“Pat O’s it is!” Tony agreed victoriously.
Trish shuffled forward with Tony and Gina. Curtis struck up a conversation with Mazie, and Cole and I took the back.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“Us together like this?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, clearly, Curtis doesn’t like me. He’s probably going to tell Harper that we were together here.”
“Nah, he wouldn’t do that.”
“Are you going to tell her?” I stared up at him, and my heart skipped a beat.
He was so fucking handsome. Even in jeans and a polo. Even with his hair slightly mussed. And those blue eyes staring back at me.
“Lila, can’t we just enjoy the night? Do we have to make this a big thing?” He grinned down at me, and my entire body melted. “I’ve missed you. Let’s just hang out tonight.”
And I wanted nothing more than that. Our friends all crowded around a table in front of the dueling pianos, sipping Hurricanes and singing at the tops of our lungs. We requested the Georgia fight song, and I got up to do the cheers that would be ingrained in my brain until the day that I died.
It was early in the morning after bar close when we all stumbled out of the bar, prepared for the trek back to the hotel. Tony and Gina went one way. Curtis held up Trish and Mazie as they nearly fell every other step. Cole and I hung back. Drunk but still not ready to leave.
“Beignets?” I asked. “Café du Monde is open twenty-four hours.”
“I’m down. Let me see if Curtis wants to come.”
Cole jogged up to his friend and told him our plan. What ensued was so heated a fight that ended with Curtis storming off with the two girls back to the hotel.
I lifted my eyebrows. “What was that about?”
“He doesn’t think it’s a good idea for us to go off alone.”
“But you asked if he wanted to go.”
“He didn’t want to go. We have an early flight.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “Do you still want to go?”
“Definitely. It’ll be fine.”
Famous last words.
Café du Monde was finally empty at three in the morning. We ordered a plate of beignets and two café au laits. The doughnuts came out piping hot, covered in a literal mound of powdered sugar.
Cole took out his phone and snapped pictures of the food. Then he turned it to me, and I posed with the mountain of powdered sugar, laughing as half of it landed in my lap.
“Do you miss your camera?”
“Always, but the new iPhone is nearly as good. Less manual manipulation but handier,” he said, shoving the thing back in his pocket. “Do you miss dance?”
I nodded. “Always.”
“What are you going to do after you finish PT school?”
“Job market and pray,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee.
“Still want to work for the Falcons?”
“Always.”
“Still have your superpower?” he joked.
I pointed at him. “I’ll have you know that last week, I snagged two Cokes out of the vending machine at school. Trish thought I was a goddess.”
“You are,” he said softly.
I flushed. “You still have your superpower?”
“With the rental, I got the first spot in the lot at the hotel.”
“Magic.”
He drained his coffee. “God, it’s so easy to be here with you.”
“It really is.”
We finished off the plate of doughnuts. My fingers were all sticky from the powdered sugar. When the napkins did nothing, I licked them clean. I was glad that the carbs and coffee had helped sober me up some. I didn’t feel quite so out of it as I had when we were in Pat O’Briens.
“Should we head back?” I asked reluctantly.
He tipped his chair back onto two legs. “Or we could walk.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere, Lila.”
I squirmed at the affection in the way he’d said my name. “Okay.”
He dropped cash onto the messy table, and then I followed him out to the street. We crossed Decatur to Jackson Square. Most of the artists and performers had already packed up for the night. We wandered the empty square, pausing in front St. Louis Cathedral to admire the soaring heights of the eighteenth-century church before continuing through the French Quarter.
I lost track of time.
Or maybe when I was with Cole, time stood still.
After an eternity of walking, we ended back at our hotel. I dawdled in the unoccupied lobby. I wasn’t ready to let the night end. I didn’t know if I’d ever see Cole again. And though we’d been in love for a long time and we’d been friends just as long, we couldn’t be either when I went home.
“I can walk you up,” he offered.
And this time, I nodded as we headed for the elevators. Silence stretched between us on the ride up to my floor. After this, he was going to go back to his room, catch an early flight, and disappear from my life forever.
Should I want that? Because I didn’t.