Free Together We Heal by Chelsea M. Cameron

hair had been sprayed and styled as well, even though it looked like it hadn’t.
    All in all, seeing the look on Max’s face made the entire ordeal worth it. I would remember that look for the rest of my life. I’d looked in the mirror and actually felt beautiful. Worthy. Having him stare at me like I was both of those things only reinforced that.
    “Now since you refused to give me any input, if you hate where we’re going, you’re not allowed to complain,” he said as we drove away from campus.
    I was kind of digging the fact that the date was a surprise. I normally wasn’t a fan of them, but tonight I was excited. I liked doing new things with him. He made me feel safe, and that wasn’t a feeling I had very often.
    “So I’m wondering,” he said, turning the heat up. The dress didn’t really do much to keep me warm and my jacket wasn’t really helping.
    “Wondering what?”
    “Wondering what you’re wearing under that dress.” He turned and looked at me and the fire in his eyes scorched me from the ends of my hair to the tips of my toes shoved into the pumps.
    Well, shit.
    Now I was pretty and turned on.
    I crossed my legs and almost wished that he was going to take us to a hotel. Or maybe back to his room.
    But then the fear snuck out of the back of my mind and stomped on that idea.
    I hadn’t answered him.
    “Maybe you’ll get to see,” I said before I could stop myself. He breathed out loudly.
    “Fuck, I hope you mean that.”
     

     
    I’D THOUGHT OUR date would take place, you know, within at least a half-hour of school. But no. We kept driving.
    “Where in the hell are we going?” I looked at the signs on the highway, but they gave no indication of where we were going. Just away. Well, south, technically. Toward the rest of the state and the rest of the United States. If we’d gone north, we would have been headed to Canada. Not that I would have objected, but I didn’t have a passport and you needed one if the Mounties were going to let you in.
    “We are going on a date. That’s where we’re going.”
    “Well, I hope we’re going somewhere with food soon.” I’d been nervous, so I hadn’t eaten much today, and I hadn’t wanted to mess up either my dress or my makeup just before the date.
    “Don’t worry, don’t worry. Food is on the agenda.”
    Good.
    “If you look in the glovebox, you’ll find something else.” I opened it and found his phone with a little sticky note on it, telling me to plug it into the speakers and go to a certain playlist named Trish & Max’s First Date Tunes. It was super cheesy, but that was what made it so great.
    “You made me a mix tape?” I asked.
    “The modern version of it, yeah. I thought about doing a cassette tape, but that would have taken a lot more time to do than just to make a playlist.”
    I pretended to be mad at him.
    “So you’re saying that I’m not worth making a mix tape for?”
    “Baby, you are worth making a thousand mix tapes for.” I made a face.
    “What?”
    “Don’t call me baby. Ever again.”
    “Noted,” he said as the first song started to play. “Anything Could Happen” by Ellie Goulding.
    “Is this a hint?” I asked over the music.
    “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll just have to wait and see.” I sighed and pushed my seat back so I was more comfortable, kicked my shoes off and put my feet on the dash.
     

     
    AN HOUR LATER we stopped at a restaurant. It was shaped like a ship in the front, complete with mermaid arching off the prow. The front of the boat was called the prow, right? I didn’t really know the correct boat terms.
    “We came an hour for seafood?” I asked. One thing about living in Maine was that you could throw a rock and hit a seafood restaurant that had lobster so fresh, it was in the ocean last night and on your plate the next afternoon.
    “We came an hour for Maine’s Biggest Lobster Roll.” I was intrigued, so I took Max’s arm as we walked together through the front door. He