Chapter Text
5.
They move to an upbeat tempo. It’s one of those songs that are always in the background no matter how far you travel, impossible to name. Lights of every color dance across the faces of strangers. Even this girl — Phoebe, he remembers — is a stranger to him. Yet her smooth skin and heated embrace is all too familiar; it’s another night in another club in another city with another girl.
They met this morning; she gave him surfing lessons. He’s not sure how long they have. They move to this upbeat tempo, the crowded dance floor locking him into this time and place where anything is possible. Packed together with the night’s other wayward travelers, they’re joined by the connectivity of sound waves moving through and all around them, marching them along to its chosen beat.
While there remains a chance this is nothing more than a fleeting encounter, Evan can’t help but envision something that moves past this dance floor, through the club doors and into the morning, and to a breakfast of fresh fruits and eggs scrambled to perfection.
But he doesn’t stay there long; the music breaks into his fantasy and drops him back here to Phoebe in front of him. Her eyes are closed as she lets the crowd and the rhythm move her. Evan slips his arms around her waist. She laughs, and pulls him closer.
The music continues on.
Over Phoebe’s shoulder, a man in a jeweled vest pulls another man to him, arms circling his neck. The couple is close enough that Evan can make out the deep brown eyes of the man facing him when they lock on his. Evan smiles. The man smiles back.
The music continues on.
–
They stumble onto the sidewalk, echoes of their laughter already lost to the midnight air. By the time Phoebe’s tugging him along to an alleyway, Evan’s already forgotten the joke. She shoves him against a brick wall, pressing warm lips to his. Evan leans into the kiss. She tastes of the ocean they spent all day in.
Laughter from the sidewalk. Evan breaks away from Phoebe to see that it’s the couple from the dance floor. The jeweled vest man stops the other man and pulls him into a laughing kiss, and then they continue on their way.
Evan smiles, turning back to Phoebe. But the humor is gone from her face, and he can tell there’s been a vibe shift. Her eyes follow the jeweled vest man and his partner, and she scoffs.
“Why do they have to be so obvious?”
Evan frowns, pulling away.
“What do you mean?”
She waves in the direction of the disappearing couple. “Ya know, they don’t have to do that out in the open.”
“Um,” Evan says, eyeing their body positions and the fact that they are in an alleyway easily accessible to the general public.
Phoebe shakes her head. “Oh come on, we’re totally different.”
Evan sighs. He places a hand on her shoulder and gently pushes her off him. “I don’t think this is gonna work out.”
Phoebe rolls her eyes. “We were just going to have sex.”
“Yeah … I don’t want to have sex anyone who’s not an ally.”
“An ally? Do you know how ridiculous you sound?”
Evan pulls his phone out. “I’ll call you an Uber.”