Leo

I had already suspected it. But after asking Josephine, I know for a fact. She doesn't own a car.

Which is totally normal in a big city like Miami. People mostly use taxis or Uber or Lyft or whatever other company there might be or if it's within walking distance, they use their feet and legs. Or public transportation if it comes to that.

After picking her up, I barely make it to her side to open the door when she comes jogging. She looks really excited about what she has planned for us.

She gives me an address and after driving for a little, we're finally here at our destination.

I park and kill the engine, looking up at the big sign above the entrance doors.

"Rollerskating?" I ask, glancing at her flushed cheeks and bright smile.

She wiggles in her seat. "Yup. I wanted to start with a bang and do something super fun." She fumbles with her seatbelt and I exit the car to go to the passenger side and help her.

Walking through the slim entryway, I lightly rest my hand on her lower back to push her before me. I've never wanted to be hugged by another person like how I want Josephine to hug me.

Because most people in my family are my height or even taller, I want to see how hugging someone shorter than me by a good chunk would be like.

I bet she gives the best hugs.

It's a few minutes past twelve, and they open at twelve. Josephine said we need to come in early to avoid many people on the rink.

When we get inside, the lighting is dim, with tons of flashlights of different colors. There are neon signs of pop art everywhere and the music is loud and hip. Overall, the place gives off a happy vibe.

We get our skates and sit on a bench to lace them up.

Josephine is done under a minute, but I struggle to get the laces to get as tight as possible. But I eventually do it.

Josephine chuckles, and she stands up, doing a quick twirl in front of me. She does it so effortlessly, like a pro. She stands in front of me, her stomach in line with my eyesight. I look up at her and see her beaming. She's probably loving the fact that she's taller than me for once and is looking down at me.

"Want me to give you a few pointers?" She asks.

"Please."

"So all you have to do is stand with your knees bent." She turns sideways to show me how much I should bend. "Then just switch your weight to either legs and that's how you go forward."

"Sounds easy." Maybe in theory, but I'm sure when I stand up, it's going to be hard.

"Let's get it on then." She claps and skates backwards a few steps to give me space to stand up. When I do, I immediately try to grab onto something as my feet move uncontrollably.

The first thing I can get a hold of are her shoulders.

She bursts out laughing at me, holding onto my arms so I don't fall on my butt.

"Make a V shape with you feet. To act like brakes."

I do exactly that, and when I feel steady enough on my feet, I let go of her. She gives me her hand to help me get on the actual rink.

My big palm engulfs her dainty one. Her fingers almost disappeared under mine.

She easily gets in the rink and skates backwards when she removes her hand from mine, keeping her eyes on me.

The second I put my feet on the slippery rink, I run in place, looking like a crazy person.

I quickly grab onto the boards, my eyes wide and cheeks probably pink because that was embarrassing as fuck.

She cackles to the point of tears leaking from her eyes.

"No one saw that, right?" I glance around, but other than us, there's only a couple on the other side that's mostly busy taking selfies.

"Oh my god!" She wheezes, her arms on her knees, trying to breathe.

"I thought it was easy." I defend, still gripping the boards. This is truly insulting to me. Me, a sniper who doesn't have a problem shooting a kill shot and can work most firearms people don't dare to look at, can't fucking roller skate.

Josephine nears me, still chuckling, and grabs my elbow. "Okay, just stand straight, then bend your knees."

I do as I'm told and my feet still wobble from the wheels on my shoes.

"Try to tighten your core to help with your balance." She teaches me the basics of skating, pointing things out and giving tips. When I feel like I can finally move, she grabs onto my hands and together we slowly start moving.

She goes backwards—how on earth is she doing that?—and I tentatively move forward.

"Yes, keep going!" She cheers, smiling at me. "Just move to the rhythm of the music."

The song playing is a nineties something song. Very upbeat and hip. With every beat, I switch my weight to the other leg.

"You're doing it!" She claps, still going backwards.

I notice we're almost at the board. So I tell her that. She glances behind her shoulder then rotates and continues skating, facing forward and along the boards.

"Josephine!" I shout because how the fuck am I supposed to stop?

"Just skate along the boards in a circle."

"How?"

"Your right leg." She shouts back.

"What?"

"Put pressure on it."

Glancing to the side, I see her approach me.

I put pressure on my right leg like she told me to so I can move along the circle of the rink.

Apparently, I put too much pressure on my leg because I just fall and land on my hip.

"Oh, shoot." She gets on her knees next to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yup." Just a bruised ego is all.

"Did you break your hip?"

I think she's serious, asking the right questions—being a nurse and all—but when I look at her, she's biting down on her lower lip and trying not to laugh.

"No. I didn't break my hip." I pull on a strand of her hair. It's loose today, her long bangs framing her beautiful face.

I'm not sure how I manage to stand up again, but with Josephine's help I eventually do.

"Do you need one of those helping chairs?" She asks jokingly, but I know she means it.

"No," I chuckle. "I'll stay by the boards."

We skate in a circle for a few laps. With me holding onto the boards and her doing all sorts of tricks to show off.

After a while, she skates to me and I feel her snatching my phone from my back pocket before skating away with a giggle.

"Come on. Get away from the railing now." She points my phone at me, filming.

