Oh, that's a good idea!" Marlowe says. "I don't remember the last time I had hot chocolate. It must have been at a sleepover, because it always makes me think of hanging out in pajamas. Man, that makes me want to have sleepovers again. Adults don't get to do anything fun."
They go to stand in line, and a couple of minutes later, they return with your hot chocolate. It's so thick you can barely stir it with a spoon—you can't wait to try it.
"I finally finished my review," Marlowe tells you as you settle down with your drinks. "I was a little nervous to hand it in, but they seemed to like it. I know it's not that big a deal, but it's pretty exciting to have something published that isn't just a couple of sentences."
Marlowe smiles, and you think you see their cheeks flush slightly.
"Not exactly—I said I went with somebody else, but I just said it was a friend. I didn't mention…you know."
They grin and glance over to the spot where you first kissed the other night.
"It was kind of hard to stop thinking about it, though," they say. "I thought the band was great, but when I was writing the review, I kept wondering if I remembered them even better than they were because you were there. I ended up rewriting it about three times because I was worried I might have gotten something wrong. I think it was just the pressure of it being my first real article that was getting to me. In the end, I talked to my boss and she calmed me down, basically just telling me it would be fine as long as I was be honest with what I wrote."
They breathe a sigh, and you can tell they're quite relieved to finally have it finished.
"Still, it was really cool to finally be able to write something a little more creative. I just hope they let me do that kind of thing more. I'm still hoping I might be able to write my own column some day, about anything weird or mysterious or unexplained that people have stories about. If they ever let me do that, I'd be happy."
Next