After Midnight

Dahlia stood in the bedroom doorway, her feet seemingly stuck to the floor. He was there, right there, but she Just. Couldn’t. Move.

After all of the other New Year’s partygoers had fallen asleep on couches and floors, she snuck upstairs with the intention of crawling into Adam’s bed with him, but now that she was actually here, her confidence had mysteriously left her. She was panicked. What if he woke up and was like, “What are you doing here?” or worse, “I really don’t think you should be here.”

The thought of such a humiliating rejection broke her feet free, and she spun around -

“Dahlia?”

“Shit.” she whispered to herself and slowly turned back towards him.

There was a sliver of moonlight coming in from the space between the window frame and the shade, so she could dimly see Adam (and his bare chest, hello) sitting up in his bed.

“Um, there wasn’t any room left on any of the couches,“ she very obviously lied, “and I, um, couldn’t get comfortable on the floor,” this was such a crock of shit that a tiny smile played on her lips, “so I, uh, came up here to see if, um, there was someplace that I could crash.” That last word was actually a question, as if she were asking him to go along with her story rather than expecting him to believe her.

He smiled that smile. The mischievous one. The one that told her that he knew exactly why she was there and that she definitely was not going to be asked to leave.

“You could always sleep in Kev’s room? He’s away for the weekend,” Adam said with an arched eyebrow and a chuckle, following Dahlia’s lead.

“Oh. Yeah. Well, Zo’s in there. She claimed it earlier because she’s got to get up at six and get on the road.”

“Well then, wherever shall you sleep?” He teased as he slid across his bed, stood up and walked towards her. Dahlia took two steps into the room and placed her hands on Adam’s chest (hello again) when he reached her.

“I guess I was hoping that I could sleep here.” she said, searching his eyes for a reaction. He held her gaze, smiled and said, “Apparently you’ve got nowhere else to go anyway....but why were you leaving? When I woke up? You were turning around to go.”

“I was having second thoughts.” she said, but when his face showed concern, she clarified “No, no, no. Not about wanting to come in. About whether you would want me to come in. I mean, that kiss at midnight? I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was closest to you?” she stammered on, reddening, “Because although that might have been why it happened, I didn’t expect that it would feel the way that it did? Or that I would feel the way I did? And I wasn’t sure if you felt that too? I mean, we’ve been friends for so long, and then...” her voice trailed off and she rested her forehead on his chest (HELLO). He placed his finger under her chin, lifted her head up, looked her in the eyes with his earnest brown ones and said, “It was always you.”

Dahlia stopped. And then grinned. “Wait. What?”

“Well,” Adam explained, “we’ve been in this friend group for years, and you dated Scott for so long. Since we became such good friends, I didn’t think it would have made sense for me to tell you how I felt. But tonight feels different.”

“Yes,” she grinned again, “tonight does feel different.”

Adam leaned down towards her, and she slid her hands up around the back of his neck, gently lacing her fingers at the back of his head. He lovingly cupped her face and kissed her gently on the lips. Pulling away, he looked Dahlia in the eyes, smiled and said, “Happy New Year.”

Dahlia smiled too, her heart bursting, “Happy New Everything,” she replied, and she felt something almost physically click into place within her.

As she looked into Adam’s eyes, like really looked into them for the very first time, she could see that they were actually green with flecks of brown and gold, and she tried to explain what she was feeling, “It’s kind of like, I don’t know, like finally seeing the last piece of a puzzle…like I looked under the couch, in between all of the cushions, on the floor and under all of the chairs and tables - I mean, I searched absolutely everywhere for this frikkin puzzle piece - and then when I went back to the puzzle, there it was. Right on the table. It was right there the whole damn time. But I didn’t even see it. How is that even possible? How could I not have seen it?”

“I don’t know,” Adam replied with a shrug and a small smile, “maybe you just overlooked it until you were subconsciously ready to find it.”

Dahlia impulsively gave him a quick kiss and then pulled away to look Adam in the eyes again. “You were always the nicest, most respectful and genuine guy in the group. I always knew you’d be such a great partner for someone someday, and I couldn’t ever figure out why you were still single. All I knew was that every New Year’s, you’d resolve to find the girl of your dreams.”

“Nooo” Adam said with a laugh. “If you were really paying attention, you would have known that it was a very specific resolution - it was never to find the girl of my dreams. My resolution was always to start a relationship with the girl of my dreams. See? I already knew way back then that it was you. It was just a matter of whether we would actually get a chance.”