect moment for it.

At least, that was what all the romance books had told me.

I had never actually kissed someone before.

How does someone even initiate a kiss?

And do you actually kiss until you’re breathless?

‘Hey, are you okay?’ I heard Colton ask, taking me out of my inner turmoil.

Shaking my head, I tried to brush off my thoughts. ‘I’m fine,’ I told him.

Colton kept his eyes on me, a concerned look on his face. ‘What’s going on in that head of yours?’ he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.

Kissing you.

‘Oh, nothing,’ I quickly said, trying my best to hide the blush on my cheeks. But with how close we were, I was pretty sure Colton could feel my whole body warming up.

‘Come on. What is it?’ he persuaded me. ‘You can tell me.’

‘I want to kiss you,’ I blurted out, my eyes widening in horror once I realized what I just said out loud.

An amused smile slowly took over Colton’s face. ‘Do you, now?’

‘Please don’t make fun of me,’ I said, covering my face with my hands once again.

I could feel Colton’s hands gently wrapping around my wrists, slowly prying my hands away from my face.

‘Hey. Hey,’ Colton lifted my chin, so my eyes were looking into his. ‘For what it’s worth, I want to kiss you too. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for quite some time now,’ he reassured me.

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I just,’ I broke off. ‘I don’t want to give you any more mixed signals. I mean, I just said I wanted to take things slow, and now I’m telling you I want to kiss you, when we haven’t even gone on a date yet,’ I explained.

‘Well, what do you say about having a free pass for tonight?’

I furrowed my eyebrows at him. ‘What do you mean?’

‘We’ll let ourselves kiss each other tonight and just go back to normal tomorrow.’

I took a moment to think over his suggestion. But to be honest, I didn’t need to, as my mind was definitely on board. ‘Will you be okay with that?’ I asked instead.

‘Not gonna lie, I do like the idea of kissing you. Hell, I’ve been wanting to kiss you since that night at the bar,’ he confessed. ‘And it’ll be torture not doing it again for a while after tonight. But yes, I will be okay with that. So, what do you say?’

‘A free pass sounds great. But I do have to warn you though: I have never actually kissed anyone before, so I don’t really know what I’m doing,’ I admitted, my voice shaky at my confession.

I wasn’t ashamed of having never been kissed before, but saying it out loud to someone else made me feel exposed—especially saying it to the boy who you wanted to be your first kiss.

But Colton just gave me his small, familiar smile. ‘Then, we’ll take it slow.’

‘But I have read a lot of romance books, so you have a lot to live up to, mister,’ I teased him, pointing an accusatory finger into his chest.

‘You wouldn’t have deserved anything less,’ he said.

I had wanted to kiss Colton for a while, specifically since that night at the karaoke bar when we almost did kiss—the same night he just admitted to wanting to kiss me too.

But things were different that night, I was high on an adrenaline rush—along with a glass of margarita—and we were slow-dancing to a love song so, of course, all my mind could focus on was just wanting to kiss this boy I had long been crushing on.

Whereas right then, we weren’t surrounded by a romantic atmosphere. It was just him and me, with both of our hearts on our sleeves, and I couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous.

I tried to shake it off, thinking there was nothing I should be worried about, but that was easier said than done.

As if sensing my nervousness, Colton cupped my cheeks with both of his hands, pressing his forehead to mine. ‘Breathe with me, okay? Inhale.’ He took a deep inhale, then slowly exhaled it, making sure I was following his patterned breaths.

‘Good. One more time.’

Inhale. Exhale.

‘Last one.’

Inhale. Exhale.

The pulse in my heart was still quick, but now it was fluttering with excitement instead.

‘There’s nothing to be nervous about,’ Colton said, his voice a whisper. ‘It’s just me.’

He started leaving kisses all over my face. My forehead. My cheeks. My chin. Two kisses on each corner of my lips.

And finally, he kissed me.

