Page 101 of What's in a Kiss?

Masha leans over and pukes off the side of the boat.

“What was that?” I ask.

She makes a retching face.

“You don’t get seasick,” I say. “You have a stomach of steel.”

“Had a stomach of steel,” she groans and wipes her mouth.

I hand her a PBR... which she holds and doesn’t open.

“Hang on—”

Pale-faced, Masha smiles.

“How long?” I ask.

“Six weeks.”

Ecstasy spreads through me and I scream. I throw my arms around Masha, who goes stiff. “Let go.”

“Sorry, I forgot,” I say. “You like to hug where I come from.”

She looks at me sadly. “You really love me where you come from.”

“Take the love you can remember from high school,” I say. “Square it twice for every year since we stopped being friends.”

“Go home, Olivia,” she says.

“What?”

“What you just said—that weird math of love—it sounds really nice. I’m jealous that you have that. I’m jealous that you know anuswith that history, that bond. Even if you and I patched things up—and I am going to have to sit with that possibility for a while—there’d still be this big decade-long gap that we’d be missing. There’d still be a whole lot of pain to move through. Which isn’t an issue in your reality. Not to mention your mom. I know you have a lot of money, but your show...”

“It’s so bad.”

“Awful. I’m sure you can navigate a new career,” Masha says. “That’s the least of your worries.”

“So that only leaves...” I can’t even say it. I’m too sad.

“Jake?”

I nod.

“Listen, you’ve told me some crazy shit today, and I’m having to stretch my mind to accommodate it. And I can—actually, I really can. There’s just one thing I can’t imagine, and that’s a world where you and Jake don’t end up together.”

I stare at Masha, wanting her words to be true. But it feels terrifying.

“Tell him the truth. Go home and tell him everything you told me. Bring him out on a boat and hold him captive in international waters until he believes you. It’s not the worst move.” She raises one shoulder. “Then you can start your romance that very minute. And it won’t be tied up in this invisible darkness, like losing your mom and me. It can be pure and strong and whole.”

“You don’t understand,” I say. “Jake is so out of my league—”

She waves me off. “Yeah, I’m not receiving that. And I don’t even like you. I mean, I sort of like you. But I know love when I see it. You and Jake are the real thing. You’ll make it on the flip side, too.”

Gram Parsons crawls onto my lap, sensing a breakthrough. I rub the ridge between his eyes and smile at Masha. “You see, that is exactly what the real Masha would say in this situation—”

“Don’t real-Masha me. I’m the real Masha.”

“Got it. Yes.” I nod and let out my breath. “Mash, do you think there’s any chance that I could just stay here and work really hard at friendship with you, and you could help me—”