Page 97 of If the Stars Align

I could really use her comic relief right now.

Jeremy’s been moodier than ever since we got back from visiting his parents. For the past eight days, he’s been stalking around the apartment, high-strung and even more argumentative than usual.

To make matters worse, we haven’t had sex since before our trip to New York. Ten days without physical intimacy is far from the end of the world for most couples, but for me and Jeremy it’s unheard of. And considering how moody he’s been, this dry spell between us is making me feel lonely, stressed, and anxious.

Over the phone, I tell Sam all about the icy reception I got from Jeremy’s parents.

“Yikes,” she says. “No wonder your fiancé’s so broodingly sexy.”

I laugh. “Sam, I’mengagedto him now. You really don’t need to keep telling me how sexy he is—I’m well aware.”

“Maybe I’m afraid you’ll go blind again,” she teases. “I still can’t believe you didn’t see it before. I guess it’s a testament to how strong your feelings were for Dex. The only time I was ever that blindly in love was with my second-grade boyfriend, Eric. But that was only because he used to give me his Twinkies at lunch. Once his mom stopped buying them, poor Eric didn’t stand a chance.” She sighs. “I was a fickle child.”

I chuckle, although my pulse quickens. And it’s not only because Sam brought up Dex.

It’s the fact that she put my feelings for him in the past tense.

And the truth is, they’re very much still present.

I’ve learned to live with them, because it’s all Icando.

But in New York this past weekend, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. And it’s not like we’d ever been there together. For some reason, though, while roaming the streets of the city, I felt haunted by his ghost. I suppose he travels there a lot for work. Maybe subconsciously, I hoped I’d run into him. It would have been the first time I’d seen him in over two-and-a-half years, since Paris.

Then again, if Ihadseen him, I would have been with Jeremy. And the thought of the two of them meeting makes me shudder. I imagine it would cause some catastrophic shift in air pressure—the kind that makes animals run for cover. And the moment they shook hands, the world would implode.

“Sunny? Did you hear me?”

“Sorry, Sam…I must have lost signal for a second,” I lie. “What were you saying?”

“I was asking if you told Dex you’re engaged yet.”

“Oh. Yeah…I told him the next day. I was so afraid of his reaction, I was eager to get it over with but…he actually handled it really well. He seemed completely fine, honestly.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” she replies.

I guess you could say that. It made me sad that Dex was so nonchalant but, at the same time, it confirms that I made the right choice to be with Jeremy.

As I’m having that thought, my fiancé walks through the front door.

With a scowl on his face.

Great.

“I should probably jump off,” I tell Sam. “Jeremy just got home, and we need to figure out what we’re doing for dinner.”

She scoffs. “Dinner? Yeah right. I bet you’re about to jump his bones. At least that’s whatI’d be doing if I hadn’t just sworn off all men.”

“Sworn off men? Since when? Weren’t you dating that guy, Andrew? In your program?”

She sighs. “That fizzled.”

“Did he stop bringing you Twinkies?” I joke.

“No…he actually gave hisTwinkieto theotherhot chick in our program.”

I frown. “Oh, Sam, I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay. Honestly, his Twinkie was getting pretty stale. And now I have more time to focus on my dissertation. I’ll just have to live vicariously through you—so go have wild sex, and report back to me with details.”