Page 77 of The Hookup Situation
“Actually, red is my favorite color,” she tells me.
I twirl a piece of her hair around my finger. “Mine too.”
“Our locations are a problem. You’d have to be willing to move because it’s a hard no for me,” she says. “Oh, and I don’t know if I can actually fall in love again.”
“Are you trying?” I ask.
Her eyes meet my lips. “Yes.”
“Will you let me know?”
“I’ll tell you on Halloween,” she says. “Right now, I’m happy and having an incredible time. I’m taking it one day at a time. And eventually, the future version of us will have to decide what happens.”
“Cheers to that.” The lingering stress about the future immediately melts away.
“Let’s make the days count. Be unforgettable,” she says with a soft smile.
“You’re so fucking special,” I mutter, wondering how I got so damn lucky.
Had I not gotten into an argument with Asher about attending my mother’s engagement party, I wouldn’t have been at the bar. I would never have met her. It was a combination of events I could’ve never predicted that kept bringing us together. And this is the third time.
“Third time’s a charm,” I say as we finish our food.
“Blaire said something to me along those lines. Oh no.” Julie gasps. “She did a love spell.”
Now I’m laughing until it echoes off the trees. I pour more champagne into both of our glasses. There is another bottle in the cooler.
“And? You think I’m obsessed with you because your friend lit a candle?”
She playfully rolls her eyes. “Yes! What if all this ends at the next full moon?”
I pretend to pull an invisible string, and she crawls over to me.
“You summoned me. Now what?” she asks.
“Oh, my string was connected to you?” I ask. “If I had known that, I would’ve tugged harder.”
She smiles, offering a soft kiss. “You make life fun.”
“I think it’s you. I like the things you say when you want to fill the silence.”
“I like how you appreciate it. Some don’t.”
I steal a kiss, and then Julie returns to sitting beside me.
The breeze slows down, and I add more wood to the fire as the sky darkens. Julie points out constellations, making up silly stories for each one.
“That one,” she says, pointing, “is the constellation of the coffee goddess. She was cursed to live a life where no man ever found her bean.”
“A terrible fate,” I say, unable to hold back my laughter, pulling her closer.
“The worst.” She turns in my arms. “What did you think the first time we met? Like, your first impression?”
“Oh, that’s easy. I thought you smelled like flowers. Then, when I turned my head and saw you crying, I thought you were a Dallas Cowboys fan too.”
She bursts into laughter. “I forgot they lost that night.”
I stare up at the sky, my eyes scanning over the stars. “You werelike a goddess, and I couldn’t understand who would make you cry. Broke my heart.”
