I continued, “But if you have one in the car, you may want to take a sweater or scarf or something, because it can get a little chilly, surprisingly, down by the beach area, at night.”

“So why were you looking at me like that just now?” she asked, flicking another glance at me, openly curious, before paying attention to her surroundings as she carefully backed the car up. “If nothing’s wrong with the way I look?”

“Um … nothing. Sorry if it looked like I was staring,” and then I laughed nervously. I licked my lips, “But if you don’t mind, I was wondering whether we could have a drink or something, before we join my friends?”

She came to a stop at the end of the alley, and watched the incoming traffic, answering me over her shoulder, in a confused voice, I could tell, “sounds fine. But I thought we were supposed to get some gardening stuff?”

“I called the store while you were on your call to your friends, and caught their recorded message. It looks like they’re closed today, but they’ll be open tomorrow morning,” I explained.

“Oh.”

I waved my hand in the air, as if waving the issue off, “don’t worry, I can go get the stuff for Sheryl before I leave for work.”

“Why don’t we go to a Home Depot or something, then? That way you won’t go into work late tomorrow because of this,” she suggested.

I smiled. “Trust me Aerin, you do not want to be driving on any of the freeways that’ll take us to a big box store right now.”

She chuckled, “I trust you, Harley.”

Just the way she said it, and the way my name rolled off of her tongue gave me butterflies.

“So where are we going, if not to the garden store?” she asked curiously.

I swallowed, “Um …”

I licked my lips, cast my eyes downward, and played with my hands. We’d stopped at the light, so she reached over and then laid her hand gently over mine.

I looked up at her, and for the second time tonight, felt an inexplicable thrill, a rush really, upon gazing into her eyes, and believed our souls were talking to each other just by allowing ourselves to look at the other so openly, without reserve or guile.