The last thing I wanted was to be alone with David for any longer than necessary. Not until I had this whole thing figured out, or I was just going to make more mistakes and some mistakes weren’t fixable. Some couldn’t be taken back. 

I kept blabbering, “I think the magic weakens over time and you could be in the middle of a duel and your button fly just pops off and suddenly, you’re standing in the middle of the stage showing off your boxers and getting arrested for a sex crime.”

“Cal—”

Don’t look at David. Don’t look at him and remember the other night. Don’t look at him and be forced to admit what happened. Don’t look at David and relive the most humiliating moment of your dreadful life, which was saying a lot. I once threw up in the middle of a presentation after I ingested a potion of courage, which made my vomit and mouth glow neon orange for a full week. 

“Cal!” David called my name again, but historically, David was a quick learner and knowing just words wouldn’t work, David grabbed my wrist. And I turned to meet my maker and his beautiful face. David Hale had golden brown skin that he littered with tattoos his Familiar, Lucien slithered around. He kept his hair short, stifling the tufts of black hair that desperately wanted to curl.

People did a double take when they saw him on the street. Waiters asked if they had ever seen him in movies or commercials. He was devastating in the way one might recall a happy memory and as enchanting as a song that I couldn’t get out of my head.

And his molten, almost black eyes brought me right back to last week, where I sat on David’s couch like the pathetic mess I was, sobbing about my brief breakup with Jeremy Toddle. 

In my panic, I knocked over a perfectly lovely bouquet of flowers, which smashed on the floor and created a huge mess. 

Spewing a fountain of apologies, I had dropped to the ground to start picking up the pieces. I blubbered, “I don’t know why I’m like this.”

“Cal, it’s fine.” 

“It’s not fine. I absolutely wreck everything. Your aunt already thinks I’m a weirdo, so now I’m the weirdo that breaks her pretty vases.”

“My aunt owns dozens of these stupid things. I mean it, leave it. You’re going to cut yourself.” David huffed and tried taking the broken pieces of ceramics from me and dropped them back on the floor. This only made me try to pick up more and faster than him.

David tried a new strategy of picking up pieces before I could do it. He basically leaned across my body, which caused my temper to crackle and snap. With my great power to wreck everything, I swiftly turned to tell David off… but when I turned, I realized too late just how close David was to me. I turned and my lips brushed up against David’s lips. 

And we had sat there. Frozen. Lips brushing lips. My skin tickled at the memory of David’s breath brushing my cheeks and the softness of his mouth.

But we really didn’t kiss. Which was the worst part. It was the beginning of a sentence without the period at the end, a noun without a verb in sight. A question. A horrible what if. I hated myself. 

I immediately ran and we hadn’t breathed a word about it since. Especially since Jeremy and me got back together the very next day. I practically begged to get Jeremy back, to keep him standing firmly like a wall between me and David. 

“I want to talk to you,” David said in the same way you’d break up with someone. As the expert on getting my heart broken, I had memorized the sound. Poor unlovable Calvin Keys. He was about to lose the last person in the world who made him happy. Everything I touched, I broke.

“Fine! What do you wanna talk about?” My voice cracked because it did that when I was getting upset. And David knew that because he knew everything about me. David’s shoulders relaxed, a softness blurring his lines. I said, “I like your shoes.”

David let out a puff of disappointment. “I’ve had these shoes forever.”

“I know and I’ve always liked them. This whole talking thing is really fun.”

“You’re babbling, Cal.”

“That’s my middle name. Calvin Babbling Brooks Keys.”

And with that, I proved I hadn’t at all matured in the last six years attending college because I ran like hell because my best friend of nearly nine years couldn’t end our friendship if I never gave him the chance. I just needed to avoid the conversation long enough for David to give up completely. 

That was what I liked about David. He didn’t like things to become difficult. He didn’t waste energy on the troublesome stuff. It was why David never dated at all. Why he didn’t argue with me about anything. Hopefully, including this.