Sarah sat in the little blue chair idly coloring with a broken crayon. Her thoughts drifting back and forth, but mostly to the her date last night.

“Miss Sarah, can you please pass the blue crayon?”

She rummaged through the bucket and handed Lilly the first one she could find, and returned to her line tracing. There was a light tap on the door, and Lilly jumped up from her chair.

“Mr. Darren, Mr. Darren!”

“Hi there Lil, is Miss Sarah around?”

“Yes! She’s right here! She’s coloring a wonderful picture of a butterfly,” she beamed and beckoned him closer. “I think she’s in love!”

“You do?” he smiled.

“Yes! She’s coloring better than she ever has, and she keeps humming to herself. My mom hums all the time, she says she does it because she’s so in love with Daddy!” she said and began giggling.

“Well, we’ll just have to see about that,” Darren said making his way between the tiny tables and preschoolers assembling puzzles on the floor. He pulled up a chair next to Sarah and leaned in.

She looked up. “What are you doing here? Have your first graders ran out of glue again?” she laughed. “You need to start watching to see who’s eating it,” she gave him a wink.

Darren smiled and loudly whispered over his shoulder to Lilly, “She’s not humming anymore. What was the other clue?”

Lilly pointed her chubby little finger at the desk. “Coloring!” she mouthed.

“Oh yes, yes,” Darren said. He leaned down towards the worksheet.

“What is going on?” Sarah laughed.

“Well, word on the street is, is that you’re in love.”

Sarah felt her face grow warm. “Oh really?” she said eyeing Lilly who stood beside him.

“Yes, the key, or so I’ve learned, is that one will hum and color better than ever before,” he said matter-of-fact.

“And what do you think?” she asked.

“I think you’re a lovely colorer.” he said looking into her eyes. Sarah’s face grew more red. He turned to Lilly. “Why don‘t you run over and find a book for Miss Sarah to read for story time.” Lilly smiled brightly, and darted towards the shelves that housed their collection.

He turned back to face Sarah. “But really,” he said loud enough for only her to hear. “I was sitting in my room, not three doors down from here thinking about our date last night, feeling like I might explode. I had to come and check to see if I was the only one suffering in silence.”

Sarah’s breath caught in her throat.

“Ahh,” he whispered. “I knew it wasn’t just me.” he smiled.

Thanks everyone for reading! For more information on freewrites please visit @mariannewest!

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