Page 94 of Love Me Like It's Real
“What do you think it means, Hayworth? Why do you think I’m laughing? I’ve been beating myself up that I have feelings for a guy who has sworn off love and can never return my feelings and here you are angry as all hell because you don’t think I love you back. We’re pathetic.”
I open my mouth but whatever I was about to say just flies out of my mind and I shut up again.
“Let me get things straight. I went to the Tag event because I was fed up feeling like this for you and you’ve been ignoring me so I thought I should go out and get over you.”
Get over me?
He wants to get over me?
“The guy you saw me with was a stranger who tagged me and tried to kiss me—by force—I might add, and who’s now suffering from groin pain. I followed you because I know what you’ve been through and I couldn’t let you think I was like them. Like the guys who broke your heart.”
He takes slow, barely noticeable steps toward me but I can’t move. I can’t look away. I can’t breathe.
“The truth is, I’ve been lying to you.” My stomach clenches and I wait for the kind of words that can make me or undo me entirely. “I told you I hate love when the truth is…Ilovelove. I design romance covers for a living and I read romance books before bed every night. Hell, I’m even writing romance because I love…love. And I fucked up because I fell in love with you.”
Forget breathing, even my heart has stopped beating as he gets so close I can smell his perfume, I can almost taste his lips.
“Can you…” I croak. “Can you repeat that please?”
He puts a hand to my chest and my throat tightens.
“I love you, Hayworth,” he enunciates and with his free hand pulls a pink heart off his blouse and sticks it onto the hazmat suit. “Tag, you’re it,” he whispers.
Suddenly, I get control over my own body again and grab him by the back of the neck and pull his mouth into mine. He’s never tasted sweeter. Our kiss gives me goose bumps. Goose bumps that make my hairs stand on end and a wave of heat travel down my body.
He presses himself to me and cups my face with both hands in the most tender but intoxicating kiss we’ve ever exchanged.
“So?” he asks when he pulls back.
“I’m falling in love with you too, Felix. Please…please don’t hurt me like the others.”
He smiles and shakes his head. “And you promise not to turn into a transphobic dick.”
“Never!” I say quickly and loudly.
“Good,” he says.
“Good.”
“Great,” he adds.
“Great.”
He slides his hand down my neck to my chest, looks into my eyes and smirks.
“So…you…love me and I…love you,” he says.
“Seems like it.” I nod.
How…how did this happen when only moments ago it felt like my whole world was ending?
This…
This has got to be a dream.
But if it is, I don’t want to wake up.
“This is going to do wonders for your little club.” He chuckles and it becomes infectious because I chuckle too.
