Page 30 of Into the Woods

My breath caught.

This was what I’d wanted, right? To forget… Well, to forget. To take back control of my heart. The stupid organ had made a serious mess of my life thus far. It was time for me to stop craving what I’d never have and start appreciating what I could.

“I like you, too,” I finally replied, not sure I meant it the same way he did. Was I attracted to Eric? I mean, sure. Sorta. He was really good looking in a catalog-model kind of way, with a sharp jaw, piercing gray eyes, and the lean frame of a guy whose form of exercise was probably swimming or running. Maybe cross-country.

“So,” he went on, a bit hesitant like he was waiting to be shot down.

I knew that feeling well.

“If I wanted to ask you out on a proper date,” he continued, “you might be inclined to say yes?”

No.

The unbidden thought came with a flash of dark, pissed-off eyes that I knew way too well. It was his voice in my head. It was always him.

He was on the other side of the damn planet, and my gut was still keyed in to what he would say. Would want.

Eric’s mom might’ve told her son to trust his gut, but I’d learned the hard way that trusting my own meant heartache and pain.

And I was over that.

I smiled back at Eric, shoving down the gnawing feeling that even considering going out with him was somehow wrong.

My heart needed to remember her loyalty was to me. Not the boy who’d broken her more than once.

“I would absolutely say yes to a date with you.”

CHAPTER 10

BEX

“Sugar,” I hissed as I stubbed my toe on the edge of my bed. That was what I got for trying to zip up my dress while kicking around piles of discarded clothes looking for my shoes.

“Are you okay?” The worried voice of my best friend came out of the speakers to the laptop I’d left open on the desk behind me.

The zipper stuck, and I swallowed a scream. I shouldn’t be this stressed out.

“Bex?” Maddie called again, worry lacing her tone.

“Here!” I cried, managing to zip the dress and stumble back into the frame of the camera so she could see me.

Maddie’s bright blue eyes blinked. “Are you wearing… plaid?”

I looked down at the black and white skirt. “It’s tweed.”

Her brow wrinkled. “Plaid.”

“Herringbone,” I corrected with a huff, sitting in my desk chair and reaching for the pearl drop earrings.

“Whatever it is… B, are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Of course it is,” I chirped, my voice too bright. Too forced. I paused and took a breath. “Eric’s going to be here any minute, and I can’t find my shoes.” I glanced around my demolished bedroom with a forlorn look.

Maddie studied me in a way that broadcasted she was seeing just how frazzled I really was. “It’s been, what, a week since you first met this Eric dude? You guys have gone out three times already.”

“Four,” I mumbled, remembering I hadn’t told her about our impromptu lunch yesterday. But it was true. In the seven days since I’d met Eric, we’d gone on several dates, each one sweeter than the last.

Dinner at a trendy spot in the sixth arrondissement. A play at Théâtre Mogadore. Coffee at a quaint little patisserie. And lunch yesterday at Le Trumilou.

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