It Happened One Night Read Online Free Page B

and jelly-smeared grins. But when
     Eli had picked her up and told her what he’d planned, she said she’d be happy to go. Now it was clear she’d said it just to
     be nice.
    He tried to make the most of the afternoon by telling her interesting facts about the universe. The professor in him hoped
     to spark her interest.
    “And this,” he said, standing beside a colorful picture on the wall, “is an image from the Hubble. It’s called the Keyhole
     Nebula.” He looked at her, watching for her reaction as she looked at the swirls of red, blue, and green. Her face remained
     dull, as if she were a student sitting in an Intro to Astronomy class. He tried to connect with her another way. “What do
     you see?”
    She frowned.
    He tried again. “What does it look like to you?”
    “It looks like…” She leaned closer, squinting. “Like a nebula.”
    He laughed. He and Lana had played this game a hundred times, like kids picking shapes out of clouds. But he and Lana weren’t
     entirely
normal
, and so he gave Kelly a break. “Well, somebody saw this.” He ran his finger over the image. “God’s birdie.”
    “Why do they call it that?”
    “Because it’s a cloud shaped like God’s middle finger.”
    “If you say so,” she said.
    Eli rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. Picking up women had always been easy enough. He had a good face—not rugged,
     but friendly, handsome, with a high forehead and a good solid jaw. The day after Lana’s birthday—the most horrible night he’d
     had in years—he’d successfully scored Kelly’s number at a downtown bar. But three dates later, the usual problems had begun.
    For him, being romantic required too much showmanship—grandiose gestures, overwrought love poetry, power ballads, and heavy
     cologne. He preferred the “just be yourself” technique. But that was probably why he was single—and on the wrong side of Lana’s
     “let’s just be friends.”
    Kelly had wandered a few feet away from him, standing so that a six-foot-wide picture of Mars dwarfed her from head to toe.
     He caught up with her silently. She was rubbing her near-naked legs together, a pathetic attempt to keep warm.
    He sighed. “Look. Do you want to get out of here?”
    “Yes,” she said. “I’d like that a lot.”
    Later, after a big steak dinner, they were standing at the back door of her apartment, far away from the stylish brick buildings
     of downtown. He could hear someone’s television blasting commercials from a nearby living room, but otherwise the street was
     quiet and dark.
    “I had a nice time,” Kelly said.
    The last two times they’d stood in this doorway, Eli had kissed her—not quite real kisses, but more of a courteous brushing
     of lips. Now the moment had come for him to either kiss her for real or put an end to it all.
    He stalled. “I’m sorry about the museum.”
    “Don’t be,” she said. “I want to do things you enjoy.”
    Oh, man
. She was going to invite him upstairs. Any second now. He cleared his throat, a little nervous. He’d been out of practice
     with women for a long time. But that was exactly why he was doing this, he reminded himself. Why he was dating. He couldn’t
     expect it to feel perfectly comfortable right off the bat.
    Kelly smiled, her lips shiny and parted, waiting for him.
    Don’t think of her
, he warned himself.
Don’t.
    For a long time, he’d believed the best way to have a relationship with Lana was as her friend. She’d rejected the idea that
     they could be more, and gradually he’d come to agree. Friendship meant he could hold on to everything he loved most about
     Lana, but he could shirk the responsibilities and commitments of being a lover. For a long time, he was happy that way.
    At least, he thought he was.
    There had been no single moment that made him realize he loved her. Wanted her. Over the years he’d told himself that occasional
     “blips” of attraction to her didn’t mean he