Page 56 of The Boyfriend Material Novellas

“I wish we could slow down time.”

“I wish I met you yesterday.” He stops. “Is that crazy?”

I shake my head. “No. But I’m glad I met you today. And I’ll miss you tonight.”

He swallows, exhales. “It would be crazy, right?”

We both know what the other isn’t saying, but I say it anyway. “To see each other again?”

“Yes, I want to. But how can we?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know how we could without upending everything.”

“I know.” He sounds as sad as I feel. “I want to see you again, Marley. You have to know if things were different, I’d take you out tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day. I wouldn’t think twice about calling you. Or texting you. I wouldn’t take days. Or hours. I’d ask you now and I’d see you tomorrow.”

My heart thumps harder for him. “I’d say yes, Reid. I’d definitely say yes.”

He presses a kiss to my forehead. “But I live in London.”

“And I live in New York.”

“And we just met,” he adds.

“And I don’t know what I’m doing with my life when I finish school.”

“You might wind up in Alaska.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “Doubtful, but you never know. I do have to focus though. Use the opportunity to figure out what I want to do. I have a scholarship. To keep qualifying for it, I need to hit a minimum GPA. That has to be my priority.”

“As it should be.”

I draw a deep breath, prepping myself to say something hard. “We need to just enjoy this for what it is.”

He smiles, one corner of his lips curving up. “One perfect afternoon in Paris?”

“The most perfect one ever recorded.”

“Let’s keep making it better,” he says, and that seems like a fair enough deal to me.

9

REID

There is no doubt.

I can’t imagine looking back on my life and ever having had a better day.

In fact, it’s so damn good that I’m tempted, more than I’ve been tempted before, to do something wildly ridiculous.

Like try to stay in touch.

As we walk by the Tuileries, I want to say,Screw this long-distance issue. Give me your number and let’s talk.

But what would that look like? Late-night phone chats? All-day-long texts that would distract me as I tried to work my way up at the firm and as she went to school?

That’s mad.

So we talk now instead. I ask her about her favorite things.

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