Page 61 of The Compass Series

AALIYAH

W e stopped for coffee before arriving at the bar where we’d begun.

The club was already closed, and the only people left inside were the workers cleaning up.

My heart dropped a bit the moment I realized we were locked out, but it began skipping again when Captain pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

“Hey, Tommy! It’s me. Yeah, I’m outside the bar.

I left my keys inside. Can you let me in?

” He paused, then bit his bottom lip. He got a little shy, and that was adorable.

“No, Tommy. I’m not going to have sex on the rooftop.

” Pause. “I know! Okay, what about this: I’ll give you those season tickets for next season we were talking about two weeks ago.

” Pause. “Yes, okay. Fine—but only if you promise to let me go to one game with you.” Pause.

“Thank you kindly, sir. We have a deal.”

Within seconds, Tommy stood in front of the door, unlocking it for us to get in. “I can’t believe you left your keys here,” he said. “You should be letting yourself in.”

Captain leaned in and kissed his cheek repeatedly before smacking his bum. “I know. Stupid mistake. Thanks, Tommy!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll probably be gone before you tonight, so will you lock up?”

“You got it.”

Captain took my hand and pulled me through the now empty space. As we moved forward, it felt odd having no one around us after being in a packed room before. It was just another example of how our time that night was running out; our clock fading to black.

He took me to the office where I’d met Tommy earlier and grabbed his keys from the desk. He also grabbed the jacket hanging on the back of the door and placed it over my shoulders.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Time-out—why would you have keys to this place? And why would he let you lock up? What am I missing?”

“Oh.” He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. “I own the building.”

“I’m sorry, what?!”

He smirked, and his dimple deepened as he took my hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

We began our hike up the staircase, and my chest felt tight halfway up the stairs.

I hated how winded I got. I knew I wasn’t in the best shape, but I felt as if my heart was racing faster than normal.

I took more breaks than I was proud of, but Captain didn’t judge me.

When I stopped my steps, he stopped his, too.

“I need to get back to the gym,” I joked three-fourths of the way up the stairs. I rested my hand against my chest, feeling my heartbeats intensifying. Each breath was deeper than the one before. He stayed patient with me. He even slowed his steps when we moved up the stairs.

As we reached the top, we found a spot to sit, facing the sunrise, waiting for the beginning of the end of us. I tried to control my inhalations to bring them back to a normal speed. I wanted to speak, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to until I gathered myself.

When that time came, I looked over at Captain. “So…you own this building?”

“Yeah, this one and a few others,” he said nonchalantly as if it was a normal thing for a twenty-five-year-old to say.

“I’m sorry, what? You own buildings plural? What exactly do you do for a living?”

“Oh…a lot of different things.”

And there goes my heart rate increasing again.

“That sounds like something someone in the mafia would say, and if I just spent the evening with someone in the mafia, I’m truly going to rethink all of my life choices. Oh my goodness, have you killed someone before? Are you a murderer?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “If I were, do you think I would tell someone I’d just met?”

Fair enough.

He must’ve noted my low level of fear because he laughed. “I run my own real estate company and am an investor. I’ve been working my ass off since I moved to New York when I turned eighteen, and let’s just say it paid off.”

“Holy crap. Are you rich?”

He snickered. “Being rich is such a hard thing to claim. What makes someone rich, anyway?”

“Do you have over a million dollars in your bank account?” I asked bluntly. His hesitation was enough of a response for me. “Holy crap! You’re rich!”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Says the rich guy. Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe you had me buy your drinks tonight! And your chicken wings!”

“Hey now! I offered to pay!”

“You should’ve told me you were a millionaire, then I would’ve allowed you to pay,” I joked. “I should’ve asked you to buy me that extremely rare comic behind the counter.”

He started to stand. “I mean, maybe we can head back that way and?—”

“Shut up.” I laughed as I grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. “I’m just kidding.”

“Next time, I’ll get it for you.”

“I wish there was a next time,” I said without thought. He stared my way for a moment before looking out at the sky.

