Page 110 of The Perfect Mistake

Her smile glows. “You, sitting here next to me. I know how much you love watching Gilmore Girls with me.”

I cross the distance to her. The couch is soft beneath me, but she’s softer still, leaning against my side. “This damn show,” I murmur.

“I thought I’d lost my mind when you first asked about it.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. Here was Connie’s sullen brother, asking me about my favorite dramedy.”

“Dramedy?”

“Drama and comedy put together. Tell me,” she says, her hand on my knee, “when you used to join me here in the evenings, with your laptop…”

I raise an eyebrow. “Was I only looking to spend time with you?”

“Yeah. Were you?”

“Well, let’s just put it this way,” I say. “I don’t find the fictional town’s antics that interesting.”

She giggles and shifts closer, and I wrap my arm around her. It feels so right to hold her like this. To have her pressed against my side and feel her chest expanding with every breath. I want to keep her tucked here forever.

She watches her show, and I can’t help but think thoughts I shouldn’t. The what-ifs. The whens. Her future, and where it might lead her.

I kiss her temple. “I saw your face today.”

“You did?”

“Mm-hmm. When you watched the street dancers, during our walk home.”

She smiles a little. “Yeah. It just looked like they were having so much fun. It reminded me… well, of myself years ago. I haven’t danced like that since I was a teenager. Ballet isn’t really about freedom of expression. It’s rigorous, and disciplined, and those street dancers were the exact opposite.”

“You could do that,” I say.

She chuckles, and I tighten my grip around her waist. Something about today makes me think I won’t be able to touch her this freely forever.

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t know where to start,” she says. “It’s a thought, though.”

I pull her legs over mine and settle back against the couch. My thumb strokes small circles over her outer thigh. On the screen, two young women look like they’re fighting, one blonde and one brunette. I didn’t catch about what.

We’re almost at the end of the episode when Isabel speaks again. “Alec…”

“Yes?”

“There’s something on your mind.”

I look down at her, at her kind brown eyes filled with questions. They’re the color of chocolate. “Tell me,” she murmurs.

I look back at my hand on her legging-clad thigh. “You want kids in the distant future,” I say.

She’s quiet for a moment, but then she nods. “Yeah, I think I do.”

I keep circling my thumb, watching the movement. “I’ve been thinking about the man who can give that to you. The good man you mentioned before.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve been thinking about him, and hating his guts,” I say bitterly. Her eyes widen, but I can’t seem to stop. “That’s not the right thing to say, but it’s the truth. That’s who I’ve been thinking about. How you’ll look at him, the way you’d… fuck. How you’ll tell him all your fantasies as you’ve told me, and how he’ll get all of you, your present and your future. How you’ll bear his kids and be a wonderful mother, and this will be nothing but a memory to you. And how it’ll be his bed you sleep in every night.”

“Alec,” she whispers.

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