I was trying to decide on which jacket to wear when the door buzzer rang; Julien was right on time again.
“On my way down!” I called into the intercom.
Julien hadn’t been inside my apartment yet. It was a nice little one-bedroom in the northwest Bronx. I hadn’t seen his place yet either, though, and I felt bad since he had to come all the way from Grant City, which he said was about twenty-nine miles from here, so I quickly added. “Do you want to come up and have some water or anything?”
“No, I’m good, thanks,” Julien replied. “I think I’m illegally parked so I’d better stay with the car.” I remembered this had happened to him when he picked me up for dinner as well. Parking could be a problem on my street. I didn’t have a parking garage so it was a free-for-all every day trying to find a space near the low-rise complex.
“OK,” I replied, somewhat relieved.
My place was clean, but it wasn’t visitor ready. I would’ve had to scramble to put away the folded laundry I left on the couch last night and hide the stack of receipts and magazines piling up on the corner of my desk. I grabbed my red windbreaker. I figured it would be windy by the ocean, and it paired best with Lorana's white-and-blue sweater and my dark-blue jeans. I had a laid-back look today—hair in a ponytail, big sunglasses, and a red bag my mom bought me last year.
Julien was leaning up against his VW looking at his phone when I came down. He looked good in his jeans, light-gray sweater, gray blazer, and suede sneakers. Frankly, he would look good in anything.
“You look nice,” I said as I approached him.
“Oh, hey,” he said, looking up from his phone. “Thanks. So do you.” His eyes swept over my face. He closed out what looked like an image, put his phone in his pocket, and went to open the door for me.
“Work?” I asked curiously, pointing to his pocket where he had put his phone.
“No.” He held the door and I sank into the car seat.
“It was my friend Tyler. He just sent me some dumb videos. He sends me crap like that all the time.”
He went around and got into the car. Julien never really talked about his friends or family.
“Is this the guy who works with you?”
He had mentioned his friend Tyler once or twice before. He sounded like a funny guy.
“Yep,” he said, fastening his seatbelt.
“Does he do the same thing as you?”
“No, more polling and data stuff.”
“Oh, OK. But he works on the same team?” I pressed.
“He sometimes provides information to my team.” He pushed the GPS on his car for Coney Island. “OK, looks like we can make it there in less than an hour,” he said cheerfully but clearly closing the subject. I decided not to push it. I wonder why he didn’t want to talk about his friend. Was I just reading too much into it? Maybe he was just focused on getting us to Coney Island. I decided to just let it go and enjoy the day.
The drive ended up taking an hour with traffic, but the time flew by. Since Julien didn’t seem ready to dive into personal things like his work, I decided to ask him random, silly questions to get to know him better instead.
“Would you rather wear pajamas to work all day or sing a short song in front of your colleagues?”
“Definitely wear pajamas. I’d even just wear boxers,” Julien said in a serious tone.
“No, you wouldn’t!” I said, lightly swatting him on the shoulder.
“No, really—I sing so badly that it would be less humiliating to wear boxers.”
He turned his head for a second to flash me a smile. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
After going off on different tangents about movies, the best cafés, and tennis, he asked me, “Would you rather kiss a fish or a frog?”
“A frog, of course,” I said. “There's a chance it could be a prince.” I was referring to the Normals’ fairy tale “The Princess and the Frog,” but I wasn’t entirely sure if he knew what I was talking about.
“Oh, are you looking for a prince?” he asked curiously with raised eyebrows.
“Maybe not,” I said, attempting to hint that he could be my prince. Hm, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say. I grasped a stand of my hair and played with it nervously. He didn’t say anything, so I didn’t know if he got my hint or not.
We parked the car at a nearby uncovered parking lot and hit the ground running. It was a sunny but crisp autumn day, and the wind gusting off the ocean made me happy about my choice in jacket.
“Let's go on some rides first and then eat,” he suggested. I was amazed and almost overwhelmed by the multitude of colors, smells, and sounds. It was so magical.
“I can’t believe I’ve never been here before!” I cried in bewilderment.
My parents were not fans of amusement parks. My dad preferred to go to the Irish Catskills or to a museum. The only time we had flown anywhere was to Minnesota for my cousin's wedding. It was in the middle of July, so my dad took three weeks off work and we rented a log cabin up in the Boundary Waters area. I enjoyed fishing, canoeing, and just sitting on the dock listening to the echo of the loons on the lake every morning. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Coney Island was the opposite of peaceful, but I found it to be exciting and was thrilled to be there, particularly with Julien. We had just finished our fourth ride and decided it was time to grab a bite to eat. Julien volunteered to stand in line to buy us some pizza, so I sat down on the boardwalk, hung back, and just watched the people. I could see why my dad might not like this place—it could be confusing for a Pure Light. My spine was tingling off and on every other minute. I kept looking around to see if there was a problem, but I think it was simply just Normals feeling the jolt of adrenaline on the roller-coaster rides. I hoped no one was going to actually need help today.
