Page 42 of Not in My Book

Slowly, he started walking again, and I trailed behind. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. I was trying to worm my way into the small opening he gave me, but he said all of this like it was just a story. As if he was speaking about a character he’d created instead of himself.

“She stayed with him for far too long. At first she thought she won the lottery with him, but”—he shrugged—“turns out my dad’s a piece of shit. Those first years where it was just the two of us were rough. Along the way, I think once she accepted not everyone gets their happy ending, everything changed. She fell in love with herself instead.”

“Aiden, I’m—”

“Tell me why you like romance,” he interrupted. I knew he was desperate to get out of this conversation. He finally looked down at me, and his eyebrows creased down the middle.

I gnawed on my lip. “I don’t know. I just do.”

“Oh please, as if you don’t have some elaborate answer already worked out.” He knocked his elbow against mine.

It was my turn to be vulnerable with him, but I found that I didn’t really mind. I kind ofwantedto share my life with him.

“My mom was the one who taught me how to read. She was always so patient with me. She’d point out words on billboards or cereal boxes, anything really to help me. Then she started taking me to the library every day, and we’d sit and read forever in the kids’ nook.”

My heart warmed at the memory of my mom’s soft voice in my ear as we read in our town’s small library.

“She reads a lot of romance novels. She moved here, to the US, for college, so she spent a lot of time in airports, going back and forth for the holidays. She loved the Harlequins and had a collection of them back home. She eventually caught me reading her stack when I waswaytoo young to be reading them.”

Aiden hummed, his cheekbones rising just slightly in amusement.

“She took a Sharpie and blacked out …thosescenes, but soon enough I was buying my own at the bookstore.”

A wave of homesickness washed over me. I loved being here and having what felt like the whole world in front of me in just a few blocks, but some days I would give just about anything to be back home on the front porch with my family.

“Even though I was probably too young, she still let me read them because she didn’t want me to miss out on one of her favorite things.”

“And so you love romance because …” His voice was like honey, enveloping me despite the cold. It was low and smooth in comparison to his sharpness in class.

“I guess it’s because no two love stories are alike. I mean, sure, most of them get their happy ending. But no one meets the same way and falls in love the same way. Sometimes you know just after an hour with a person. Or it can span decades. The only thing every love story really has in common is that it’s worth it. Love isalwaysworth fighting for. I mean, that’s why there’s all the songs and poems and movies about it. It has to be something spectacular if everyone’s chasing it.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?” There wasn’t any malice in his voice, just pure curiosity.

I nodded. “I don’t think Happily Ever After is an ‘if’ thing. I think it’s ‘when.’ ”

“If I was as bad as you thought, I’d be killing puppies behind dumpsters.” I paused. “You’re not as bad as I thought either.”

—Excerpt fromUntitledby Rosie Maxwell and Aiden Huntington

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ida smiled as I walked into her office. “I’m eager to hear all about these dates,” she said.

It was snowing outside, the snowflakes covering my hair and dampening my jacket. I pulled off my gloves one by one and shrugged.

“There’s not much to tell.”

She shot me a disbelieving look, but didn’t push. “Do you have a lot to work with for the chapter at least?”

“Can we talk about literally anything else?” I groaned. “I feel like all I do nowadays is talk about Aiden. If I keep this up, I’ll come into class next time with a peacoat, black coffee, and a Murakami novel tucked under my arm.”

She laughed. “I thought you two were getting along better?”

“Weare. But … I don’t know.” It was getting confusing. I was more attracted to Aiden now than when I’d had my brief crush after the reading because now Iknewhim. I found myselfwantingto spend time with him; I was still mad at him for how he had acted all semester, but not mad enough to want to destroy him like before. “It’s complicated.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “How are you two on the deadline for midterms at the end of the month? Are you on track?”

“I think so. We have a little way to go now that the romance is picking up. I want Max and Hunter to at leastkissbefore the halfway point.”

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