Her eyes flicked to the top hat under my arm, and I chuckled, handing it to her and bowing a bit to let her place it on my head. When I stood again, I smoothed my hands over the lapels of my jacket, casting my gaze off to the right like a model. “How do I look?”
She chuckled. “Like a gentleman. A fine, upstanding gentleman.”
“And you’re my lady,” I said, holding out my arm again.
I loved the sound of her laugh when she slid her arm in to hook with mine. I loved even more how comfortable it felt to walk with her, to joke with her, to wrap my hand over where hers held my arm.
Every warning sign that had been installed in my brain from the Girlfriends of Makoa Past blinked in bright neon, reminding me to not dive head first into those feelings like I did so often.
But with Belle? It felt… different.
I shook my head, knowing it was too early to get so caught up in my thoughts. For now, I had a beautiful woman on my arm and two orchestra tickets in my pocket, and that was all that mattered.
“So, where are we going to dinner?”
“I found this great local place not too far from the theatre. It’s got a slew of five-star ratings, and a lot of the reviews say they have the best pierogies in town.”
“Pierogies! Yum,” she hummed.
The breeze had picked up even more, and when we turned the corner, it blasted us back, making Belle hide a little behind me as she squinted against it.
“I guess they don’t call Chicago the Windy City for nothing,” I joked, but inside, I was cursing my decision to walk. When I looked up and noticed the sky darkening, thick clouds rolling in from over the lake, panic zipped through me. “Maybe we should get a cab.”
“No way, we’re almost there,” Belle said. “Also, fun fact, did you know Chicago wasn’t actually named the Windy City because it’s windy?”
I cocked a brow.
“Well, I mean, of course the fact that we’re on the water and get a nice breeze is part of it,” she continued. “But another part of it is that when we were really establishing ourselves, we were very competitive and proud. We competed with Cincinnati in trade and baseball, competed with D.C. and New York for the World Fair, and were just generally very loud about our city. It was a nickname that other cities gave us, because we loved to brag so much. Hence, the Windy City.”
I smirked, nudging her. “Look at you, little fountain of knowledge.”
“Hey, you may be the Trivia King, but I’m the Chicago Trivia Queen.” She chuckled, completely oblivious to how much I ate up the fact that she’d just referenced us as a duo, a King and Queen. “I kind of have to be, with my job. I make it my mission with every design I do to incorporate the city, even if it’s in small ways.”
“I love that,” I commented, genuine, and she blushed a little as she peeked up at me through her lashes.
Just as she did, I felt a rain drop on my hand.
I looked down at the affronting drop, my wide eyes connecting with Belle’s next, but it was too late. In the next second, it seemed, there was the distant sound of raindrops hitting concrete.
“Shit,” I whispered, and Belle and I took off as quick as her heels allowed.
“Where is this place?!” she called as we tried to outrun the rain, but it was already sprinkling, and I watched Belle try to cover her hair with her small clutch.
“Just around that corner, across the street!”
I unfastened the buttons of my jacket and ripped it off as quickly as I could given the speed we were moving, but it was useless. Just as I freed it from my last wrist to shelter her with it, Mother Nature poured buckets.
I tried anyway, holding my jacket over Belle’s head as we scurried to the edge of the sidewalk and waited for the light to change so we could cross the street. The rain came harder and louder, pounding the hot pavement and creating a wave of steam. My jacket was soaked in two seconds, which only made more water dump onto Belle’s head, and I cursed, giving up and reaching for her hand, instead, to help her cross the street.
When we finally ducked inside the restaurant, we were both drenched, Belle’s hair a