Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
It made this situation all the more baffling. Who the hell would want to torture someone with such a kind heart? Like a predatory cat toying with a defenseless mouse, living off the thrill of it. Off basic and bloody instinct.
It made my stomach churn.
We found ourselves outside of the station, the spring breeze rattling a couple of branches in a nearby oak tree. Eric stepped aside to make a call, leaving me and Noah standing as if we’d just gotten out of a film. None of this seemed quite real.
I decided to ask him a question that had been on my mind since that morning. “Do you want to crash at my place again?”
Noah looked up, eyes catching a bit of the sun, nearly knocking me off my feet. How did he always manage to do that? Look so damn effortlessly ethereal… and I never described someone like that. But that was Noah. Capturing this otherworldly kind of glow even when we were standing feet away from a dirty police station, an overflowing trash can too close for comfort.
And yet still Noah made this all feel like some kind of movie. The good ones. The ones you watch over and over again, even if it’s just by leaving it on in the background, because occasionally tuning in feels like a warm hug while you handle mindless chores.
“No, that’s okay,” he said, the light disappearing from his eyes as he looked down at his sneakers. “I should sleep in my own bed tonight. I appreciate it, though. I really do.”
“You sure?” I asked, wanting to press but not be pushy at the same time.
“Yeah. It’s probably best.”
I tried not to let my disappointment show, swallowing it like the bitter pill it was, feeling it bounce down my throat and leaving an acidic trail in its wake.
“Okay, no worries.”
“But you should come to the next Reading under the Rainbow. It’s going to be at Yvette’s for, well, obvious reasons. She lives in Decatur. If you want to, I can officially add you to our email chain.”
“I’d love that,” I said, the disappointment quickly replaced by something else, something brighter.
“Alright, perfect. Same email as your work email?”
“No, here, use this one.” We traded private emails and realized we didn’t have each other’s numbers. Those got added in, too.
It didn’t take me a whole two hours before I was texting him, which resulted in me smiling myself to sleep that night as we shared silly memes and viral videos.
9
NOAH BARNES
I drove through the gates of Yvette’s community, taking a right and going past the pool, going toward the end of a large cul-de-sac, where Yvette’s two-story farmhouse-style home took up most of the corner. I parked behind Tristan’s car, spotting him and Eric through an open window, the two of them laughing up a storm.
It was book club night, and honestly, it couldn’t have gotten here fast enough. Our bimonthly meetings were often the highlights of my weeks. Getting to hang out with my friends, talking books and playing games, was seriously more effective for me than therapy, and after all that had happened recently, I was in dire need of a session.
And of course, seeing Jake outside of work was another big perk to book club. We’d been texting a ton and were having lunches alone together when other colleagues didn’t invite us out to eat. Seeing his smiling face and ocean-blue eyes always helped make the day go by that much faster. Watching him walk past my desk to grab some water or take his fifteen-minute break usually guaranteed that I’d lost my spot in whatever Excel sheet I was working on at the time. Daydreams of our kiss would constantly float through my mind, distracting me with thoughts of Jake and his soft lips against mine, his hand moving to grip the back of my neck. It might have been a short kiss, but it had already proved to be one of the best I’d ever had.
I didn’t even want to think about how good everything after that kiss could have been.
I was (slightly) grateful Jake had the willpower and wherewithal to stop us before things got out of hand. I didn’t want to ruin this budding friendship; I didn’t want to complicate things. It happened to me before, getting close to someone and thinking we’d make great friends, only to end a drunken night hooking up together and waking up to awkward texts and an entirely derailed friendship. Twice already, I had ended up having sex with a friend, and both times ended in sporadic messages and brief interactions. One of those guys was actually Robby, who quickly went from trustworthy neighbor and reliable friend to relatively distant acquaintance after our awkward night together. We had zero chemistry, and the sex wasn’t all that great, which likely attributed to the new dynamic between us, but still, I just didn’t want to risk it with Jake.