Page 36 of The Exception to the Rule

Suspicion rears its head again, and I have to shove it away, climbing on my bike and pushing off.

My heart hammers the entire ride to the lab. When I get there, my phone pings with another email from C, and I tap my phone awake with electricity flowing through my fingers.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 17, 2024

Subject: Re: Emerging from the hungover study cave

Four things, now? Okay: my middle name is Jude, after the song. My first concert was the Jonas Brothers with my oldest sister, Annika. Other than the guinea pig, Freckles, we had an adorable but really (I mean truly) stupid cocker spaniel. And I currently live in Philadelphia.

C.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 17, 2024

Subject: Re: Emerging from the hungover study cave

C ... my hands are shaking right now. I am freaking the hell out.

I live in Philly, too. And I think you know that.

He replies with a phone number. And when I enter it into a text box, an existing contact pops up on-screen.

The Hot TA.

Chapter Twenty-Three

FEBRUARY17, 2024

Terra

Getting ready for my date with Our Lord and Savior is an all-hands-on-deck emergency. While I prop my foot in the sink and carefully guide a razor up my leg, Jamie runs the flat iron through my hair and Elise attempts to put makeup on me. I screamed my way into the apartment an hour ago, sending Elise diving for her phone to get Jamie here for reinforcement. It took nearly a half hour of them shouting,“Callum Sundberg is Terra’s pen pal!”at each other before it seemed to sink in for any of us. And yet! How on earth is it even possible that I am going on a date with Callum Sundberg, who also happens to be my longtime valentine?

“Bonkers,” Elise whispers again, sweeping some blush across my cheeks.

“Insanity,” I agree again.

“This feels like a dress situation,” Jamie says. “Are you going to wear a dress?”

Even I concede that this situation calls for a little dressing up. I put on a black long-sleeved, scoop-neck dress that is much sexier than it sounds and pair it with my favoritebooties and a few necklaces so I don’t look like I’m part of a string quartet or attending a memorial service.

When I step back and look at myself in the mirror ... I have no idea what Callum will think. He saw me in a dress just three days ago, but I was crouched in a dark, cramped closet looking up at him like a bush baby caught in a hole in a tree trunk. He had lunch with me while I wore a plain gray thermal long-sleeved shirt and no makeup. He asked me out while I was wearing my puffy red Fjällräven jacket with pillow creases on my face and my bedhead shoved under my beanie. I realize he doesn’t need me to dress up, per se, but I can’t really get that thought cemented in my brain.

As if it isn’t enough that it’s Callum Sundberg picking me up in—oh, shit—five minutes, it’s also that it’s C. It’s the boy who thanked me for replying to his typo email and who sent me a note the following year to make sure I got at least one valentine. It’s the guy who gave me advice about going away to school and asked me how my mother was doing after having breast cancer. It’s the man who lost his father to cancer in the depths of the pandemic and worried about how to best support his mom and his sisters while still pursuing his dream of going to graduate school. It’s my soup-dumpling buddy. It’s my conundrum wrapped in a mystery tied with a puzzle shoved in a pickle jar.

It’s the only person with whom I ever wanted to share Valentine’s Day even if, this year, we’re three days late.

At seven sharp, I’m an antsy, uncool mess, and I cannot deal with Elise and Jamie’s hovering excitement any longer. I walk out of my building just as Callum climbs out of an older Audi parked at the curb. He walks around the hood and sees me at the same time I see the cupcake box in his hand.

Forget flowers; give me a cupcake and it’s a perfect date.

After all this time, he remembered? With my thumping heart scaling my windpipe, I jog down to him, where he and that sparkling, widening smile are walking toward me, faster now, and I throw my arms around him. He catches me with one arm, holding me so tight, and exhaling the most amazing sound into my neck.

---