Page 23 of Somewhere Between Falling

“I doubt it,” he said, confidently.

“You can’t know that for sure,” I argued. “Maybe we sat by each other a dozen times before.”

“I’m a thousand percent sure we didn’t.”

“It’s possible,” I insisted, obstinately.

“I assure you, there’s no way we were ever here at the same time before that day,” he said, as his whiskey-eyes locked onto my own with a smoldering intensity. “I would have remembered.”

My pulse quickened as everything else seemed to slow down around us, and I knew he was right.

There was no way we were both here at the same time before that day. The pull that I felt toward him, I felt immediately, that very first day. I just didn’t want to admit that out loud.

“You know, it was quite out of character for me to go with you that day. Stranger danger and all. I even told myself that it very well could be the last mistake I ever made,” I told him, nudging his shoulder with mine.

“I’m glad you did,” he said without equivocation.

“Me too,” I agreed, wholeheartedly. Me too.

Chapter Thirteen

My whole body was achy the next morning. I didn’t remember sledding being so painful, but maybe it was and I just blocked those memories out.I wasn’t quite ready to get out of bed yet, so I decided to browse on my phone and check my email. Alex had sent me at least twenty random memes—she must have been bored last night—and there was an email from my mom. I hesitated for a minute, nervous about what I was about to read, but when I opened it, I sighed in relief.

Tamsin-

Will it conflict with the LSAT? You know how important that is. What about the internship?

“Well, that’s not a no,” I mumbled under my breath. I typed up a quick response.

Mom,

It’s only 4 weeks. I would be back in time to take the LSAT. And I could still do the internship after I return. Traveling abroad is something I really want to do. Plus I get school credit for it and it’ll probably look really good on my applications for law school, don’t you think?

I heard a knock at my door, so reluctantly I got out of bed, but I kept my comforter wrapped around my shoulders as I answered the door. Each step hurt from my feet to my shoulders, so I was moving pretty slowly this morning. Maybe a hot shower would help loosen up my achy muscles.

When I finally opened the door, there was a man in brown coveralls holding a clipboard in one hand and a rather large silver bag was on the ground next to him.

“Special delivery for Tamsin Seger,” the delivery guy read off the clipboard.

“That’s me,” I said, wondering who would possibly be sending me anything. My grandma used to send me monthly care packages, but she passed away the summer before my sophomore year. Those packages were always delivered to the dorm office, never directly to my dorm room.

“Just sign here,” he said, handing me the clipboard. I passed it back to him after signing my name. He took it back and then handed me a brown box he had pulled from this bag. It wasn’t heavy, but it was freezing cold which took me by surprise. “Have a nice day.”

“Thanks, you too,” I mumbled while examining the box. There wasn’t a return address or anything on it, so I guessed I had to open it up to figure out who sent it to me.

I found a pair of scissors in my desk drawer and cut the tape on the edges of the box, revealing its contents. A pint of Spumoni ice cream and a note that read:

You weren’t joking. This stuff is nearly impossible to find! Hope you have a great day.

Your friend, T.C.

I couldn’t believe that he was able to find my favorite ice cream. Why did he have to be so thoughtful? And smart…and kind…and funny and…ugh, perfect.It made my conviction to just be friends that much harder to stand by. In fact, if I was being honest with myself, I was falling for him hard, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The one thing I knew for certain was: it might be freezing outside, but it’s never too cold for ice cream.

I folded up the note and slipped it inside of my copy of Little Women for safe keeping just as Alex was walking through the door.

“What are you doing today?” she asked as she towel-dried her hair.

I started to tell her I had no plans, but then a thought occurred to me. “Want to do some shopping?”

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