Don't Disappoint Me

The Light of Hidden Flowers

Note: The poem quoted in this chapter is from Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1959), translated by Stephen Tapscott.

Noah and MC continued to see each other, mostly just spending time at each other's flats. They wanted to give their relationship a chance to grow without public scrutiny, and neither of them was ready for Hope or Bobby to find out that they were dating.

MC had shared the news with Chelsea, which may have been a bad idea given her gossip sneezer tendencies, but she was MC's best friend, and she couldn't keep something that big from her.

"O. M. GEE. MC I CAN'T EVEN!" Chelsea had squealed. "Like part of me is like WOAH that is some news, but another part of me is like, um of COURSE this makes so much sense now! I can totally see it!" Chelsea swore her secrecy, sealed with their secret handshake, and so far, it seemed that she had kept her promise.

One morning, several weeks after that first night together, Noah woke to find that MC wasn't in the bed with him. He found her sitting in the living room, under a blanket, reading a book. She looked up at him as he entered the room and gave him a silent smile. She knew he needed a little quiet when he first woke up, so she always gave him some space first thing in the morning. He walked over to her and placed a kiss on her forehead in greeting. Her skin smelled light and fresh, like lemongrass. "Fancy a cuppa?"

"Yes, please!" she chirped.

He went to the kitchen and smiled when he noticed that she had washed their wine glasses from the night before. Things had been going better than he could have possibly imagined. They lived a little over an hour apart, but had managed to see each other a few days of every week.

"You're what my father would call a 'geographic undesirable,'" she teased him once. But neither of them truly minded driving back and forth, and it gave them an excuse to sleepover more often.

MC began to feel like the world was easing up on her at last. She had time to herself, her career was blossoming, and she had Noah to hold in her thoughts whenever she couldn't be with him. The bit of her heart that would always be claimed by Bobby seemed to be scabbing over at last. Noah understood that she was still grieving that loss, and did not seem threatened by it, or impatient for her to move on. She would even talk to him about it sometimes. And somehow, it didn't impede the growth of their own romance. It was as though the two were unrelated, different beasts. Two flowers in different gardens.

Noah's phone rang as he set her tea down in front of her. She mouthed a thank you as he left the room to take the call. He had a worried look on his face when he returned.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, that was my coworker. She's sick and won't be able to come in today." He frowned. "Which would be fine, except I was supposed to read to my children's book club. I guess I'll have to cancel it."

"I could do it!" she suggested.

He thought for a moment, "Hm, really? You'd want to do that?"

"Hell yeah! I'm great at reading. I even read books without pictures in them and everything," she jokingly bragged. "Plus, I've been dying to see where you work."

"Okay, " he smiled at her, a little spark of excitement filling his chest. "Thanks so much! I hate to cancel on those little guys at the last minute."

They got dressed and were about to head out the door when MC stopped him. "Oh, do you have a post-it note or something that I could use to mark my place?" she gestured to the book she had been reading.

"Yeah, there are some in my right desk drawer. I'm parked kind of far away, so I'm going to go grab the car. Meet me out front in a minute?"

"I'll have to head home straight from the library, actually. So I'll drive separately. But I'll see you there soon." She placed her hand on his neck and pulled him in for a brief, but tender kiss.