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I’d see him tomorrow at the gym. I should be able to wait until then.
But how could I do that when I was convinced that I could still smell him like he was standing right beside me?
Not reaching out to him now was akin to squeezing blood from a stone—impossible.
I grimaced at the thought of not speaking to him until tomorrow and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach.
A text.
That’s what I’d do.
I’d send him a simple text, thanking him for a wonderful time, and I’d leave it at that.
No matter how badly I wanted to hear his voice again, I didn’t want to interrupt his Sunday. It’s not as though I expected he’d be sitting around waiting for me to call.
But he had given me his number. Sure, he’d suggested it was all a means to prove my point to my sisters, but he wouldn’t have given it if he didn’t want me to reach out at all, right? It was the closest I could get to an invitation without him specifically asking me to do it.
Plus, he was the one who’d shown up last night because he claimed he hadn’t wanted to take any chances of my night out with my sisters resulting in a guy who wasn’t him showing interest in me.
I gnawed on my bottom lip as I considered my options.
A text would be fine. Of course, it would.
With my mind made up—before I could go back on my decision—my fingertips flew across the screen and typed out a text.
Iris
Hey, Landen. I just wanted to reach out to thank you for showing up at the pub last night. I had a lovely time.
There.
Simple and to the point. Now, it was a waiting game.
I set my phone down, picked up a book, and curled up on the couch with the intention of using a good story to distract me from how badly I wanted him to respond. It wasn’t as though Landen would be sitting on the couch at his place, clutching his own phone and debating whether to call me.
After giving the phone one last look of longing, willing the display to light up with a response, I looked away and cracked open the book I’d been meaning to start for a few weeks now. But I didn’t even get through the first paragraph before my phone buzzed beside me.
My body tensed, belly flipping with excitement as my eyes shot toward the display.
Maybe I’d been wrong.
Perhaps Landen had been wanting to talk to me, too.
Landen
I should be thanking you for not thinking I was a creep for crashing your night out with your sisters.
My lips instantly curved into a smile.
Iris
You’re a lot of things, Landen, but a creep is not one of them. I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did.
Landen
I’m only disappointed it had to end.
It was like my insides were vibrating with the excitementI felt. Where had this version of Landen been all this time? I knew he’d said he hadn’t wanted to make me feel like I couldn’t simply go to the gym to get a workout in without being hit on, and I couldn’t hold him being a gentleman against him, but I would have loved nothing more than to experience what I was now months ago.
