Only Love

Sara and I were sitting on the couch after a long day at school; Cooper was asleep in his bed next to the couch. I guess you could say we were spooning, but I wasn’t a fan of the term. Spoons are cold, Sara was warm and soft and…wonderful.

“How come you never talk about the future?” She asked when a commercial came on.

“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering where this could be going.

“I mean that every time the topic comes up, you go out of your way to avoid it and change the topic. I’ve noticed how everything comes back to Cooper when you don’t want to talk about something.” She trailed her fingers along the back of my hand, making me suppress a shiver from the heat her fingers left and the cold that followed shortly after.

“I don’t know, I just don’t really talk about that sort of thing.”

“I’m not asking you to talk about us or where you want to be buried or anything, but just in general. I mean, you can’t want to be a busser forever.”

“It’s not a bad job, I like the work.”

“You’re going to culinary school. You’re probably the only student there who doesn’t obsessively talk about what you want to do. TV chef, chef to the stars, pastry chef on a cruise ship, your own bakery, anything?”

“You don’t talk about your culinary goals a lot.”

“If I knew exactly what I wanted I would probably talk about it more. Come on, you have to have an idea, right?”

I just mumbled, “It’s stupid, and I don’t think it will happen. It’s just something I came up with when I was a kid.”

“What is it?”

“It doesn’t matter. I like working at a restaurant.”

“Please tell me?” She asked.

I sighed heavily, unable to tell her no. “My mom would read Alice in Wonderland to me and Caleb when we were kids. I guess we really liked it, and she would help me make brownies and cookies for Santa and all that. I really liked baking, and one night she was reading the scene with the Mad Hatter and the Tea Party, and I told her I was going to have a bakery someday like Alice in Wonderland. The idea just kind of stuck I guess.”

“Alice in Wonderland?”

“It was going to be called Down the Rabbit Hole.” I said.

“I like it.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever do anything with it.”

“Why not?” I felt her foot move between mine.

“Your feet are cold.” I complained as I reached to the back of the couch and pulled off the folded blanket and threw it over us before wrapping my arm around her waist again.

“Don’t avoid the question.” Pulled it up a little farther and pressed into me a little more.

“I just don’t think I’ll be able to open up my own bakery and do everything that needs to be done for it. I don’t think I’ll make it too far in that area. I’ll be best off working as a baker in someone else’s restaurant.”

“That’s not where you belong, you know. You’re a great baker, a great chef overall really. You deserve more than working for someone else.”

“Maybe, but it’s a lot of money to open up a place like that.”

“Just consider it. Don’t think about it like it can never happen, okay? I think you’d really like having a place like that of your own. Your mom would like it too. And your adoptive parents.”

“It’s not going to happen; it’s expensive to open a business. I’d need to get people to work for me, I’d need a place where people would actually go, which is really expensive, I’d need to buy furniture, and then I’d need to get equipment and ingredients, and then I’d have to hope people actually come.”

“I would come.”

I chuckled quietly. “I’d need more than one customer.”

“Think about it?”

It couldn’t hurt, right? “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. I love you Devon, and I want you to be as happy as you can be.”

“I love you too Sara.” I smiled and kissed her neck once more.

“Do you have anything to do today?”

“Not as of right now. Do you want to do something?” I asked. It was around four now, so it wasn’t late yet.

“Maybe.” She turned to look at me, her lips turned up into a smile.

“Where?”

“It’s a secret.” She said.

I frowned. “Tell me?”

“Nope, it’s a secret. Just say yes. Come with me?”

“I want to know.” I pouted slightly.

“Let me take you out this time. Just say you’ll come with me. I promise we’ll have fun. Please?” She was running her hand through my short hair. Her green eyes were shining with excitement, which meant I didn’t stand a chance in saying no.

“Of course I’ll go with you. Whatever you want.”

She smiled and kissed me passionately and moved away all too quickly, “Come on. We can take my car this time.”

Sara’s car was small, which was why we hadn’t taken it camping. And I usually took Jan’s car to see her because it didn’t seem right to show up and make her take her own car on our dates.

I got into the passenger seat, which was a little strange for me, and watched her get behind the wheel. “A hint?” I asked.

“Nope.” She had this smirk on her lips.