“Coney Island pizza?” Julien said as he handed me giant slice of cheese pizza. He had forgone the Coney Island hot dogs for me, which I thought was a nice gesture since he apparently loved them.
“Oh, yum,” I exclaimed, biting into the pizza. “So scrumptious!” I turned and faced Julien. “How do you not get overwhelmed with all the sensations of this place?” I whispered sheepishly.
He was chewing his pizza, so I waited for him to answer.
“You mean all the noise?” He looked over at me curiously.
“No, you know, the sensations.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. Well,” he said, clearing his throat, “I come here often, so I guess I’m just used to the sensations.” He shrugged and smiled.
“Share a cotton candy?” he offered, standing up.
“You bet!” I answered enthusiastically,
I stood up to go with Julien, but he insisted that I stay and chill while he went and got it. I sat back down and waited for him again. Thinking about what he said, it made sense. If I were here a lot, I would probably be able to discern when there was a real problem, too. I made a mental note to ask him how he could tell the different sensations apart later when we were alone in the car.
Julien returned with the cotton candy and we picked off pieces as we sat on the boardwalk next to each other.
“You have some in your hair,” he grinned, pulling it out.
“What?” I laughed and reached back to feel my hair.
Our hands touched and I felt goosebumps run up and down my arms. Is he feeling the same way?
“Skyla?” Julien started.
“Yes?” I lifted my eyes to meet his gaze. My breath caught as the bright sun danced in his flecked green-and-hazel eyes and cast his gorgeous face in an angelic glow.
It was at that moment that time stood still. I didn’t hear anyone around us. The seagulls, the wind, the screams of joy and terror coming from the roller coasters faded and disappeared. All I heard was the sound of my wildly beating heart as Julien pressed his hand to my cheek, leaned in, and kissed me. His lips were soft, and his kisses were cotton candy sweet. I was glad I was sitting down or my knees surely would have buckled.
It was a quick kiss, yet it was long enough for me to understand I was officially head over heels for this man.
He stood up and reached out his hand to help me up.
“What do you have on your bracelet there?”
I looked down at my wrist. I had forgotten that I had put on my charm bracelet this morning; on it were charms of things I loved.
“A teacup, a rose, a sun, and a cupcake.” I held each one up so he could see them.
“A cupcake? I would’ve guessed you’d have a carrot or something healthy on your bracelet instead of a cupcake.”
I giggled—I’d never thought of that. I did believe in eating healthy, but I also loved a good cupcake like everyone else.
We walked in silence for a few minutes down the boardwalk.
“I guess this means we are seeing each other exclusively?” he asked.
“I haven’t been seeing anyone else since I met you,” I admitted, now wondering if he had been seeing someone.
“Oh yeah, same here, of course,” he said as if he’d read my mind, stopping. “I just wanted to say it out loud—I mean, ah, I’m not ready to meet the parents yet, but, yes, you know what I mean.”
He picked up a rock and tossed it playfully into the sand.
I nodded. “Meet the parents” was another way for Glows to say, “Let's scale,” or “We need to test.” This is typically done after three to six months of dating but definitely before you actually meet one another's parents. It sets the stage, in a way, for a possible future together. Of course, this only starts after the age of eighteen.
“That's fine with me, Julien. We’ve only been on a few dates, so it's still a little early to meet the parents.” Lorana will lecture me when she hears this. I can almost hear her say, You should have said to test and get it out of the way!
He looked relieved. I was somewhat relieved, as well. Testing was a big step—commitment. I wanted that with Julien but wasn’t ready to talk about it with my family. I needed to spend more time with him first and get know him better. I’m sure he felt the same.
After walking around for a while, Julien asked, “Are you ready to head back? I know a great crab place. You said you like seafood, right?” He seemed almost worried I’d say no.
I looked at my watch. It was almost 4:00 p.m. We had arrived a little after noon.
“Crab sounds good to me,” I said, smiling. He took my hand and we walked back to the car, chatting about some of the interesting characters we had seen during the day. At the restaurant, Julien opened up more, chatting away about family vacations he had been on—mostly to France to see his mom's relatives. I was engrossed in the details of a dairy farm his mom's brother owned and how Julien and his mother would sneak away to ride the horses when he was a boy. I could tell it was a fond memory for him.
Four hours later, at the end of our date, Julien dropped me off at my apartment and gave me another tender kiss. I tried not to melt.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he murmured, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“OK,” I replied in a half stupor and turned to go into my apartment—this had been an amazing day. I immediately called Lorana and told her everything.