"Give me my phone back." I say in a stern voice, but I'm smiling and still holding onto the railing.

"Come and get it." She lifts an eyebrow.

"If this video ends up in some YouTube video ranking the top ten idiotic people, I'll know it was you." I threaten, half joking.

"At least you'll be at the number one spot." She sticks her tongue out.

I take the plunge and slowly skate away from the fences.

"Come to the center now." She beckons me with her fingers. She keeps filming me as I near her in the middle of the rink.

My eyes stay on her as I come closer. We're lucky there aren't a lot of people. Only a handful have arrived since we've been here. I take her in; her grin, the way her cheeks have a permanent red hue to them from skating, her dark green dress that's tight on her breasts but flares from her waist to her mid thighs.

I've gotten a bit more confident, so I go faster. When she sees me advancing, she giggles and skates away from me while still trying to film me.

"I have longer legs, so I'm faster." I taunt, going even faster. After glancing behind her shoulder, she confirms I'm getting closer. She stops filming, keeping my phone in her hand as we race.

I could go even faster if I want, but with her in front of me, her dress lifting a little from the wind and showing me more thigh skin, is too good to pass on.

But shit. It's wrong for me to be looking at her legs like that.

I snap my eyes up just as she twirls around, doing a spin.

"Nice." I clap, impressed. I slow down, and she does too, now skating at a leisure speed.

"I used to come here every week when I was little."

"With your friends?"

"Yes, also my mom and her friends." She laughs. "They loved to come here and one time, my mama took me with her and I fell in love. Then I accompanied her every time she came. Then I started coming on my own."

I don't laugh at her last sentence. I spend a lot of time with guys whose minds have a permanent residency in the gutter. So every sentence with the word 'come' makes me think of another type of coming. The kind that makes my spine tingle and balls tighten—

"But I haven't been in so long, though." Her soft voice pulls me out of my perverted thoughts.

"I'm glad you picked this activity." I say. "It's actually fun."

"Right?" She skates forward, lifting one leg slightly up to skate on her right leg only.

She's so carefree and cheery and energetic. It's a breath of fresh air being surrounded by her.

It's like she doesn't have anything on her mind as she skates onwards, doing all kinds of tricks that amaze me.

I wish I could be like her. Maybe if I spend enough time with her, I will.

"Let's take a picture." She grabs my elbow as she holds up my phone, the front camera pointing at us. "To capture your first time roller skating."

She takes a few selfies. "A silly one now."

She sticks her tongue out and I do the same because I'm not sure what's considered a 'silly one'.

"Here." She hands me back my phone and I pocket it. "I love taking pictures if you haven't noticed."

"Most of the time I forget to take pictures." I confess. "But my brother's girlfriend is all about selfies and stuff like that, so she's always forcing me into the frame."

"Good of her." She chuckles. "Let's spin."

"What?"

"Give me your hands."

I rest my palms on hers as we face each other.

"Now we slowly turn." She moves to the left side and I have no choice but to follow her lead and move to the right. We slowly spin in a circle. "Fun right?"

I laugh. "Yeah."

"Faster!" She exclaims and goes faster, taking me with her.

With each twist, we go quicker. She throws her head back and laughs in delight. It's infectious, so I laugh as well.

"I'm getting dizzy." She says, still shrieking.

"Slow down." I move my feet into a V position to slow us down, but what it does is stop my movements all together at once.

Josephine's hands are still clutched in mine and the sudden halt of my skates makes her chest bump into mine. The wheels on my skeets roll and it makes me fly backwards. Instinct has me clutching Josephine's waist with my arm to keep her from falling.

With her tucked into my body and my wheels rolling on their own, I fall and take her with me. We land on my back with her on my chest.

We both make an 'oof' sound at the contact with the floor.

"Shoot." She mutters. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, are you?"

"I'm sorry. This is my fault." She apologizes.

"No, it's mine." I rest a protective palm on the back of her head.

She raises her head, peering at me through her eyelashes. Her eyes dance across my features as do mine.

The lights aren't very bright, but I can still see the few faint freckles she has on her nose. Her eyes appear darker in the low lighting. I lower my gaze to her mouth, her teeth sunk in her lower lip.

I never thought something so simple as biting her lower lip would be so sexy.

She seems to catch herself ogling me—not that I mind—and she shakes her head and lifts herself up on her arms.

When she tries to stand, her skates prevent her and she lands back on my chest, her hands now on my chest.

"Sorry," she lets out an awkward giggle. "Let me just..." she straightens on her knees, each one next to my hips. She's basically straddling me without actually putting any of her weight on me and I'm just laying on my back on the floor.

She lifts her right knee and pulls it next to her left knee. Now she's on all fours and struggling to stand up.

Me, on the other hand, I somehow stand up on the first try while she's still struggling to get up.

"Need any help?" I ask, one corner of my mouth lifting in a smug smile.

She sits on her knees and looks at me. "How the tables have turned, right?" She jokes.

"Here." She takes my offered hand and with my feet in a V form, I use my arms' strength to pull her to her feet. But I don't end up using much muscles as she doesn't weigh a lot.

She dusts off her dress, then tilts her head to look at me.

"Race you!" She yells, then takes off skating.

Laughing, I skate after