Lunangelique (The Lunangelique Series) by Kristin R Campbell

when I ask, “How did you plan for this night to turn out?”
    He turns to look into my eyes and I see I made him smile again. “For one thing, I planned on us dining alone,” he says and I laugh.  “Then, we would have been dancing on the boardwalk so I could show off the most beautiful girl. After that, we would have sunk our feet in the sand and watched the moon’s reflection dance over the ocean’s waves.” He smiles at me again.
    “That sounds really nice. We’ll have to do that some time,” I tell him. I place my hand over his, which is resting on the clutch, and entwine our fingers. All the nervous jitters from the start of the date are gone and I feel like I can finally relax. I hope it isn’t totally due to the glasses of wine I consumed.
    My curiosity is still high on whom Edmund is but that knowledge will probably grow as I get to know Cole better. I just know that I’ve learned not to ask questions about Edmund because it obviously upsets Cole deeply. They must have had a rough past together. Maybe Cole never submitted to having someone other than his parents play the parental role. Cole must have been resentful and that’s why he acts so indifferent to him now.
    I get lost in my thoughts and before I know it, ten minutes after leaving the beach, we are pulling up to the Opera House, a drive that on average takes about thirty minutes. Cole again uses the valet that is offered and escorts me into the building. We give the usher our tickets and are escorted to balcony seats, front and center.
    I look around at the old theater, reminiscing past plays and ballets I’ve been to here with my family. The theater is in definite need of remodeling but has the old age feel that isn’t really inspired these days. The walls are all in red with tattered curtains and the seats have seen some better days. There are balcony, boxed seats along the sides, but I learned from experience that those are not the better seats. When I was a kid, my mom had gotten us tickets to ‘The Nutcracker’ and surprised me with the box seating, but I couldn’t see past the seats in front of us. Someone totally messed up when they designed the box seating.
    “What are you thinking about?” Cole asks me after we take our seats.
    “I’m just reminiscing the times I’ve been here before,” I answer him.
    “Have you been here often?”
    “Yeah,” I admit. “Almost every Christmas for ‘The Nutcracker’ and then a few plays and ballets in-between.”
    He takes my hand and starts playing with my fingers. I’m glad I had that manicure done today. “Ever been here with another guy,” he asks me, keeping his eyes on my fingers.
    “Nope.” I’m going to leave it at that but it seems he wants some kind of assurance. “I’ve never been out with a guy I thought of as more than a friend,” I admit to him.
    He looks up into my face and smiles wide. “Do you expect me to believe that?”
    “I’m being truthful. I’ve gone to school functions on a “date”,” I add the quotations for emphasis. “And I’ve kissed a few boys, but I was never really interested enough to take it farther than that, never progressed past a first date or first kiss. The kisses were more like ‘you’re a boy and I’m a girl and I want to practice kissing someone.’ Never intimate.”
    He rolls his eyes at me like he doesn’t believe me so I try again. “You have to understand that I’ve never left my little quiet neighborhood. I’ve grown up with all my friends since we were in diapers. Me, dating a guy I know, would be like me dating a step-brother or something. I’m just not interested. I know all of their dirty secrets and have seen all of their embarrassing moments that have turned me off from them for an eternity.” I laugh remembering Ethan’s flatulent problems in grade school and Nathaniel perpetually picking his nose and wiping his boogers on other people. So gross.
    Cole sighs and starts kissing my fingertips, my palm, my