Page 33 of The Exception to the Rule

“Not untilsummer? Where does he live?”

She slaps a hand over her eyes, laughing. “Why are you asking the hard questions!”

“I don’t know!” I laugh, too, wanting to apologize but also ... wanting to keep sitting here and eating soup dumplings and flirting with her for the rest of the day until she figures it out.

Terra peeks at me from between her fingers. “I don’t know where he lives.” She drops her hand, laughing. “He’s originally from Irvine, like me. We have this thing, okay?” She picks up a dumpling and holds it aloft, studying it. “We get soup dumplings when we’re thinking about each other.”

She was thinking about me.

I pop another into my mouth. “Is that right?”

She nods. “But admitting that I don’t know where he lives? I hear it, it sounds crazy.” She leans in, lowering her voice. “Do you ever have a feeling about someone? Like they’re your safe space and, I don’t know, like someday it could be more?”

I swallow, nodding. “Yeah. Of course.”

I’m looking right at her.

“I have a feeling about him.”

But the thing is, when she looks up at me and our eyes lock, I’m pretty sure she has a feeling about me, too.

Chapter Twenty-One

FEBRUARY16, 2024

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 16, 2024

Subject: Emerging from the hungover study cave

Hi hi,

I swear it didn’t take me this long to get sober,eeek. I had a test this morning and knew if I wrote back to you yesterday I would obsess about it and put way, way too much time into it.

Thank you for putting the brakes on my tipsy request to share. It was sudden and you were right to wait.

But at the same time, I think I am ready to start to know more about you. Full disclosure: I had lunch with my TA today, you know the one from the party, and he said he went to Madison for undergrad, and I was like, Hey, I know someone who went there! And when he asked me about you, I realized I didn’t have any of thekind of information people usually have, like name, location, favorite Golden Girl.

So, I’ll start, but I’ll start small:

I went to Boston College. My brother’s name is Everett. My favorite Golden Girl is Rose.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 16, 2024

Subject: Re: Emerging from the hungover study cave

If the “full disclosure” means that you’re feeling weird about having lunch with your TA—please don’t. Until you’re able to be right in front of me, connecting my face to my initial, don’t feel guilty for spending time with other people and wondering about them, even romantically.

You already know I went to UW Madison, so I’ll tell you something new: I am six foot three. My favorite aunt’s name is Betty, and she’s a lot like Dorothy on the Golden Girls, so I guess that’s my favorite GG. My favorite fruit is mango.

Chapter Twenty-Two

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