Page 84 of Glad You Exist

She purses her lips, tilting her head up at me. “Depends. Who’s asking?”

“Me.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Ifyou’reasking, then yes, I’ll go.”

The implication isn’t lost on me. It makes me only want to kiss her more, but I control the urge. She hasn’t fully made her mind up about us yet. I don’t want to pressure her for more than she’s ready for, so I kiss the top of her head instead.

I’m so happy. I know I’m grinning like a lovesick fool. I’m so lost on her.

Liz smiles back at me and for a moment we just look at each other.

This is the happiest I have seen her in a long time. My chest tightens, relishing the thought that I did that. I give in to temptation and I place another kiss on her scrunched-up nose.

Ican’t think when Brad looks at me like that.

Like I’m everything. Like he can’t get enough.

Then he goes and kisses me like he can’t stand not touching me for a single second.

I lift my hands up, feeling the need to touch his face, but suddenly fear and uncertainty has my fingers drifting back and forth between us.

Brad's eyes crinkle with amusement and something akin to adoration as he takes my hands in his and places them on his cheeks.

"You never have to wonder if you can touch me or have to ask permission."

Leaving my hands on his face, he reaches between us and hugs me close, kissing my temple. "I've always been yours."

He pulls back, letting our foreheads touch, and drags a deep breath. He folds one of my hands in his and gently tugs me towards the front door.

"Let's get you home,prom date."

Or at least that's what I think he said. I'm stuck on the four words that came before that. I let them settle. Repeat them over in my head. Hear them in his voice.

I've always been yours.

Yours.Mine. His.

I let that wash over me.

It hits me like a wave.

Full force. A truth that is as basic as needing oxygen to survive.

I’ve always been his, too.

Like we were born for each other.

He said he was giving me time to see him like that but why do I feel like, deep down, I've always known it?

That I’ve been his, my entire life.

That somehow, I was already spoken for without even knowing it.

This is a fact. A basic truth.

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