Page 22 of I Wish I Would've Chosen You

“It’s mine if I wrote it.”

“You literally ripped it fromThe Iron Giantmovie.”

“Ted Hughes said it long before that film.” He pauses. “However, I’ve said something quite similar in my life, so I consider it mine.”

“Spoken like a true plagiarist. Were the words you said to me when we met stolen, too?”

“Okay.” He steps back. “It’s time for you to stop talking to me, Miss Edwards.”

“Ifyoucould take back the night we met, would you?”

He looks me up and down, and his lips part as if he’s about to give me an answer, but he shakes his head and walks away.

LESSON #2

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

But whenever you’re truly tired of trying, hang that shit up. You only live once and you don’t have time to waste.

1

LIAM

Write a contingency plan for dealing with ‘you know who.’

Finish grading the free-write romance essays

Finalize the contingency plan for dealing with ‘you know who’

Stop putting off the damn plan for dealing with ‘you know who’

Istare at today’s ‘To Do’ list and decide to tackle what is clearly the most important thing.

The essays.

It’s been years since I was required to spend my weekends reading, and although I was initially excited to be around “the brightest young minds in the country,” I’m starting to think that something is wrong with me. Maybe I’m remembering the quality of high school papers with rose-tinted glasses and my expectations are too high.

Or, maybe something is wrong with the students.

I pull a few random essays from the pile and skim the topics.

1. Shakespeare’s views on love weren’t his own.

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