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We’re silent for a couple seconds. Then she squeezes my hand, and it’s like something deep inside my chest cracks open to let liquid gold pour through my veins.

I tip my head back and laugh up at the bright blue sky while Andrea does the same. My body sings with relief. The ground itself seems to be thrumming to the tune of our joy when once we’ve caught our breath, both our faces split into cartoonish grins.

She likes me. She likes me. She likes me.

I know it’s the dorkiest thing ever, but the chant keeps repeating in my head as we get to our feet. I release her arm so we can get up, but she grabs my hand to twine her fingers through mine as soon as we’re standing.

A fresh surge of gold shoots through my bloodstream, and every colour in the corn field flares a little bit brighter.

“I don’t really know what this is,” she says, nodding down at our joined hands. “and I know I’m kind of a hot mess right now, but I just knew as soon as you sprinted off into this field that I had to tell you how I feel. I’ve never met anyone like you, Naomi. I…I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

The corners of my eyes sting, and my heart feels like it’s about to beat its way out of my chest.

“That’s…that’s exactly how I feel about you,” I tell her. “I was ready to throw that whole summer list in the trash, but then you showed up, and you kind of just…swept me into this crazy adventure I didn’t know somebody like me could go on.”

She chuckles. “It has been pretty crazy, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. We’re, like, literally having this conversation in the middle of a random corn field, miles away from any trace of society.” I sweep my free hand out in front of me to indicate our surroundings. “Plus, you’re…not the only one who’s been feeling like a hot mess. You heard what Priya said. I don’t even know if I have a best friend anymore, and it’s true that a lot of what I’ve been struggling with lately has been pretty pathetic. I—”

“You’re not pathetic.”

Andrea’s voice is sharp enough to make me jerk with surprise. She squeezes my hand again and softens her tone.

“I know you two have got a lot to sort out, and I know I’m just some random outsider looking in on the situation, but whatever you have going on, I know she doesn’t actually think you’re pathetic. No one could think you’re pathetic, Naomi, and I know once we go back out there, Priya is going to tell you that herself.”

Once we go back out there.

The words hang in the air, so heavy I can almost hear them hit the ground with a thud as reality seeps back into the field like an acrid gas.

“What is it?” Andrea asks.

I realize I’ve reached my free hand up to cover my mouth and let it fall back down to my side.

“Nothing. This is just…surreal. Like, you’re holding my hand and telling me you have a crush on me, but for some reason, I feel like this all going to be some kind of dream we leave behind as soon as we leave this field.”

She stares at me for a few seconds before she steps closer until we’re just a couple inches shy of chest to chest.

“How about this?” she says, her gaze as soft as the stroke of her thumb along the back of my hand. “You have to have a summer fling to finish the bucket list, right? So…let’s try it. Let’s go on a date.”

I blink. “A…a date?”

She nods and grins at me. “Yeah. A date. You and me. Does that help you believe you’re not dreaming?”

I grip her hand extra hard to keep from falling over as I squeak, “Um, not really?”

She shrugs and lets out a fake sigh, her eyes flashing with amusement. “Well, if you don’t want to…”

“I didn’t say that!”

She chuckles at the urgency in my voice. “So, it’s a date, then?”

I nod so many times I feel my cheeks heat up at how not cool I’m being, but I’m past the point of speaking.

Andrea King just asked me on a date.

CHAPTER 15

Andrea