Page 72 of From Now On

I drop my phone in my lap, then drop my head in my hands.Fuck. I feel like I’ve aged a few years too.

At least ten minutes pass before I stand. Clayton has texted, but I don’t check the messages. I toss my dented Jell-O in the trash, grab the chips, and head back inside.

I was outside for even longer than I realized, because the formerly crowded room is basically empty. College staff are clearing the last of the food away. A few clusters of students are standing around, but none of them are Eve.

“Hunter!”

I turn to see Clayton ambling this way. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I, uh…” I rake a hand through my hair, glancing around again. Still no sign of her. “I had a phone call. You didn’t meet a girl named Eve tonight, did you?”

“Nope,” Clayton answers cheerfully, oblivious to the way my stomach is sinking all over again. I guess tonight is going to be full of disappointments. “You met a chick already? Impressive, man. Hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”

He gives me a cheeky smile. I can’t muster a matching grin.

If Clayton thinks he ended up with some suave player as a roommate, he’ll figure out the truth soon enough. I wasn’t very smooth with Eve, but I enjoyed talking to her.

My very first night of college, and Sean couldn’t resist fucking it up.

“Come on, Hunter.” Clayton bumps his shoulder against mine. “Paul down the hall from us is having a little get-together. I told him we’d stop by. Maybe your mystery girl will be there.”

I nod. “Maybe.”

But with my luck tonight, probably not.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

HUNTER

Shadows recede across white plaster as the sun rises. I continue staring at the ceiling as the light spreads, same as I have for the past hour.

You probably don’t remember.

You probably don’t remember.

You probably don’t remember.

Those four words echo endlessly in my head.

I froze as soon as she said them.

Listening to them on a loop, I nearly start laughing out loud.

I lost track of how many times I thought about meeting Eve freshman year a long time ago. The next time I saw her—in the dining hall a couple of weeks later—she was holding hands with a guy wearing a Star Wars shirt, beaming at him like he’d hung the damn moon.

I found out, after Conor started dating Eve’s best friend, that his name was Ben. Harlow mentioned once that they met at a Freshman Week event—maybe the same one Eve and I did.

I didn’t thinkEveremembered talking tome. And I certainly wasn’t expecting her to bring it up last night. Does it meansomething that she did, or was she just reminiscing? Thinking back to the start of college since we were discussing its end?

Uncertainty is my least favorite feeling.

Do I pretend she never said anything? Let her continue thinking I don’t remember? Do I admit I would have asked her out if she’d still been there when I got back? Do I ask her out now?

She made out with one of the guys hitting on her in the bar. And it sounded like she left the bar because she was upset about her dad not coming to graduation, not her ex. But she’s been single for a week, and was with her ex foryears.

Bottom line: I never thought I’d have a second chance with her. I’m terrified of fucking it up somehow.

There’s also the tiny issue that we’re graduating in a couple of months. Eve is planning to move to New York. I got into Columbia, but the only reason I applied was because they have one of the top political science programs in the country and my advisor recommended I at least consider it. Not because it was a school I was seriously considering. But Icould. Could chase a girl I’ve never even kissed to the opposite side of the country.

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