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Calm the fuck down.
But I can’t.
Because this is Jade, the girl I’ve been helplessly falling in love with for the last year. The girl that changed me in ways I never thought possible—the girl who made me want to do better. Be better.
“I was half tempted to text you to see if you’d brush me off,” I say in way of greeting as she stops by my table.
Since the weather is nicer, Cup It Up put the tables out on the terrace, but most people preferred to sit inside, so we were alone out here.
“Have you been watching me?”
“Maybe a little bit,” I shrug. I promised not to seek her out. I didn’t say anything about not watching when she’s around. God, I missed her. I miss her something fiercely. “So?”
“So what?”
“Would you brush me off if I texted you?”
“I—”
Just then, the familiar buzzing sound comes from her pocket. She presses her lips in a tight line.
I raise my brows. Case in point. “Somebody obviously wants to talk to you.”
“And I’m talking to you.”
What she’s doing is avoiding. The question is, what exactly?
“So if I texted you, you wouldn’t have ignored me?”
She blinks, those eyes of hers seeming bluer somehow today. “I could never ignore you.”
And that was always the problem with the two of us. No matter how far away we were, that pull between us was always present. Somehow, someway, we always found our way back to each other, even if it destroyed us in the process.
“How have you been?” I ask, drinking her in.
Jade looks down, her fingers tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Once again, she has that long dark brown wig close to what her natural hair used to be, only with the front two strands white. It looks good on her.
Shelooks good.
Healthier.
“I’ve been good. Trying to get back to work. Photography is my happy place, but I’ve been pushing it back because I haven’t been feeling well. It feels good to be back.” She shifts her weight from one foot to the other. “What about you? Studying here?”
“I should be.” I rub the back of my neck, my gaze falling down to the envelope sitting in front of me. “I’m just pushing off the inevitable at this point.”
“I know something about that.”
My head snaps up, and I don’t miss the distant look in her eyes—the flash of fear. My throat tightens, fingers curling to stop myself from physically reaching out to her.
“I got my MCAT results, but I’m too scared to open them. Hell, I even asked Spencer to do it for me, but the asshole printed the results out and gave them to me sealed in an envelope.” I tilt my chin at her. “What about you?”
“I…” She glances over her shoulder. She’s ready to bolt. Not yet. I’m not yet ready to lose this.
“C’mon, doll,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice light, teasing. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
It works because a small smile flashes on her lips before she schools her expression, and that familiar glare—the one from the beginning—is back in place. “That’s so lame. What are you? Five?”
“Maybe,” I shrug. “But it worked, didn’t it?”
