Page 106 of Never With You
“Emotional connection means he’s ugly.”
“He’s not ugly.”
“Let me see a picture.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
I shake my head, looking away.
“Because he’s ugly,” Nate says again.
“No, because I don’t have a picture of him.”
“How do you not have a picture of him?”
I roll my lips together, sucking in a breath. Am I really going to tell Nate I have a pen pal like it’s 1902?
“Wait a second,” he says. “You don’t actually know him, do you?”
“I know him,” I snap in defense. “I just haven’t met him in person yet.”
“Let me guess. Online pen pals exchanging messages back and forth?”
My mouth drops open. “How did you know?”
“Eh.” His shoulders lift. “I’ve seen it a hundred times. So he really could be ugly.”
“No, I’ve seen enough of his profile on Instagram to know he’s not ugly.” My chin lifts. “But even if he were, that doesn’t matter to me.”
His head tilts with an air of disbelief. “It doesn’t matter to you if you’re not physically attracted to him?”
“No, I like him for who he is.”
“Yeah, right.”
“No, really. It doesn’t matter.”
Nate sits up, surprising me by leaning into my space. His face is close to mine, mouth mere inches. “Knowing you as I do, you’d never be satisfied without the physical attraction component.” The sultry undertone to Nate’s raspy whisper has my entire body flooding with heat. “You like to play with fire.”
My mouth goes dry as my heart races.
Nate pulls back, lying down again on his chair like nothing happened. “So what’s his Instagram handle?”
A rough breath seeps out as I try to compose myself. “I’m not telling you that.”
“What? You think I’m going to troll him?”
“Maybe.”
“Come on, Carly. Give me more credit than that.”
“Fine.” I roll my shoulders back. “It’s @worth_traveling_to.”
“Sounds like Farnsworth.Like me. Maybe I’m related to this guy.”
“No, he just has an Instagram travel page where he posts cool places he’s been to. That areworthtraveling to.”
