Page 51 of Truly, Madly, Deeply

Wordlessly, Truly gathered up her things, tucking her laptop inside her bag even though she hadn’t so much as looked at it once in the four hours since Colin sat down. She had sprawled, pens strewn across the table, two dog-eared notebooks splayed open beside what remained of her third latte and trusty bottle of water she never left the house without.

It took her twice the time it took Colin to grab his belongings, but he waited, the bell chiming above the door as he held it open for her on the way out.

Had Justin ever held the door open for her?

Maybe? No? She couldn’t care less about doors and who held them open, but... it was emblematic of how Justin had never cared, how he’d always assumed Truly would be there, one step behind him, her hand on the small of his back.

“Is your car—”

“I live around the corner,” she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder in the approximate direction of her apartment. “I walked.”

“Ah.” Colin pressed a button on his keys and the headlights on the silver Honda Civic three spaces down flashed. “That’s me.”

“This was...” She searched for the right word. “Fun?”

Colin spun his key ring around his finger and laughed. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Well, now I’m rethinking my answer altogether.”

He grinned. “Bullshit.”

“Shut up,” she said without heat.

His teeth sank into his plush bottom lip and his gaze dropped to the pavement. After a moment he looked up at her through his stupidly long lashes. “What do you say about doing this again?”

She frowned. Doing what? “Running into each other at a coffee shop?”

He laughed, one tooth still snagged on his bottom lip, his smile charmingly lopsided. “I was hoping we might do it intentionally next time. I could even text you ahead of time.”

Her heart hurled itself against her chest. “You mean... like, a date?”

Saying the word out loud made her palms sweat.

Another laugh escaped his lips. “Yeah, Truly. Exactly like a date.”

“Why?” she blurted.

Colin smiled patiently. “Because I like you. Because I like spending time with you. Because I’d like to spend more time with you.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not now. Not like this. It was too soon. She wasn’t ready. “That’s not a good idea, Colin.”

His smile fell and even though she had to do it, even though the words had to be said, her throat ached with the near overwhelming urge to take the words back.

“Ah.” He scratched his jaw and looked away. “I—look, I know we’re not talking about it, and I know attraction doesn’t always equal interest, but... did I read this wrong?”

Colin pointed between them, like it wasn’t already clear what he was asking.

“No. You read it right,” she conceded with no small amount of reluctance.

His being right was worse because it meant she’d unfairly made him party to her confusion.

“Okay.” He dragged out the word, staring at her from beneath lowered brows, looking at her like she was a puzzle he intended to solve.

She crossed her arms and averted her gaze, pulse pounding painfully in her throat. “I just got out of a relationship and everything with my parents is so messed up that I’m not—I’m not in the right headspace for... that.”

“Those sound like excuses to me,” he said, not unkindly.

He sounded like Lulu. “If I didn’t want to go out with you, I’d have no problem telling you that. Trust me.”

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