Page 6 of Another Story

We pull away and after I open my eyes, I wish I hadn’t.

The storm is in his. I can see it, even as the last of the dazzling lights fade.

And he looks like he has no intention of leaving me unscathed.

CHAPTER THREE

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY

ELOISE

“Why’d you kiss me?”

The question’s been building inside me, each step we take back toward the bookstore stacking need upon need to know the answer.

“You looked like you needed someone to see you.”

Those words must make some semblance of sense to him. But I’m still as lost I was when I asked.

“See me. Not kiss me,” I correct him.

“I’m quickly learning that to do one and not the other is…unnatural.”

I chuckle and he stops short, his hand over his heart.

“Is this what you do to my truths?” he asks me.

“Your truths sound a lot like bullshit.”

We continue walking and Ezra has this way of stepping silently beside me that makes me feel like he may be the most significant person I’ve ever met.

But this isn’t a romance novel.

Love doesn’t start this way in real life.

“Tell me something unattractive about you,” he requests.

The laughter I release into the air speaks for me.

“What? I need a buffer right now,” he says.

Am I beautiful to him? Does that make him as nervous as his strong presence makes me?

“Fine.” I comb through thoughts and memories, willing anything to form into something worth sharing. “I might be the stubbornest person in existence. My sisters used to dare me to do the silliest things. And Ihadto do them.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because,” I start, my eyes wide.

“I refuse to think you followed through with dares because you were afraid of what they’d think.”

He reads me dangerously well, and it makes me rub my hands over my bare arms.

“Cold?” he asks.

There’s no way I could be with the air so warm. I shake my head and stare at the sky with a sigh.

“I hate to feel fear. I think it’s such an inefficient emotion.” My arms now swing at my side. The abridged version of my theory is met with silence.

---