❝ꪜ𝒊𝐨ŀꪋ❞

My date bypassed Zephyr and was, suddenly, in the middle of everything. There was complete silence as Sinclair stepped between Marvin and me.

“Gentleman,” he said with veiled warning.

But I didn’t need to be rescued right now. The memory that had escaped from where I’d hidden it was so clear that I shook with emotion.

“Marvin forced himself on me and tried to kiss me at prom” I gripped Sin’s arm. “He pushed me against the counter... I didn’t even know him. I stayed away from him. Everyone hated the football team.”

Marvin went pale and wouldn’t meet Sinclair’s gaze, as everything fell out of him in a panic. But it was tinged with frustrated anger, and I felt Sin tense under my hold. His feet apart, his stance loose, Sinclair seemed as if he was going to fight for me at that moment.

“Okay, Vie,” Sinclair said as if I hadn’t just told him the worst of things. “Who do I need to kill first?” He sounded so focused, but I knew I had to do this myself.

“I need to close my own door, Sin,” I insisted.

After a moment where we exchanged pointed glances—Sinclair questioning, and I answering that I was okay, Sin stepped to one side, but he didn’t go far. The fact that Sin had listened to the unspoken plea for me to be left to handle things on my own was a revelation. But I  couldn’t focus on that right now.

Zephyr didn’t appear quite as confident now that Sinclair was here. If anything, he appeared more than a little fearful.

Typical bully, only good when they had the upper hand.

Jason seemed genuinely confused. And Marvin? Well, Vinny was quiet. I glanced at him and he'd suddenly gone pale and seemed... scared.

It was Jason who broke the impasse.

“Hang on, Vin. Zeph told me that it was Viola who tried it on with you,” he said. “When Zeph came in and she had her scrawny hands on you, Marvin, was it because it was actually you—?” It appeared he couldn’t find the words to explain what he meant.

“She’s a lying piece of shit,” Marvin snapped, all the vulnerability suddenly sliding away. “I wouldn’t go anywhere fucking near her!”

“But, you know, science-girl’s always been kinda small... and frail,” Jason mused, “And you’ve always been kinda big... if not bigger when we were in high school. And so I’m not getting this,” he muttered. “What’s really going on, Marvin?”

“I’m closing my damn door!” I snapped.

They all stared at me in confusion. Then I gripped Sinclair by the hand, tilted my chin, and forced my way past all three men.

Jason attempted to stop me from leaving.

“Hey, Vie. Look, I’m sorry if—”

“Suck a truck!” I snapped and tugged Sinclair out of the bathroom and into the hallway.

Without stopping, I went through the room with Sin in tow, passing tables of people chatting as though they hadn’t a care in the world, then registration where I unpinned my badge and dropped it onto the desk. Then I went through the double doors, and into the cold beyond.

“Wait, Vie!” Sin said, turned back, and within seconds returned with our coats.

He handed me mine, but all I could do was stand in shock as snowflakes whirled around my head.

“Gah, I’m so angry!” I forced out, clawing at the air as my words were a staccato sharp. “I didn’t want him to kiss me! I didn’t even expect anyone to kiss me at prom! But if it was going to be my first kiss, I wanted it to mean something. But guess what, it meant nothing! Apart from me having ten years of not understanding why I am the way I am. I chase people away as soon as they get close. I fall for the wrong guys. And I never understand what I’m doing or why I am doing it. Do you know how many people have just run the other way because I’ve been awkward as shit as soon as they tried to kiss me?!”

I was shaking now, and I could feel tears pricking my eyes. The hot, angry, and frustrated tears.

Sinclair zipped up my thick downy coat, buttoning it to the chin and making sure the hood was up and covering my hair. I was already shivering, but I wasn’t sure if that was because of the metaphorical door I’d stepped through, or because of the actual door leading to the real cold outside.

“I want to go back and beat him into a bloody pulp” Sinclair bristled with anger, forcing his hands into his pockets.

I forced out a sigh.

“That won’t help anything, Sin.”

“I know. But I want to.” He stopped for a moment as if he needed to get control of his emotions. “Do you want to call someone? Marcelina? The cops?”

“Mars has enough to worry about, and no to the cops. I don’t know what I want to do. Can you just let me think about what needs to happen next?”

“Of course, but if he did it then, it could be that he’s still out there...”

“Yeah, I get that. But my memories are messed up, and what if I’m wrong?”

We stood in silence for a moment, the snow growing heavier.

“I’m sorry your prom was ruined,” Sinclair offered.

I sighed.

“I don’t know much about it to be fair. I got drunk. Anyway, you don’t need to feel sorry for me. I mean, I wasn’t lonely you know, I had my science. Only it’s not science that makes you want the fairytale that is your first kiss at prom.”

My voice was now scratchy, and I leaned into Sinclair as my date gathered me into his arms and held me tight. My heart hurt because even as I’d tried to close the door, it was almost impossible to face what had happened tonight.

I’d wanted a kiss. A perfect kiss on a perfect night.

Was that too much to ask?

“Let me,” Sin murmured.

“What?”

“Will you let me try and give you the perfect kiss? Pretend it’s prom, right here in the snow?” he tilted my chin, then cradled my face.

His hands were cold and his eyes were filled with emotion. Sinclair was so beautiful. His smile was so genuine, and the compassion in his gaze was so deep that I lost myself in their depths.

For a moment I considered saying no. I wanted to joke that his contract didn’t cover perfect kisses in the snow. Maybe add that I didn’t need rescuing and that I just wanted to make it all end.

But then, Sinclair leaned in, and the rest... it felt so right.

I sighed into the kiss, which was so unlike any kiss I’d ever felt before. I didn’t know what was different, but Sin cradled my face, held me as if I was a delicate thing, and then deepened the kiss. I wasn’t panicking. There was absolutely no desperate need to yank myself away. If anything, I wanted to stay here in this moment, forever.

Sinclair Bergman was strong and gentle. And the way our tongues tangled, and the taste of Sin... literally... it was so much and so perfect.

When we separated, I kept my eyes shut, a whisper of snowflakes on my heated skin.

And “Wow,” was all I could manage.

“Well? Was that okay, Viola?” Sin pulled me into a hug. “I guess... Happy belated Prom?”

I wanted to hug him back, but then I remembered that this wasn’t real. So I eased myself away from Sin before I did something stupid and asked for another kiss.

“Thank you.”

“Can we talk?”

For a moment I thought this was Sin talking to me. But then I realized the voice was coming from behind us.

Marvin.

He’d followed us outside, without a coat. And was shivering and hugging his middle, looking as if he was about to cry.

“No,” I said before I could rethink everything. I wanted tonight to end with a kiss, and not the fear of something in my past. “Sin, now please?”

Sinclair bundled me into the car, and I refused to meet Marvin’s gaze. It was only when we were on the road that I could breathe again.

“Hey, you holding up okay?” Sin squeezed my thigh gently.

“Yeah, yeah,” I lied. “Just peachy.”

“If you want to talk about—”

“Thank you for tonight, Sin. Thank you for being my date. You were very... professional.”

I thought I saw Sinclair wince but I couldn’t be sure.

Just great. Now I’ve insulted the owner of the lips that had given me the best kiss of my entire life.

“Would you give me ten out of ten?” Sinclair smiled after a pause.

“Pfft, after that kiss?” I murmured. “At least a four.”

Sinclair pressed a hand to his chest as if he’d been wounded. But hey, at least we were back to normal and the weirdness of the kiss, the all-consuming heat of it, could be filed away to think about later.