“Please?” I begged.

“Don’t like surprises?”

“I love surprises, I just hate waiting for them, so you should tell me.”

“You have to wait.” She said, her grin broadening.

I groaned. “Come on.”

“No way.” She said, laughing when she saw my expression.

“Fine.” I grumbled.

She reached down and plugged in her phone. She turned on her music, Ben Howard’s ‘Only Love’ was the first thing that came on.

Darling you're with me, always around me.

Only love, only love.

Darling I feel you, under my body.

Only love, only love.

Give me shelter, or show me heart

Come on love, come on love.

Watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart.

Sara was singing along quietly. I had never heard her sing before. She had a nice voice. Probably not nice enough to become famous and make a living off of it, but I liked it. I smiled and looked out the window, listening to her sing quietly along with the song.

And I'll be yours to keep.

A wind in the shadow, a whale song in the deep.

A wind in the shadow, a whale song in the deep.

“Promise?” I asked after a moment, interrupting the song.

“Promise what?”

“That you’ll be mine?”

She smiled. “I am yours.”

“And I’m yours. You know that, right?”

“I know.” She said, glancing at me for a second before turning back to the road.

“I know that I don’t have a very…pure past, but I’m different now. I have you. You’re all I need right now. I don’t know what I’ll want later, but I can tell you that you’re all I want right now.”

She looked over at me again and said, “I know, Dev. I know that I don’t need to worry about you and anyone else. You’re different from who you were when I met you. I know that, Dev.”

“Good. I just don’t like the idea of you…not knowing. I want you to know that I’m yours, and yours alone. I don’t need anyone else. I mean romantically, because I do need Jan, but you’re what I want as a girlfriend.”

“I know, Dev. I know that.” She smiled at me and then started singing along with the next song. I just listened to her voice, not the song, and looked at her. She was happy. I liked that. I liked making her happy. She had that light in her eyes and she had strands of hair that were ‘out of place’ but it just seemed to make her more beautiful, more carefree, less concerned about trivial things and wanting to do something else than do her hair. She didn’t wear makeup, I liked that too. She was beautiful without it, like a lot of girls, but she was one of the few who felt better without it. She didn’t need to look perfect to be perfect I guess. She was perfect because of her imperfections. Like how she would bite her nails when she watched a scary moving, and would sometimes curse in the shower when she cut her leg shaving. She was wonderful without being a movie star. I didn’t want a movie star, I wanted Sara.

I wasn’t even focusing on where we were going, so when we arrived at a place I never would have suspected, I just laughed.

The Woodland Park Zoo.

“Do you not like it? Sorry, I just remembered you talking about the zoo at dinner one night.” She was started to ramble, I could tell she’d go on forever if I let her.

I leaned over and kissed her hard. When I finally pulled away she had a deep red blush on her cheeks that reminded me of the first day we met. “I love it.” I whispered.

“Good.” She whispered breathlessly.

I grinned widely. “Come on, I want to show you all of my favorite parts and buy you ice cream.”

“Buy me ice cream? I’m taking you on this date. I’m all for you showing me all of your favorite parts, but I’m buying you ice cream.” She said, her wicked smirk returning.

I frowned, not used to the idea of being taken on a date. Usually I do that taking, in more ways than one, “But—”

“Nope. Not tonight. Tonight is my night to do everything for you instead of you doing things for me.”

Well, this was going to be interesting.

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The song is to the right. I love Ben Howard, I think that it's really sweet and all lovey and stuff haha. Old Pine is a good one too.

ANYWAYS!!!!!

I am entering the Watty Awards. Not with this one (I wish. It's just not close enough to being finished for me to enter it :( I really wanted to enter this one though, but I can't finish it before the 6th.) It's my Fantasy Fiction book with a serious love triangle and some modern day magic and science. It's called With a Flame, Casey Kelley is a modern day mage and her knight protecter is Regan Cartmell. They have to kill a necromancer to keep demons from entering their world through the Veil. Check it out, vote for it when the Watty Awards get started. I love that book, and I'll be pouring a lot of energy into it for the next week or so.

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT CRAVINGS?

I love the zoo. I loved THAT zoo. Woodland Park Zoo was THE BEST. Seattle, Washington. Go there.