Page 108 of The Secret Of Us

But today is going to be great!

Noah

I hope so

What if she hates me for being gone for so long?

Josh

She definitely doesn’t

But you won’t know until you go in there

I tapthe notification at the top of my screen.

Ravi

Keep me updated

Go get your girl

I lock my phone and stare at the outside of the cafe where she works. The windows are slightly fogged up, so I can only make out the blurred outlines of the people in there. My heart is beating a thousand times a minute, and my fingers tighten around my phone as I try to collect myself.

No matter how many times I spoke to my therapist about this, it didn’t prepare me for what actually standing here would be like. But I know there’s no need to put it off any longer.

I’ve spent the past year working to unpack everything I felt since the incident that made me leave my old school and set off the chain of events that led me to being on those calls with my therapist every other week.

I can’t change anything about the past, and I can’t undo any of those actions, but I wouldn’t want to anyway. If I did, I wouldn’t be standing here right now, about to see the girl who feels like the part of me that’s been missing for over a year.

I put my phone into my pocket, shaking out my hands as I take a few deep breaths and start walking toward the cafe. When I enter, she’s the first thing that catches my eye, and my heart almost stops.

My Izzy.

She’s chatting with a coworker, laughing as she pours someone’s coffee into a mug before coming out from behind the counter. She carries it over to a table in the corner, smiling at the girl sitting there before asking her a question that has the girl tugging at Izzy’s arm to sit down with her.

She hasn’t noticed me yet, so I take the chance to sit at an empty table that gives me a perfect view of her. I take her in.

Her hair is still blonde, tied up with a few loose strands escaping that I want to tuck behind her ear. Her smile is the same one I’ve dreamed of for the past year and a half. I’m glad my memory served me well, but it doesn’t compare at all to the real thing.

Izzy is so beautiful that it physically hurts.

I feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest, the lump in my throat threatening to stop my breathing. I will myself to keep it together at least until I can get a single word out to her.

She’s so engrossed in conversation that I’m not expecting her to lift her head. I don’t have time to hide my face like I planned to do. I wanted more time to just watch her, to see how she’s doing. I still don’t know what I’m going to say to her.

There’s no more time to think about it, though, because she’s out of her seat, knocking the table in front of her as she moves it to the side. I barely have a chance to stand up before she’s barrelling into me, her arms around my neck as I fall back down.

I wrap my arms around her, hold her close to me as if I’m still trying to convince myself that she’s real. I breathe her in, dig my fingers into where I’m touching her.

She’s here. She’s real.

“You came back,” she sobs, her voice muffled from where her face is pressed into my neck.

“I promised you,” I tell her.

She pulls back, cradling my cheeks in her hands as her gaze tracks across my face. She touches my ears, my nose, my forehead, my jaw, my lips.

“You’re really here?” she whispers, her eyes wide and the hint of a smile on her lips.

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