Page 38 of The Perfect Love

I almost snort at that. “I thought I did.” I grab a bag of cheddar and sour cream chips—the best flavor ever—and meticulously tug the seam apart as I talk. “I was there on a partial volleyball scholarship and spent a lot of time with my teammates, but I’ve since learned they were party friends, not real friends. I’m beginning to think that’s all Syracuse was for me. One big—”

“Syracuse?”

It’s not until I hear the word leave his mouth that I realize I told him where I used to go.

“Oh, uh, yeah. That’s where I went before this.” I stuff a chip into my mouth, savoring the flavor like it’ll somehow calm the ache building in my gut at the direction of this conversation.

“That’s where I went too.” Disbelief drips from his words.

I drop the chip I’m holding and my mouth falls open. “Se—seriously?”

He nods slowly. “Yeah.”

We stare at each other, confusion swirling around us. And tension.

Because his family camped at my family’s campground for years.

And now… we went to the same college before this. For almost a year and a half, we were on the same campus every day and didn’t even know it. How many times did we pass each other without ever realizing?

“Do you think we ever saw each other? Were ever in a class together? Knew any of the same people?” I ask.

He sucks in a breath, then slowly blows it out again. “Maybe. I mean, in terms of passing by or seeing each other, statistically I think we must have, but…”

“What?”

“If I’d seen you, we wouldn’t be here right now because you’d already be mine. There’s no way I would’ve let my dream girl walk past without doing something about it.”

“Dream girl, huh?”

He shrugs and smiles. “Something like that.”

That adorable smile grows as he reaches for a package of Dunkaroos.

“Well, as much as that inflates my ego, there’s no way we didn’t pass by each other, even if it was when we weren’t paying attention and never noticed. Which is just… crazy.” How do we have these built-in connections? How did we only find each other now?

I wish we would’ve found each other sooner. Maybe if we had met before, I wouldn’t have—no. I’m not going to think like that. Those kinds of what-ifs will only hurt me in the long run.

“Maybe it means we were always meant to find each other, and we weren’t paying close enough attention before,” he says. And the calm certainty of his words almost makes me believe them too.

“Think we had a missed connection without either of us knowing it?”

He shrugs and dips one of the tiny cookies into the frosting before popping it into his mouth. “Possibly. I wasn’t as social my sophomore year because I was more… focused, I guess. But freshman year, I was all about parties. Usually with my roommate or… friends.”

He stumbles over the word friends. Maybe he means hookups? I guess that’s not first date talk, but I already know about his ex. And I didn’t know him then. It doesn’t affect my life. But since he let me get away with lying to him, the least I can do is let that stumble slide.

“Well, we ended up here, anyway. Guess the universe is working hard to put us together.”

He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth. “Or maybe we missed all the signs.”

“Maybe.” I grab one of his Dunkaroos and swirl it through the frosting.

He looks at me hesitantly, like he’s not sure if he should say whatever he’s thinking, but after a moment, he asks, “Why did you leave Syracuse?”

Panic claws at my chest for a moment, but I push it away. I refuse to let those types of feelings take over this date. This is an opening for a serious conversation, but I don’t want to go there. Not yet. I’m not—I need to get to know him better. Especially knowing he has a connection to that place now. But also, I’m enjoying myself, and I want to keep today upbeat. I deserve to not be weighed down by emotion on my first date with a sweet, adorable, sexy, and genuinely kind guy.

“Can we just go withit didn’t work outand leave it at that?”

He breathes out a sigh. “Only if you’re okay with that being my answer too.”

---