Ever since I convinced myself of the curse that had fallen upon my family, I knew that I wouldn’t get—or allow myself—to live my own romance story with a cliché love interest, just like my mom and sister had.

So instead, I had decided that I would, at least, have a cliché first kiss story.

It would be as dramatic as the ones I had read in books and watched in movies.

I didn’t think I would have settled with having my first kiss on a couch in the living room of my college apartment.

But as Colton’s arm slipped around my waist, and as he pulled me closer to him, my hands tangled in his hair, I realized I didn’t give a fuck about having a dramatic first kiss any more.

Because right then, all that mattered was I was kissing Colton. It was worth more than my thousand dramatic ideas of having a cliché first kiss story. Nothing beats kissing the right person.

I pulled back once I realized how breathless I got, gently pressing my forehead against Colton’s.

‘How was that?’ he asked, his breath in a steadier rhythm than mine.

‘Eh, it was okay,’ I teased. ‘I think you have to kiss me again for me to be sure.’

A grin made its way to his face. ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart. We have all night after all.’

We spent the next few hours talking about anything and everything, with the occasional kisses in between. We didn’t realize how late it had gotten, until Colton received a text from Miles, telling him that my friends needed a ride home.

When we reached the baseball team’s house, all of them were already waiting outside.

I left the passenger seat for Miles, while I squeezed in with the girls at the back.

They were all only slightly tipsy at that point and were craving some ice cream, so we decided to do a midnight trip to Creamsicle Corner.

And that was how I spent the next hour hanging out with my three best friends, the guy whom I had a massive crush on, and his best friend, whom I was very happy to form a bond with.

Colton dropped Claudia and Lily at their apartment first, before driving me and Nina back to our place.

Parking his car at the drop-off spot, both guys got out of the car, with Miles opening the car door for us.

I thanked him and was met by Colton as he waited for me on the sidewalk, his hand held out to me. Once my hand was in his, Colton lifted it to his lips and gave me soft butterfly kisses on each of my knuckles.

I giggled at how cute he was being, feeling him starting to smile across my skin.

‘I had a great time with you tonight,’ I told him once he stopped, still holding my hand in his.

‘I had a great time with you too,’ he said. Leaning closer to me, he added in a light whisper, ‘One last kiss before we call it a night?’

I stole a glance to see if Nina was looking. When I saw that her full attention was on Miles, I gave him a nod, ‘Yes, please.’

Bending down his head, Colton pressed his lips to mine.

My arms instinctively wrapped themselves around his neck, pulling him to me.

I couldn’t help but smile through it, slightly interrupting the kiss, though I could feel him smiling too.

I felt one of his arms wrapped around my waist as he lifted me closer to him, making me stand slightly on my tiptoes.

And with one more peck, we both pulled away, his other arm joining the one that was still on my waist.

‘Text me when you get home?’ I said.

‘Will do, sweetheart,’ he answered, sealing the promise with a kiss on my forehead.

I hugged both Colton and Miles goodbye, wishing them a safe drive home, before Nina and I entered our apartment building and waited for the elevator to arrive at the lobby.

‘How was your night?’ Nina asked as we got into the elevator. I was pretty sure she saw Colton and me kissing, but I still appreciated her attempt to act casual about it.

I didn’t even try to stop the grin from breaking out on my face. There was only one word to describe it. ‘Magical. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.’

Once the elevator reached our floor, we made our way to our apartment. We said goodnight to each other as we headed straight to our rooms, both worn out from the long night.

After taking a much-needed shower and finishing my night routine, I finally looked at my phone and saw a new text message that was sent twenty minutes ago.

Colton: Just got home.

All safe and sound.

Clara: Good to know you’re back safely.

Thanks again for tonight.

I’m gonna go to sleep now. It’s been a long night.

Goodnight, partner.

Colton: Goodnight, partner.

Placing my phone on my nightstand, I laid my head on my pillow.

And just like that first night Colton drove me home, I slept with a smile on my face.

All thanks to the star athlete I got partnered up with in ASL class.