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Nina, I was a jerk to you and your little friend
I’m sorry
And the Barney joke was stupid
Actually, you looked stunning
Stunning Stunning He thought I looked stunning This was the first verbal indication that he founda Greek circle dance
I read the text as many times as I could before Alistair returned to the table
I put my phone ahen our desserts arrived, and unfortunately, ether, because I was now just sitting there…well, stunned
Alistair returned and sat down "Are you feeling okay, Nina?"
"Yeah…I think et the cake to go"
He nodded because his et home as fast as possible in case Jake hadn’t left He had said there was a possibility he would be leaving in the
He held the door for ht air hit my face and blew my curls all over the place
"What’s so funny?" Alistair asked
Iabout the text And even though Alistair was holding my hand, all I could think about was how ht
Alistair leaned in to kiss me as he left me at the door to the aparting it to turn into the type of kiss I drea hiood weekend and let him know I’d see him in class next week I would have to come up with an excuse as to why I wouldn’t be able to accept another date with him if he asked
The apartment was quiet, and all of the doors to the bedrooms were closed My pulse raced as I approached Jake’s rooain
He was gone
I felt aand relief, only because I was pretty sure I would have said or done soht if he were here…like maybe jumped his bones
Loneliness set in as I walked back to my room and kicked off Tarah’s heels I pulled the dress overwhite t-shirt and brushed my hair back into a ponytail
The water must have run for minutes on end in the bathrooht, without paying attention to the time
I had really coh eren’t together as a couple, I missed him and felt safe when he was around
As I tried to fall asleep, the restlessness was overwhel the entire night in ot up andaround airoom, it dawned on me that Christmas and the end of the se sessions would end Getting an A on the next exa to spend even ht of another "excursion" terrified me
I shut off the television and started back towardover to Jake’s instead I opened the door and i!
No way
I approached the bed slowly to get a closer look and juain when I realized it was just a ton of bunched up blankets made to look like a body And there was a baseball cap on the pillow
What the heck?
I pulled back the covers Underneath was an origa for someone?
I covered my face in a mix of e to sneak into his rooht Determined to hide the fact that I took the bait, or in this case--the bat--I carefully folded it back together and placed it under the covers but not before I buried arette sto quit
Before I left, I noticed so else: three more bats crumbled in the wastebasket I picked the on each one before scrunching it up and tossing it out It was as if he was struggling to find the right words and gave up
The first one just said: Hope your date was great…
The second one: How does Ass Hair compare…
The third: You looked…
Wow…okay I didn’t realize that he actually thought so deeply about what to write on these things This discovery both flattered and confused me How he finally came to the conclusion that the best course of action would be to trickwas beyondand concluded that tonight proved Jake knew he had an effect on ure out what effect I really had on hiht about me the same way
The same word replayed in
CHAPTER 11
I had received two more A’s on the subsequent exae in math overall Jake was happy for me but somewhat bu forward to his next planned fear-facing exercise that kept getting put off by rades Who knew this would beco special to thank hi me He didn’t seem to enjoy the banana bread as much as the Bananas Foster but still ate the entire loaf in one sitting with his eyes closed The second time, I made him a chocolate banana creaass I couldn’t even understand It was truly entertaining to watch
During Thanksgiving break, I had bragged to et through math, and they said they couldn’t wait toround when the time came
There was only one exam left before the end of the se in his roos strictly business