Page 119 of Where Roads Lead

I ran a hand over my face, wishing that I could rewind the last ten minutes of my life and have a do-over.

“I don’t have standards,” I muttered as I crossed the café. “Idiot.”

Theo passed me by, coffeepot in his hands as he headed right for the corner I’d just come from.

I turned with a sense of dread, realizing at once what was happening. Because in my pathetic attempt at asking her out, I’d forgotten the easiest route to Elsie’s heart.

Caffeine.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Elsie

You should put yourself out there.

Clearly, Will was trying to give me a hint, and luckily for him, I was smart enough to decode what it was, even with his uncharacteristically awkward way of delivering the message.

But I was a writer. I could understand context clues. Which is how I realized he’d been trying to let me know he was not interested in me and I should find someone who was.

I guess he didn’t even need to kiss me to figure out he wasn’t into me. The mere notion of almost doing it was plenty for Will Hughes!

I hadn’t thought my pride could be anymore shattered after Andrew’s rejection, but somehow here we were.

And worse, it had left an ache that I hadn’t been anticipating, because, being on theme with the perfect tragedy of my life, I’d realized I’d liked him at almost the same moment he realized he definitely didn’t like me.

Ironic, really.

With Andrew’s rejection, there’d been almost a sense of…relief? It might’ve come way after the fact, but still, it had been there.

It had been the notion of: Thank God I wasn’t bound for life to a man who never really learned to tolerate me at all.

But now? With Will? It just felt like pain.

Still, I wasn’t about to let him see that. I should’ve known all along it was a longshot. We were too different. I talked a mile a minute, and he was the type of guy who probably wished he had noise cancelling headphones to tune it out.

He had always sought me out and tried to help me, but now that I knew the backstory with his brother, it was hard to pin that down as anything other than an (unwarranted) guilty conscience.

So, proving to him that he didn’t need to worry about me having some type of stalker-crush on him, I agreed to go to the Fall Fest with Theo that very night.

And not just as a hangout this time. But a date. A fact that Theo himself went out of his way to specify.

Which is how I ended up standing in my closet, examining every article of clothing I owned, trying to figure out which one best said: I’m ready to love again.

Not that I was even sure I liked Theo enough to be picking out a special outfit, but I figured that the first date after a broken engagement warranted something to signify the event.

I flicked through my chunky Nordic sweaters, my striped sweaters, some sweatshirts—God, I had way too many sweaters—and landed on a short denim dress that might pull off the fall vibe I was going for.

I could pair it with a long sleeve white mock neck underneath. A cute pair of boots. I could do my makeup for the first time since getting here. Do something different with my mane of hair besides the braid or bun I usually tried to tame it into.

And who knows, maybe I could like Theo. Maybe, like Will said, I hadn’t put myself out there enough to find out. I’m sure it was no coincidence his friend asked me out the very day Will had given me that friendly advice.

They probably plotted it all out together. Will was probably Theo’s wingman. Or maybe Theo was taking pity on his friend who probably had shaken him by the collar crying, “Get this crazy girl away from me!”

Well, not to worry, Will. Message received.

I got ready for my first ‘first’ date in years and put all thoughts of Will Hughes out of mind.

Theo drove a sports car.