Page 49 of Reply All
Will’s smile is soft, his words firm. “You’re perfect, though. Passionate about work and life and your hobbies and your cat.” I grin at his mention of Ginger. “Who is already halfway in love with me, by the way.”Like me.Pretty sure I’m already halfway in love with you.
I laugh as I hide my pain, basking in his complements.
“How do you do that, Bridge? How do you keep going when things seem impossible?” His expression shifts to something more serious. His tone taking a turn.
I don’t like it.
“I told you. Always look on the bright side. The silver lining. Or things can get really dark, really fast.”
This makes Will laugh. “Your silver lining.”
“Yes, indeed,” I say with a grin, taking advantage of this brief, light moment to pull my hand from his. Any longer, and I’d grow even more attached to how comfortable, how natural, it all feels.
Will looks down at his now empty hands, though, and I don’t miss the way he fists them a couple of times before slipping them into his coat pocket.
“Anyway, of course there are many silver linings. I know I’m blessed. Just…”
“It’s a lot of stress,” I say, keeping my voice as soft as possible. Because it’s okay for Will to be upset or unhappy even if he has other things going for him.
“Yeah. And it’s particularly frustrating because the gym is normally my way of de-stressing, but it just isn’t working lately.” Will sighs and runs a hand through his fingers.
I wince. “Gross. I don’t know how you gym people enjoy the pain of working out.”
He laughs again, relaxing even more. “Hey, I need the endorphins. I don’t understand why peopledon’tlike getting a natural high.” I give him a look and he smiles. “What do you do to relax then?” He takes a big bite of his bagel, grinning around it.
I snort. “Nah-uh. I’m not telling you. It’s embarrassing.” My cheeks flush red, the heat of my skin contrasting against the cold gusts of air around us.
“What? How is it embarrassing? Unless it’s something super nerdy like Star Trek model painting or something, I don’t see how it can be bad.”
“That’s not my hobby, but I don’t think that one is embarrassing! Trekkies are people, too.”
He laughs and shakes his head before taking a final bite of his bagel. Something about my answer pleases him.“You’re right. They are. Sorry. But if it’s not model painting, what is it?”
I sigh and wrap the remaining half of my bagel in the wax paper it came in, dump it in my purse for later. “It’s ridiculous. But… I watch cookie decorating videos.” I press my lips together, trying not to laugh. “Hours and hours of cookie decorating videos on socials.That’swhat I do to unwind.”
He frowns. “Like… baking and sprinkles and shit?”
“Notsprinkles. I mean, yes, sometimes they use sprinkles. But I mean like the super professional ones. With the special icing? Royal icing, it’s called. Something about the lines and the flooding make it so satisfying to watch. How they get the most incredible details right. That and cake decorating also helps. The way the bakers will smooth the buttercream over a cake with such ease relaxes me. Also, the insane way they can make ruffles with an icing pipe. I’m really into vintage style cakes lately.”
Will sputters a laugh, turning in his seat. He leans an arm on the backrest of the bench to look me square in the eye. “Cookie and cake decorating? That’s the best way to get you to relax?” I nod proudly. “You ever thought about doing it yourself instead of watching videos?”
“Godno. Mastering that looks like it wouldaddstress to my life, not relax me. No thanks. I don’t want to know how the sausage is made.”
His grin is beautiful and sweet, and even though he’s laughing I know it’s not because he thinks it’s dumb.
“You know, it’s funny,” he says. “Sometimes, I’ll think that after speaking to you so often I already know everything about you. Like, even though it’s only been just under two months since we’ve met, it feels like we’ve known each other forever. But then I’ll learn something new about you and just…” He shakes his head, as if in awe of me and my weird obsession. “I like it. I hope this never goes away. I like the familiarity, feeling like I know you and you know me. But I also like learning new things about you.”
I smirk at him, but inside, my heart is running wild. Breaking and getting put back together by the same words. How is that even possible?
“I hope it doesn’t go away, either. I guess we still have a lot to learn about each other. Even though it feels like we’ve known each other for a while.”
He reaches out and pushes a strand of hair from my face, his smile slipping into a softer one. Eyes shifting, he gives me that same look he did at the pub while we were dancing. The one I so clearly misread.
“I’m glad we finally decided to meet in person, even though the circumstances sucked. It’s fucked up because of everything that happened with your work, but I actually had a ton of fun last night. And this morning.”
Fun. Fun fun fun fun.
I’ve never hated a word more.
