𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆, and Marin can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking when he looks at her like that — eyes a little too intense, too knowing. She shivers a little for it — draws her arms around herself for the warmth of obscurity. The not knowing is better than the knowing, I promise, sweetheart. I’ll be whoever you want me to be. If he were to ask her who she is, she wouldn’t have an answer. The world is too big for all of that — and for the better part of things, it’s been a grand enough adventure to discover charity shoppes. Her little flat is mismatched and a little broken — but it suits her, and it’s hers. Sometimes, she looks at the items that she’s chosen, and wishes they could tell her why she’d chosen them — what secrets such small and insignificant choices say about her as a whole.
She’s doing the same thing — eyes sparkling up at him, lingering for a little too long with a little too much curiosity. She smiles and ducks her head as though trying to hide it. And he teases her before acquiescing to her request. His name suits him — though why, she couldn’t really say. She doesn’t have much time to think about it either, as he’s extending his hand to her. It’s painfully sweet. Some people, she supposes, just look like their names. She’ll never know. It will be one night, and when she thinks of him after, he will be little more than a stranger who was once a what-if?
Fairytales don’t happen to girls like her, she thinks, reaching her hand forward, “Mat,” she repeats. Her hand is so much smaller than his, and he’s warm. She may as well be a moth, the way she gravitates toward that warm light. “I like it — it suits you. I’m Marin.”
Fingers slip between his in a gesture that’s far more intimate than a first meeting would usually allow. She isn’t the kind of girl people settle down with — so she steals little forevers where she can and doesn’t dare to ask for more. This is enough, this is good, she thinks, bringing her other hand to rest against his chest, looking up at him with the streetlights reflected in her eyes. “Well then, Mat, I’m all yours.” She settles against the solid weight of his body, leaning on an arm as she makes to walk with him, “Steal me away.”
She won’t tell Reese. That’s a later-her problem. Right now it’s just kind of nice to pretend that she could have what other girls have. No complications. Just a moment in the sun.
