I had no messages, no texts. No voice mails.
Nothing.
Had I imagined the whole thing? Had last night even happened?
Maybe he’d changed his mind.
I didn’t know, but I intended to find out.
I focused on one of the tenets of Mel’s advice about boys, which was that girls could totally make the first move. I’d definitely made the first with that kiss on his porch step the night of the dinner. It was true that being too forward had resulted in the most miserable five weeks of my life, but it also had resulted in the previous night.
I pulled up Luke’s name on my phone.
In the end, all I could think to say washey.
About ten minutes passed before my phone vibrated with his response.
Hey.
It offered exactly zero clues about what he was thinking, whether he’d spent the night regretting coming to see me.
About last night ...I texted, letting it hang in the air.
I saw the three dots indicating that he was replying. Then they disappeared.
Then reappeared again.
I wroteare you having regrets, but didn’t send it when I saw that his three dots had disappeared again.
Ugh. He was the most aggravating person in the world to text with.
I deleted my text and wrote:you go first.
I’d had enough embarrassment to last me a lifetime. There was no way I was professing anything until he did first.
No, you,he wrote, and I wanted to throw my phone.
Before I could, though, another text popped up from him.
But if you’re going to do that thing where you take it back before I have a chance to tell you that I can’t stop thinking about you, then I’m not going to take it well.
My heart stopped.
You can’t stop thinking about me?I wrote back.
A couple of minutes passed.
Only for the past three years.
I had to reread the text four times before I allowed myself to believe what it said.
???????I texted back.
What?He said.
Three years?? I didn’t kiss you three years ago.
I know you didn’t,he wrote back.
