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She nodded even though he couldn’t see her “Okay, e can s I have and soet the nerve to ask you about being

“Yeah Yeah, that’s good You tellon to meet you” A beat of silence passed, and she could hear so of papers on the other end of the receiver, and then the sound of soh “Fuck” His curse was soft but clipped “Shit Da”

Mary found herself soody two shoes if he didn’t even want to curse in front of her “You’re fine, Alex” She couldn’t help but laugh softly “How abouttomorrow around noon or one? Either time works for me so whichever one works for you?”

“Noon works”

“There’s that sandwich place—Rocko’s—on the corner of High Street where we can meet”

“Sounds good, Mary” He cleared his throat again and Mary found herself pulling at a stray thread at the heht in front of hiaze “I’ll see ya then, Mary”

A shiver coursed through her body at the way he said her name It wasn’t even in a sexual way, but it was deep and skated along every part of her body, and all she could do was try to breathe through these feelings that made no sense and she’d never experienced before

It was exhilarating as much as it scared the shit out of her

7

Alex sat at one of the patio tables outside of Rocko’s Although the weather wasn’t the best for being outside, he didn’t want to be cra

He had his fingers wrapped around the coffeeit, and instead let the fluid inside cool by the minute

He thought about Mary and how he’d acted like a fucking nervous asshole He was at least thankful she hadn’t been right in front of hih his hair, bouncing his leg up and down as he sat on the edge of his bed How he’d been fucking sweating like he’d run around the block