Page 99 of Never With You
@girl_sees_the_world:
Yes. This is crazy.
@worth_traveling_to:
It is crazy, but I have a good feeling about you.
@girl_sees_the_world:
I have a good feeling about you too.
I close my eyes and kick my feet up and down against the mattress. Nerves and excitement roll through me like a tornado, but I don’t even have time to process it before the door to the villa opens.
“You decent?” Nate calls.
“Yeah, come in.”
I hop to a stand, feeling stupid lying in bed in front of Nate. We pass in crossing—me on my way to fetch a charger and him on his way to the bathroom. We’re caught in one of those awkward dances where we try to walk around each other, but the whole thing is made a thousand times more awkward because of the heated kiss we just shared.
“Sorry,” he says, finally choosing the right path around me. His eyes drop to my t-shirt as he passes, and his brows lift. “Congratulations.”
“What for?”
“For being part of the Colorado swim team.”
“Oh.” I look down at my shirt. “I got this when I rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I jumped in the freezing water, so I got the shirt.”
“I know. I have one almost exactly like it.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He studies me. “I didn’t know you liked river rafting. Or was that just, like, a one-and-done type thing?”
I laugh as I grab my charger. “No, the Colorado River was a few years ago. But it wasn’t my first. Right after high school, I did the Noce River in Italy, and since then, I’ve tried to hit rivers around the world whenever I can. Last summer, I did the class V rapids in Upper Gauley River in West Virginia. The year before that, it was North Fork of the Payette River.” I walk back to the bed and plug in my phone. “I hope to get to the Zambezi River by Victoria Falls next year.”
Nate stares at me with a weird expression.
A confused smile covers my mouth. “What?”
“I don’t know. You’re just different than I thought.”
I think about his statement while he’s in the bathroom, making up his bed on the floor, and even after the lights are out.
“What did you mean when you said I’m different than you thought?” I finally ask when I should be letting us sleep.
“I had this idea of you the last nine months, and I’m realizing it might all be wrong. I don’t know. You keep surprising me. Like at the dance party tonight…” I hold my breath, hoping he doesn’t bring up the kiss. “And then with the whole river rafting thing. I just never pictured you as into adventurous stuff.”
“I might’ve had an idea about you the last nine months as well, but I’m learning you’re different than I thought too.”
“Should we agree to get to know each other better before we jump to more false conclusions?”
“Sounds like the fair thing to do.”
“You know, I honestly don’t understand why Isaac said that you’re an unbearable person who sucks the fun out of life. The more I get to know you, the more fun you become.”
I bite my lip, looking up at the ceiling. The darkness in the room and the fact that Nate is five feet away on the floor make it easier to open up.
“It’s because I never showed him that side of me.”
