Page 128 of Texting Dr. Stalker

My mouth fell open. “You sound pretty sure of yourself that I would’ve said yes.”

“Would you?” He pinned me to the spot, his eyebrows drawing together. “If I asked you now…would you say yes?”

“I—” Licking my lips, I struggled to speak like a normal person. My courage failed me; I fired a question back instead. “Are you saying youstillwant to ask me out?”

He scoffed as if I’d said something stupid. “You weren’t the only one hearing our grandparents planning our future, you know. Back then, I wanted them to stop their silly games, but now…now I wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“If they saw something between us that we were too young to see ourselves.”

Once again, he stole all my words.

“Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “At least I finally know why you barely said hi to me from that day forward. I responded by actively staying out of your way. I figured you despised me and if I’m honest…it kinda hurt not knowing why.”

I flinched as I fell back through time.

After that day, Zander hadn’t been at Nana’s so often. For a couple of visits—when I came on my own as my parents couldn’t be bothered—I’d waited to catch sight of him, only to be disappointed. Nana told me he was a diligent student and working very hard to manifest his dreams.

I’d been happy for him but also…lonely.

Tucking away decades’ worth of yearning, I forced myself to joke. “It all makes sense now.”

“What does?”

“Those excuses your gran gave—that you were busy studying and couldn’t have dinner with us or you were at the library cramming…that was you avoiding me.”

“Some of them were, yeah.” Crossing his arms, his frown turned into a genuine smile. Not reserved. Not polite. A full-blown happy smile that made my heart shiver off its layer of dust and flutter again. “But mostly, I was doing you the favour of avoiding my terrible company.”

“Ever a gentleman, even then.” I returned his smile, stiffening as Milton’s slurs echoed.

“See? You were a slut even at fourteen. He knew it. Everyone knew it.”

His face fell. “I’m the opposite of that word. Especially at the moment.”

Not liking the dark look in his eyes, I dug my fingernails into my palms and ignored the phantom pain from Milton’s fists telling me to get away from him. I even managed to take a step closer. I needed to take away the sudden sadness on his handsome face. For some strange reason, I felt responsible. As if his sudden discomfort was my fault. “Know what I think?”

His gorgeous eyes met mine, his glasses catching the sun. He searched me as if he’d lost something infinitely precious and still couldn’t find it. Sucking in a heavy inhale, he breathed, “What do you think?”

“I think Melody and Mary are entirely to blame for our many misunderstandings, and it’s up to us to set the record straight.”

“T-The record?”

My chest squeezed at his minor stutter. At his obvious wariness and curse of shyness. His cheeks tinged pink, which gave me just enough confidence not to be afraid anymore. Not to be afraid ofhim.

Holding out my hand, I embraced enough courage to smile and wait for him to shake. “Hi, I’m Sailor Melody Rose. I prefer flowers over people most days. I don’t like apricots or working for someone. I could technically be called lazy because I learned from the best that life happens in the moments where we do nothing. I’ve recently adopted a cat who has become my entire world, and my house is haunted by the very same woman who tried to set us up as kids. I also suffered from a mistake that cost me a lot of physical and emotional pain, and because I recently made a vow of honesty with someone, I’m going to be honest with you and say I’m sick of living in the past and want to step into the future. So…”

Reaching for his wrist, I brought his hand up and threaded my fingers with his. Shaking our combined grip, I smiled at the dazed look on his face. “Can we start again? No more misunderstandings. No more secrets. No more avoiding each other. Friends?”

He choked and cleared his throat. “You made a vow of honesty?”

“I did, and it’s been surprisingly healing.”

“Who did you make the vow with?” His tone thickened just a little.

A prickle darted down my spine.

Was he jealous?

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