I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my face, a smile that had only grown bigger and brighter since the day I met Violet. It was the kind of smile that seemed to take on a life of its own, impossible to suppress. Every moment I spent with her, every laugh, every shared look, had only deepened that smile as I fell completely, irrevocably in love with her.
Tonight felt special, different. It was the first time since the summer party that Violet didn’t have to rush home by a certain hour. Tonight, she didn’t have to keep one eye on the clock. Richard—whom I’d learned was Rose’s father—was picking her up and wouldn’t bring her back until the next day. That meant I had Violet to myself for an entire evening.
Not that I expected anything to happen—or that I would push for something to ha
