Page 45 of Begin Again Again

“Oh, you mean because he wants to smash you? Why would that bother me?”

Beth rolled her eyes. “He and I just met.”

“I don’t want to be that guy, Bethany, butwejust met.”

Beth extracted herself from his side-hug. Byron held out his arm, but she didn’t step back in. He lowered it, grumpily. “I wish you’d stop doing that.”

“Tough. I have a non-banter question for you.”

“Hmm…”

“Why didn’t you text me?”

“I did.”

Her eyes narrowed. “No, you didn’t.”

“I did… But I didn’t hit send.”

“Oh my god.” She turned in the other direction. “I need to run home now.”

Byron stepped to the side, blocking her path. “Wait. I was going to resend but I realised I wasn’t putting my best foot forward, so I came to see you in person. That’s paid, right?”

Beth gave him a strange look. “Can I ask you something?”

“Another non-banter question?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, but my limit is three non-banter questions.”

“Are you high?”

He laughed and held out an arm, hoping she was ready to return to the walking cuddle. She wasn’t. “Seriously, are you high?”

“Do I seem high?”

“You seem… different than you did last night. And yeah, kind of high.”

“Well, at the risk of sounding like Josh, by which I mean an overly invested fake nice guy…”

She failed to fight back a grin.

“… maybe you’re getting me high, Horoscopes.”

She groaned. “That’s the worst line ever.”

“It’s not a line! I like you. I think you’re pretty. And fun. And I like how seriously you take touch rugby.”

She turned away, her cheeks bright red. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Anytime.” He held out an arm. “Can we do the three-legged thing again?”

Beth shook her head. “Not yet. I get one more question, remember?”

“How could I forget? Are you going to look at me while you ask it?”

She met his gaze, flushed but clearly determined. “What do you want from this? From me?”

---