One for the Angels

“20 Questions,” Danny said abruptly as I took him through a quick tour of my apartment. He’d been staying at a motel for the past few days, but now it made sense for him to stay with me, since we were . . . whatever we were now.

I turned to him with my eyebrows raised. “Okay.”

“When’s the last time you talked to your parents?”

Normally this would’ve made me uncomfortable, but we agreed that from now on, there’d be no more secrets. Everything was getting laid out on the table. “When I told them I was dropping out of school.”

His eyes widened a little. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, well. What’s your zodiac sign?”

“Aries.”

It went on like this for a little while until I finally asked, “What did you pray about when you went to St. Andrew’s?”

Danny was silent for a while, but I waited. After a moment, he said, “I don’t know. Random stuff, I guess. For Peter to get hit by a bus. For me to be okay. For you in general.” I felt my heart flutter, and I took a step closer. He looked up and continued in a much quieter voice, “For someone to watch over my mom.”

“Someone? Like who?”

“I don’t know,” he said again. We were so close now that I could feel his breath on my face, could see the flecks of gold in his eyes.

“It’s funny how everything did work out. Maybe someone was watching over her.”

“Yeah, or maybe someone was watching over me.” He paused before he asked, “Do you believe in angels?”

“No. Do you?”

He smiled. “I didn’t before. But I do now.” And when he leaned in to kiss me, it felt like something in the back of my head was clicking, like a puzzle piece fitting perfectly into its spot. It was like learning to breathe and going underwater at the same time. It was like drinking a hot coffee on a cold day and finding something you didn’t even know you were looking for.

When we broke apart, I warned, “This isn’t gonna be easy, you know.”

“I know.”

“We still have a lot to talk about, and a lot to work out.”

“I know that, angel,” Danny said, and the new nickname made me flush. “I am aware of what I signed up for.”

“Okay, well –”

“Why are you trying to fight this? Me and you, we’re like Manifest Destiny.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “What does that even mean?”

“No clue,” he answered. I laughed.

“Just kiss me again, you idiot.”

“That, I can do.” He leaned in again and kissed me, only this time it was much deeper, and it had me winding my arms around his waist and pushing up on my toes to make it last longer. Danny stumbled back a few steps before spinning us around and lifting me up so I was sitting on the counter. Now that I was a little higher than him, he took the opportunity to kiss up and down my next, which involuntarily made my arm jerk out and hit ‒ something solid.

“Oh, shit!” I shouted as the Keurig cord flew out of its outlet and the coffee pot itself went crashing onto the ground, shattering into a million pieces. Danny jumped about a mile, dodging the broken glass as best as he could before climbing onto a chair.

“Oh God,” I said. “My roommates are going to kill me.” Even though I knew I was definitely in some deep shit, I couldn’t bring myself to feel upset about it. Not when Danny was sitting across the room, his face flushed, a bewildered, oddly cute expression on his face.

“Dammit,” he swore suddenly.

“What?”

“I have such a hard-on right now. And you’re all the way over there.”

I looked at him for a second before I burst out laughing again, because sure enough, I could see a . . . bulge . . . in his pants. “It’s not funny!” he exclaimed, although he was grinning too. “It’s very uncomfortable, and very tragic.”

“All right, hold on,” I said. I checked my surroundings before I leapt off the counter and vaulted over the broken glass, managing to make it over to him. “Let’s see what we can do about your friend down there.”