Page 50 of Wish You Would

He was right, I’d decided. This thing with Gigi? If it was supposed to be more, I’d know it. If it was supposed to be more, she would have stayed. It was a blip. A glitch.

I couldn’t miss out on the potential of something with Halle over a glitch.

So here I was, forty minutes before our date, shoving every second thought and anxiety as far down as they would go as I pulled on the dress Simon had chosen.

I brushed my hands over the cute black number with a subtle white print that, upon closer inspection, revealed itself to be cats. Lots of cats. I looked cute. Pretty, even. But I also looked terrified.

Blowing out a lungful of pent-up oxygen, I turned away from my reflection. This was good, I told myself as I crossed the room. This was what I wanted.

But the excitement I thought I’d feel right before my first date with Halle was nowhere to be found. Instead, all I could think about was the woman who’d helped me get here.

“I should cancel,” I mused aloud, earning a slow-blink stare from Wilbur as he sat on my bed. “I should—”

My words were cut off by the jangle of my phone from somewhere on the bed. Rifling through the blankets and pillows, I located it and slid it unlocked to find a message from Gigi.

Have a good time tonight, the text read. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Another came in as I finished reading: Or, I guess, anything I WOULD do.

I stared at the winky-face emoji at the end of her message, a million thoughts swirling through my mind, circling around one single realization:

She didn’t feel anything for me.

Simon was wrong when he said she was into me. If that were true, why would she still want me to go out with Halle, after last night? Why else would she run—literally run—away after I kissed her?

Why had she kissed me back?

Tossing my phone back onto my bed, I searched for my shoes. I didn’t have time to analyze the why’s of Gigi. I had a date with someone who actually wanted to spend time with me.

Who knew? Maybe this date would be everything I’d ever hoped for and I wouldn’t even remember the taste of Gigi’s kiss by the end of the night.

My heart lurched and my steps faltered as I headed for the door.

Or…maybe not.

21

21 GIGI

CAN'T STOP THIS THING WE STARTED

“All right, you have any other questions before I get outta here?” I fished my keys from my bag and threw it over my shoulder. Leaning an elbow on the bar, I added, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Dante glanced up from the till he was counting. “I got this,” he said with a grin that matched his words exactly. “Go on, get.”

It was Dante’s first solo shift closing the bar and I felt like a mama bird pushing her baby from the nest. Would he fly or plummet to the ground? “Okay.” I backed slowly toward the exit. “You su—”

“Dammit, woman, stop asking if I’m sure.” He pinned me with his dark eyes, face stern. “You trained me. And you’re a damn good teacher. I. Got. This.”

My heart ballooned at his compliment, even as his words brought on a memory better left buried. Not that it’d been buried. No, it sat at the forefront of my mind, torturing me, taunting me. I barely slept last night, haunted with whispers of You’re a good teacher, and flashes of Parker’s lips on mine.

God, her lips.

Fire blazed in my belly as my mind replayed that kiss. Again.

She’d been so soft, so sweet, like I knew she would be. But the brazenness, I hadn’t expected. The way she crushed her mouth to mine, pushed her fingers into my hair, kissed me back. The—

“Damn, girl. Where’d you go?”

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