Page 72 of The Waiting Game

Which brought up Jonah’s other concern about this crazy idea. The likelihood of getting his heart broken.

Except … that wasn’t something Jonah could argue with Felix about without confessing his feelings.

And what did it matter at this point? He’d been stupidly pining for Felix for years. Was pretending to be engaged to him really going to make it worse? Or would it be a chance for him to get the whole thing out of his system?

Felix stepped closer. “Do you remember that afternoon?”

“Which afternoon?” Jonah asked.

“The one when we made the pact.”

Jonah nodded.

“It was right here, in this garden shed. In our fort.”

“You’d just turned six,” Jonah whispered.

“And we promised to stick together forever,” Felix said, smiling.

“I was so scared you were going to grow up and get married and leave me,” Jonah said thickly.

Felix brushed his fingers against Jonah’s elbow. “Of course you were scared of that,” he said quietly. “You’d just lost your parents the year before.”

Jonah nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

“And I promised you that I’d never leave you.”

“Yeah,” he rasped. “And I got really upset and started crying.”

“You yelled at me,” Felix said. “You said, ‘Yes you will! You’ll get married and go away! Everyone goes away!’”

Jonah’s eyes watered just remembering it. “I hollered, ‘You’ll get OLD, like thirty, and GET MARRIED.’” Jonah laughed wetly. “At that age I remember thinking thirty was just … so ancient.”

Felix gave him a crooked smile. “Lately, it feels like you were right.”

Jonah managed a small smile back, wiping at his face. “Sometimes it does.”

“But what did I say to you then?” Felix asked.

“That we’d always be together,” Jonah whispered.

“And I said I’d marry you so we’d never be apart.”

At that age, they’d barely understood what marriage was. It was being together with your best friend forever, that was all they knew.

Jonah knew Grandpa Cho and Grandma Ji-min were best friends and they were married. So why wouldn’t he want that too?

But he hadn’t quite trusted that Felix wanted it as much. Hadn’t quite trusted that Felix would love him best.

Even then he’d been so smitten with Felix. So in awe of him. So convinced Felix was out of his league.

“We made a promise that day,” Felix said. “That we’d always be together. That we’d get married so we’d never have to be apart. We pinkie swore and everything.”

“But you’re straight,” Jonah protested.

Felix looked away. “Maybe not like … 100%.”

“What?” Jonah rasped. He had to be hallucinating that.

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