Page 126 of Overtime
“Rodriguez, you are so dead—” Ryan starts.
“Are these good tears? Bad tears?” Mom asks, the excitement melting away from her face.
“Listen, punk?—”
Meg interrupts her husband. “We are lawyers. If you hurt her, we bankrupt you.”
I laugh again, then sob. “Stop, everyone. Just stop.”
Aran unfreezes himself. His hands hover in the air, as if he wants to reach for me, but he pulls them back. The only sign that he’s nervous is that he swallows hard. But he says nothing as I regard him. Everything was in this box in my hands.
But why now? After I’ve worked so hard to get over him? After he only wanted to be friends? Wasn’t he only a no-strings kind of guy? And what if his coach suspends him again? Will he like me if I keep becoming an obstacle in his life?
My heart wants to leap to his hand, but my brain sayshold back. My stomach is a cocktail of emotions that makes me want to puke.
Slowly, I return the note to the box and close it delicately. Without looking up at him, I ask, “Can you give me some time to think about it?”
Aran murmurs, “As long as you need, Strawberry.”
“Straw—huh?” Justin asks behind me.
After a quiet pause, I hear shuffling and see Aran turn around. He leaves with my unsigned book still tucked under his arm. And the fact that the clerk doesn’t stop him means he walked in with the book. Which means he preordered it. He dressed up, wrote this note, and bought these delicate treats to… to…
To confess his feelings for me.
Aran “the Iceberg” Rodriguez has feelings for me.
Ryan crouches beside me. “Maddie, what do you want us to do? Should we tackle him to the ground so you can kick him while he’s down, or do you want us to hold him down so you eat his face?”
“Is that what kids nowadays are calling it?” Mom asks.
I push to my feet, square up my shoulders, and say, “No, I got this.”
Except, when I burst out of the indie bookstore, Aran is nowhere to be seen. I meander around the streets downtown,but there’s no sign of him. It’s like he decided to give me time and space by running as far away as possible.
But I know where Aran runs to. And so I ditch my book launch and go chase my own romance.
CHAPTER 37
ARAN
Isigh as I yank at the knot in my tie. Soon, it’s wide enough that I can toss it on top of my blazer, which is strewn in the back of my SUV. I don’t have a lot of patience for the shirt’s buttons, so I pull the whole thing over my head and toss it on the pile. I work through the rest of my clothes and shoes until I’m down to my underwear. A swim will clear my head.
Time. She needs time. That’s not a no, even though it’s not the yes I hoped for.
My sisters are blowing up my phone. I don’t want to have to explain this to them. I’m actually annoyed as shit that they now know for sure I’m not a robot. Their teasing before this was so much more bearable.
I work out my muscles as if this is a swimming meet. This. is the sport my parents signed me up for back when I was a kid, hoping I preferred a less dangerous sport. But I’m starting to think I have the same issue as Luz—I like to live life on the edge of disaster. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have lied to Coach or to myself or to Strawberry. I’d have figured everything out earlier.
But I’ll give her all the time she wants. And in a way, Coach is going to get his end of the bargain too. I can’t possibly date anyone else now. Maybe now he’ll be freaking happy.
I emerge from the water with a great gasp once my lungs start to burn from the hard swim. I clear the water from my face with my hand, and I’m about to tumble onto my back to float for a bit when a voice stops me.
“Aran Rodriguez! Did you break the speed limit to get here so fast?”
My hand drops, and there she is. Madeline “Strawberry” Berkley in the flesh.
Her chest rises and falls with rapid breathing, which is really bad for my health because her dress shows off her cleavage nicely. And it hugs her curves perfectly. And her hair tumbles over her shoulder. And her cheeks are a shade lighter than her lips, and I want to kiss them.