“You know what’s weird, Red? I think I’m going to miss you more than I’ve missed another person before.”

I smiled, he smiled, and I loved the way we smiled together.

He pulled out a comic book and began to read to me. His thumb brushed against his upper lip before turning the pages, and I became fixated on watching his every move. At that moment, my heart decided it would beat for him for the remainder of the night. Probably into the next morning, too.

Unfortunately, the sun began to rise, and I hated that the good was coming to an end.

I hated the sun. I hated how it couldn’t shift its schedule for one day to allow me a few more hours with him. I should’ve felt tired, but if anything, all I felt was sad. The lighter it grew, the sadder I became.

How had a stranger become so important in such a short period?

“Remind me again why we aren’t allowing ourselves to fall for one another tomorrow and the day after that, too,” he said, his voice low and shaky. He was becoming more anxious about the impending end of whatever connection we’d formed, too.

I sighed. “Because you’re too busy building an empire, and I’m a girl who hasn’t unpacked the past baggage and insecurities from my previous relationship enough to truly engage in a new one this fast.”

“Ah, yes. Reality.”

“I hate it here,” I joked, biting back the emotions sitting behind my eyes.

Did I desire more nights like the one we’d shared together?

Yes. Did I understand that we both weren’t truly ready for more?

Also yes. I had never believed you could meet the right person at the wrong time until this very night.

“We have to make a few promises,” Captain said as he placed the comic book down.

He turned to sit face-to-face with me and took my hands in his.

“This night was special, and I don’t want to jinx it in any way, shape, or form.

I like the idea of us crossing paths again, with destiny tossing a coin into that chance encounter.

So we have to avoid the places we’ve gone to tonight.

We can’t force the universe to push us together.

We gotta trust the stars that somehow we’ll cross paths again. ”

“And if we don’t?”

He turned my palm up. “Well then, Red”—he kissed my palm, causing a wave of butterflies to flutter through my system—“thank you for the happiest night of my life.”

My eyes felt like watering because he’d done the same—given me the happiest experience, which I needed more than words.

He kept holding my hands and stared down at our fingers, which were now intertwined. “I have a confession to make.”

“A confession?”

“Yes. I knew you wouldn’t fall in love with me in five hours.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I love you?” I asked. We hadn’t even discussed the challenge we’d created about falling in love. We’d simply spent the past five hours laughing, diving deep, and connecting. Honestly, I’d forgotten all about it until he brought it up.

“No, I don’t.” He shrugged. “And I’m okay with that because I might have had an ulterior motive.”

“And what was that?”

“All I wanted to do was make you happy, remind you that no matter how bad your heart can hurt, you can find happiness again. You can love yourself enough to find joy in life. You can get back up again after feeling defeated. I knew it would be impossible to make you fall in love with me—I mean, I’m just some guy from Kentucky—but I also knew it was possible to make you fall in love with yourself again.

Because that kind of love never strays too far. ”

“I don’t think you know how much I needed you tonight.”

“The feeling goes both ways, Red. But just in case you forget again tomorrow, here’s a list I compiled tonight of things about you that are worth loving.

” He cleared his throat and pretended to pull out a piece of paper from his invisible pocket, which he read from.

“The way you wrinkle your nose when displeased. The way you dance when no one is looking. The way you nerd out about comics is worth every second of loving you. The way you feel things deeply—that’s a gift.

So many people in the world are closed off and disconnected from their feelings.

Your emotions live loudly inside you—the good ones and the bad—which makes you balanced.

You should love the way you smile. That smile is worthy of all the love.

And your eyes, the way they drink people in and are filled with kindness.

The way you love others who probably don’t deserve your love.

The way you live. The way you breathe. The way that outside of all those things, you deserve to be loved because you exist. Your mere existence is reason enough for you to be loved. ”

And just like that, I fell.

I loved him—at least for that single moment.

That night I learned it was possible to love individuals in singular moments. I learned there could be seconds of time when the world aligned perfectly to create a moment that caused your body to be overwhelmed with love for a complete stranger. I’d discovered flashes of love.