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With that, she pulled away.
When I opened my eyes, she was blinking furiously, trying to hold back tears, and it was like a punch to the gut.
“Oh, well. Okay. We don’t have to…” She shook her head and a manic-looking fake-smile overtook her face, but her glassy eyes gave her away. “Ya know what? Let’s not talk about this right now. I’m here to help, I’m just down the stairs if you ever need anything. I have a bit more experience in being a little girl than you do, ya know?” She turned quickly so I couldn’t see her face and I knew I handled it completely wrong. I hated seeing her leave looking so hurt, and I hated that she was trying to hide her feelings from me.
“Josie…” I caught her wrist and tugged her back, “Wait, just one last-”
She didn’t even let me finish my sentence before launching into my arms and pressing into the tear-soaked kiss.
The only problem?
I thought watching her walk away would be the heartbreaking part.
I was wrong.
It was the difference in our kiss that hurt the most. It was the added desperation that told me it was a kiss goodbye.
32. Josie
His tongue slid into my mouth, and one hand reached up into my hair to hold me in place while the other ran down my butt, pulling me up and into him like he owned me. Caged in his arms, it felt like he never wanted to let me go, and I honestly never wanted to leave.
The hungry kiss would’ve probably lasted longer, would’ve probably turned into something more, but the elevator dinged behind us, alerting us we weren’t alone anymore.
He kept his fiery eyes on me, but there was hesitation there in the little crease between his eyebrows. He didn’t know what to say or do, and neither did I. My ego couldn’t take him turning down another offer to wait for him.
So, without another word, I lifted to my tip toes and pressed another quick kiss to his scruffy jaw before turning away.
And all the words I should’ve said to him in the hallway found me that night.
He was the one who said,And I’ll be here waiting for you when you finally realize we’re perfect for each other.
And that was the truth: Wewereperfect for each other.
The two of us were just on the flip side of the coin now.
I’d be the one waiting now.
And if I had to be the romantic one for the both of us, so be it. He had no choice in the matter. He was the one who told me to screw realism, after all. Now he had to deal with the consequences, because I couldn’t turn back. There’s no way I’d be settling for mind-numbing conversation and passionless kisses. Not after experiencing his knee-weakening, hungry make-outs, and his solid hands wanting to always be touching me. It’d be one thing if he pushed me away because he didn’t want me, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
As I tossed and turned, I couldn’t help but remember other things he’d said in the hallway before our first kiss…The other shoe eventually drops oneverything, Josie.
Maybe shoes did always drop, but in this instance, it was a tiny, child-size shoe shaking things up a bit, and it’s not like it was causing a huge life-threatening earthquake. But I knew with a weird quiet confidence that I’d stay with him through even a 9 on the Richter scale as well.
33. Tyler
I watched Stevie beside me on a barstool shoveling spoonfuls of Lucky Charms in her mouth while tracing the game on the back of the cereal box with her tiny finger. Chunks of her wispy light brown hair were now falling out of her practically sideways ponytail. I kinda hoped she knew how to fix that because there’s no way I knew how to do it…
She cut off my thoughts by reaching her little fist in the cereal box and pulling out a handful of the cereal to dump in her bowl.
I grinned amusedly and took the box to pour myself some more as well. “You like Lucky Charms?”
Looking down at her bowl, it was pretty obvious she was leaving a lot of the bland cereal in the bowl and only going for bites loaded with marshmallows.
She pursed her little lips. “Not as much as Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That’s the best. Ooh, and Captain Crunch,” she added with wide eyes.
I smirked. “Noted. We’ll have to pick some up.”
“Cool. What are we gonna do today?” she asked, swinging her short legs back and forth under the kitchen island.
