Page 31 of To Love Jason Thorn

“Fine,” I snapped as I swung my legs downand pushed at her shoulder. “Get out of my way.”

She clapped her hands. “That’s the spirit Iwas looking for!”

In twenty minutes, I was all readyto go out, but neither Lucy nor Char were ready.

“I’m about to go out and celebrate on myown,” I yelled, standing by the front door.

“I’m coming!” Lucy yelled at the samemoment Char opened her door and slipped out of her room.

“You have a class, too, Char?” I asked,noticing the big bundle of books she was carrying.

“Unfortunately, yes. Then I have anotherstudy session with the girls.”

“You sure are working hard lately. Is thereanything I can help with?” Char was a shy and sweet blonde who was an Englishmajor like me, but unlike me, she had no interest in creative writing.

“That’s nice of you to ask with everythingyou’ve got going on. I might take you up on that offer when finals are gettingcloser.”

“Of course. Actually, it would help me alot, too.” As much as I hated giving in to Marcus’ words, I didn’t want him tobe right about what he said, especially when I was so close to graduatingearly.

“Your book is still doing amazing on therankings!” A jumping and screaming Lucy came barreling toward me.

“Here we go again,” Char muttered with asmile in her voice as I braced myself for impact.

Two seconds later, Lucy’s arms were aroundmy neck and we were jumping up and down, celebrating her excitement over mybook for the…thousandth time? If it wasn’t already the thousandth, we were surelygetting pretty close.

The truth was I was staying away from checkingreviews and rankings and all that stuff because I was scared shitless that allof it would tumble down on me at any moment. Lucy was like a bloodhound anyway;she had refreshed those pages almost every hour, on the hour ever since the bookhad gone up on Amazon two months before. My fear was also the reason I wastrying to lock down my excitement about the possibility of seeing Isaac andEvie on the big screen. Once Dream Catch Studios provided me with thecontract—if they were serious about it—and I signed it…then I would either sitdown and cry for a few days—happy tears, of course—or I would pull a Lucy andgo crazy all over the town—naturally, with her by my side.

“Still in the top hundred?” I asked, theslight tinge of hope in my voice more than clear.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder.“Try top five, woman. You’re still killing it.”

I’d stayed as the number one bestsellingbook on more than a few platforms for almost six weeks, and I was still in thetop five after two months? I gave in to the urge and completed another jumpingsession with Lucy, not noticing Marcus leaning against the doorframe andwatching us.

Then we were out of there to celebrate withlattes and croissants.

It was well worth every damn calorie thatwent straight to our hips.

***

It was almost four o’clock when Jason’sname flashed on the screen of my phone. I was alone, sitting in our livingroom, staring blankly at an empty word document, trying to figure out whichdirection my mind and heart wanted to lead me this time around. Needless tosay, neither of them was speaking to me at that moment.

Urging my heart to stop fluttering aroundlike a wild bird in my chest, I took a deep breath and answered the call—at thesame time wondering if it was weird of me to get so worked up over a simplephone call.

“Hi.”

“Hey, little one. I’m not interruptinganything, am I?”

“Nope. How can I help you?” I asked beforetipping my water bottle against my lips to wet my suddenly parched throat.

“So formal.” He clucked, and I could almostsee him shaking his head as a small smile stretched across his face. “Soonenough, I’ll win you over. You already loved me once; I’ll make it happenagain.”

Sputtering water all over the cheap Ikeacoffee table that was stationed in front of the couch, I coughed until I couldspeak without gulping breaths.

“What?” I wheezed out when what I wanted tosay was, Oh, Jason, I’m still head over heels for you, maybe even more so.

“What’s going on, Olive? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” I replied in a rough whisper.“Just water down the wrong pipe. I’m fine.”

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