For Her (The Girl I Loved Duet 1)

“I have a question for you,” I tell her, “and I’m nervous about it, so I don’t know if I should ask you before or after the show.”

She makes a funny face. “Well is it a bad question?”

“I don’t think so,” I say, swallowing. “I hope not.”

Amber giggles, and reaches up on her tip-toes to kiss my cheek. “Than just take a breath and ask me now.”

I follow her instructions and take a breath, which always makes me feel better. “What would I do without you to remind me to breathe?”

“Just die, I guess,” she says.

I clear my throat. “Well, here goes. My aunt went out of town for work on Friday. She’s not going to be back until Tuesday.” I feel like something is constricting my throat as I choke out the words. “So I was wondering if you wanted to come home with me tonight?”

Amber’s face goes blank with surprise, and I immediately try to make it better. “But if you’re not ready for that I understand, I get it, there’s no rush to it, I just thought I’d ask—”

“Peter,” Amber says softly, and I stop talking. I take a breath. She smiles. “Of course I’ll come home with you.”

Relief, sweet and cool pours down my spine. “Really?”

“Really.”

The way she’s looking at me now sends a completely different energy through me. That same energy I felt the night we first kissed. I kiss her now, as Drew calls places. I have to live through the next two hours knowing that Amber is coming home with me, holding everything back from ditching the show and going home now. This is going to be our best performance, I know it.

She pulls away, and smiles, eyes glazed from our kiss. “I’ll see you on stage,” she says.

“See you.” I have to think of very cold and gross things while she walks away. Ice. Mildew. The smell of my socks. Thank fucking god that I’m not in the first few scenes, otherwise the audience would be getting a show that they didn’t pay for. These costumes leave nothing to the imagination.

The show pours out of both of us. Our chemistry has never been better, and because it’s the final night, I can’t help myself. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and she accepts, I kiss her. It’s too real for me, and I can hear the audience gasp and sigh. The perfect reaction.

This curtain call is better than all the rest, and for the first time we get a standing ovation. This is exhilarating, and I’m full of adrenaline and passion and my god I’m in love with her. I told her on opening night that I was falling in love with her, but I’m already there. All the way.

I’ve never been in love before, but I can’t imagine it feeling like anything else. It feels like falling and flying and I’m not even sure that I’m conscious as I take off my costume and wash the make-up off my face because I just can’t wait to be with her. Not even like that, just around her.

My mind is going a million miles an hour, and the congratulations roll off me like water, and then we’re in the parking lot and I ask her again. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

It’s the longest drive of my life, and I race inside when I make it there first because why the fuck didn’t I think about the fact that Amber is going to be in my room? She’s seen my room before, but every other time I’ve prepared, and the possibility that we might have sex has me looking at my room entirely differently.

I toss some laundry in the basket and quickly make my bed. I’m suddenly seeing all the things I should have dusted and cleaned so that everything would be perfect. Should I change? I have no idea what I’m doing.

I did buy condoms though. I bought those a couple of weeks ago when it started to seem like we were going there. At least I thought ahead about one thing.

The doorbell rings, and I freeze for just a second before racing down the stairs. I probably look like an idiot because I’m entirely out of breath as I answer the door. “Hi.”

Amber smiles. “You got here fast.”

“Oh, didn’t you know we were racing? Cause I definitely crushed you.”

“Next time let me know that we’re racing and I’ll give you a run for your money.”

She comes inside and we stare at each other in the entryway for a minute. What do I do now? Is there a protocol for this? “I don’t know what to do,” I say.

Amber raises an eyebrow but she’s grinning. “You don’t?”

I laugh. “I know what to do, I just don’t know what to do.”

Taking off her coat, she drops her backpack on the floor next to mine. She takes my hand and pulls me toward the stairs. “I think we can figure out what to do.”