“Is that too much to ask for?” she says while I’m busy arranging her words in my skull, trying to find the margin of error in this request.
“No.” I free a tight breath. “I’m just processing what it can mean.”
She giggles, retrieving another piece of cheese and popping it in her mouth. “Careful calculation isn’t a bad trait to have. I hope you pair it with devious schemes.”
Cutting my fingers through my blond wig, I wonder exactly the level ofdeviousnessI’m capable of and hope only that my limits might rest just a smidge beyond hers.
Chapter 11
?
I suppose it makes sense for it to be hot in here. It is summer, after all.
August
Me:So? What do you think? Is there a chance this guy is actually in love with me?
December:Of course. I also fell in love at first sight, so it makes perfect sense to me.
Figures December isn’t at all a sane point of contact, but it was either talk to her…or my brother…so. Here I am. Chitchatting with the most hopelessly romantic person I have ever met—when it involves storybook characters or other people.
Never when it involves herself.
But that’s something else entirely, and to tackle it tonight would mean asking her how she feels about my brother and possibly suggesting that he likes her, based on little more than an offhanded comment from someone who’s barely met any of us.
One thing at a time.
Me:Isn’t love meant to be a little bit deeper than a moment?
December:Love is a choice. If he’s telling the truth, it doesn’t really matter if he fell in love with you because he’s attracted to you so long as all his actions prove he’s choosing to align with loving you, doesn’t it?
There’s a point, for sure. It’s not exactly an incorrect one, either.
It’s just…
I don’t know.
It’s hard to trust in something that hits like a lightning strike. I’m more a fan of the days, and the weeks, and the months it might take to forge a solid foundation. There’s a reason my books center around slow burns so often. I’m very invested in the process of someone proving that they’re going tostaythrough anything because they worked so hard for so long.
Me:Okay. So let’s say he did fall in love with me at first sight. How do I know he’ll keep choosing to?
December:You’re making it sound like you’d like him to.
Me:He’s very pretty, and…so far…he has potential.
That is to say, he’sactuallyplaying along with me and my nonsense. He’s sleeping in a casket. He’s making notes on his character sheet. He’s taking my insanity seriously. And he’s…looking at me. Like I’meverythingto him.
Every single time I catch his eye, he’s entranced.
What girl wouldn’t be at least a little curious about what might come of this?
He’s not boring yet.
So I want to know more.
I want to know what secrets he was referring to.
Even if he seems like the kind of person who would make up secrets for me, just so my attention-deficit mind might have something to chase.
