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“Aha.” She laughed, and used her fingers to lock her lips. “Well.It sounds like the world has opened up for you, Christopher.”

He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Are we okay?”

“How could we not be? We’re too adorable people in a garden thatlooks like it was heaven sent. My good friend trusted me enough to tell mesomething important about him.”

He smiled and exhaled slowly, as if the relief was a welcome hit.“You’re amazing.”

“Thank you. Hey, can we still check out that little sushi spotnear the Grove next week? We just won’t make out afterward.”

He touched his cup to hers. “I made the reservations last night.”

“Awesome.” She beamed. “Yelp says their Seattle roll is worth itsweight in gold.”

“Then we gotta have it,” he said. “Oh, and what about thatHarrison Ford cop movie we were waiting for? It opens next week.”

“I could do Thursday night,” she said, scrolling through thecalendar on her phone.

“Thursday works for me.”

In only a matter of minutes, their brand-new friendship was ahundred times more comfortable than their romance-that-wasn’t. The pressure wasgone, and they could just…be. Elle was happy for Christopher and could alreadydetect a lightness about him that she had never noticed before. She wonderedwhat that must feel like.

“Oh, and Elle? You’re going to find someone amazing. I have nodoubt in my mind.”

“You never know.” For the first time, after years of feeling thatromance was an impossibility for her, the pieces of a long-unrealized puzzlewere beginning to assemble themselves slowly. She didn’t know what they meantquite yet, but she was starting to have an inkling.

Christopher studied her. “What’s the look on your face? You wentsomewhere just now.”

Elle decided that Christopher had been honest with her, whichcouldn’t have been easy, and the least she could do was let her guard down withhim. In fact, he was likely the perfect person to talk to about this. Sheleaned in. “Do you remember the girl from the surf bar I took you to? Thebrunette across the room with her friends?”

“Your competitor, yeah. You two talked at the bar.”

“What if I was starting to feel like I might have a crush on her?A small one. Almost nondetectable, but still a crush.”

Christopher didn’t balk. He didn’t widen his eyes in surprise. Hesimply nodded as he took in the information. “Do you think she has similarfeelings?”

“Definitely not. I mean, she teases me about a sex dream I hadabout her, which I shared in a drunken moment of idiocy, but I think that’s allit is. Just playful fodder.”

“You had a sex dream about her? And she knows?”

Elle waved him off. “Yes, but that was so last week. This week, wehad dinner, and the thing is, there’s so much more to her than I’d realized.I’d always thought of her as this less-than-warm surfer that I was supposed totake down on the tour. But maybe that was a characterization of my own making,because now I find out that she has this personality. She can be funny when shewants to be, and nervous other times, and she comes with this whole childhoodin Hawaii, and don’t even get me started on the fact that she’s really verybeautiful and—”

“Hey, Elle?”

“Yeah?” she asked, a little dazed.

“When you’re apart, do you think about her?”

The answer was upon her immediately. She nodded. “I do. A lot.”

He smiled. “Then I think it’s safe to say that you have a crush onyour hands. The only question is, what are you prepared to do about it?”

“I honestly don’t know. Probably nothing.”

“Well, maybe you don’t have to know, in this moment. But can Ioffer a piece of advice?”

“Please. I would very much welcome any guidance or insight,because everything is feeling very out of sorts, and when you’re a controlfreak like me? That’s terrifying.”

“Here goes. Don’t wait fifteen years to admit to yourself what youprobably already know. Life is too short, and you’re too wonderful a person tolose out on something thatcouldbe really great if you were open to it.”