I’d never been so honest with anyone in my life.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay what?”
“Let’s go to your place.”
Understand what happened to me right then.What he’d said knocked the wind out of me.
“Like, now?”I said, and I started to panic.
“Finish your bagel first.”
I hadn’t touched my bagel.I’d been too distracted.
“You’re not gonna change your mind in the next five minutes are you?”
“No.Maybe in the next ten.”He smiled with half of his mouth.
Was he kidding?Was heflirtingwith me?
I picked up the bagel and crammed the whole thing into my mouth.There was a lot of it.It was the biggest bagel I’d ever eaten, and the cream cheese made it sticky, and it clogged my mouth, and I started gagging, so I drank my milk, but there was so much bagel it wouldn’t go down.Then I was out of milk, and he handed me the rest of his hot chocolate, and I drank it, and I was chewing for what felt like ten minutes, which was how long he said he was willing to wait.I finally swallowed the last of it and slammed the cup on the table like I’d won a drinking game.
“Wow.I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Let’s go,” he said.
Chapter Five: Reality Check
So, in less than anhour, I’d gone from thinking I’d never see him again to bringing him home.And we were gonna...
Back when I believed there was no chance this would happen, I used to wonder what it might be like to do...stuff with him.Not sex, exactly, but physical stuff that would feel nice.But now it was actually going to happen, I felt...Freaked out was an understatement.I realized that the faster I walked, the sooner I’d get to my apartment, and I was really not ready for that.Also, I was way ahead of him because I was speed walking while he was walking normally, totally chill.Because he’d been with a guy before.
I made myself slow down till I was walking beside him.Not too close, because I was afraid to touch him.
“Bloor Collegiate, orange, and ‘Welcome Home’ by Liberty O’Connolly,” he said.
