Page 21 of Just Like in the Movies
One milk, one sugar. I nodded.
He looked away to gaze out over the pond, then swung both legs over the picnic table’s bench and faced me square on. “I thought I’d start out with an abject apology, if that’s okay with you.”
I froze with my pastry halfway to my mouth. It had almost sounded like the setup for a joke, the kind of thing where you have to say something unpleasant but you say it in a funny way so it’s easier to get through. Not that I was innocent of that little trick, but to hear it in his voice made my heart race in sudden anxiety.This was a mistake. I knew it.“If you’re going to joke about it, I’m done,” I managed to get out.
“No, I’m not joking. Just trying to get my thoughts in order. There’s a lot of them.” He smiled weakly in my direction, the first real sign I’d seen in him that he realized how badly he’d screwed up.
“All right.” I took a bite of the croissant and sighed happily.Chocolate.
He smiled at me then, not his show-stopper smile but the one I remembered from high school. The one he used to wear when he was just happy that I was happy.
Stop melting my heart.
He took a breath and glanced away again just for a moment, and then he began to speak.
