Page 13 of Just Another Meet Cute

The urge to flee swept over my body, practically overwhelming me.

I slumped down into my chair like my entire body was made of Jell-O—the cheap cafeteria brand that dissolved into liquid at the slightest touch.

If I could, I would have slid underneath the table, too, but Ryan was still standing behind my chair, blocking my escape.

Thankfully, everyone else went back to eating their ph? like everything was completely normal.

Even though my heart was pounding in my chest a mile a minute, and my palms were sweaty.

And it only got worse the longer Ian stared at me from across the room.

My palms, not my heart. I’m pretty sure at this point my heart couldn’t beat any faster without collapsing on me.

Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe? Like the air had gotten too thick. Was seventeen too young to have a panic attack?

“Ian!” Ryan’s voice was so loud behind me that I visibly jumped in my chair. My fingers clenched the arms of the chair, pressing into the wooden grooves. “Come here, I want you to meet Nina.”

Ian blinked once, twice, before tearing his gaze away from me to look at his twin. “Who?”

“You know, the girl who saved my life outside Golden Cleaners last week.” Ryan’s hands lightly touched both my shoulders. “Nina, this is my brother, Ian.”

Oh God. I was wrong about my heart.

With each step that Ian took toward us, I could feel my heart beating louder and louder until it was ringing in my ears.

Even though I knew it was pointless to hide now, I couldn’t help trying anyway.

I ducked my head a bit and tried to avoid looking straight at Ian’s face.

My gaze focused on his left ear instead. Specifically, his earlobe. “Hi.”

“So, it’s great to finally meet the girl who saved my brother’s life.” His low voice was a little hesitant. Like he could feel how awkward I was feeling. Maybe he was feeling it, too. “… Nina.”

Pulled by an invisible string, I glanced up when he said my name. Low and slow. His dark eyebrows furrowed together, making his face scrunch up with unspoken questions. Ones that I couldn’t answer without giving myself away. I quickly looked away again. “It really wasn’t a big deal …”

One of Ryan’s hands tightened on my shoulder as he scoffed. “Are you kidding me? I was crossing the street like a stupid idiot before you appeared out of nowhere to shove me out of the way. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be squished roadkill right now. Flat like a pancake.”

Cheeks flushing, my left hand rose to rub at the back of my neck as I studied the lace tablecloth.

The tiny rip at the corner of my hand. A hole beside it that was big enough to poke my finger through.

I didn’t test it though. Instead my fingers tugged at the jacket on my lap, stretching out the fabric on the sleeve.

“I didn’t appear out of nowhere. I happened to be standing right next to you when the accident happened. Total coincidence.”

“Yeah, but that still makes him a stupid idiot for blindly crossing the street,” Kathy said with a giggle. “But what else is new?”

Ignoring his sister, Ryan continued gushing.

“Seriously, it’s like fate knew that Nina needed to be there at that exact moment to save me.

I mean, what if you weren’t there? What if I didn’t stop by to pick up Grace’s stuff that Sunday?

I wasn’t supposed to. Ian was going to pick it up, but he was too busy. Like I said, fate.”

“I didn’t know the accident was in front of Golden Cleaners,” Ian slowly commented. Each word rolled off his tongue, hitting me like arrows on a target. “You’re right. I was the one who was supposed to be there. Me.”

It wasn’t what he said, but the way he said it that made warning bells ring in my mind. Something in his voice. Even as my brain was telling me to keep my head down—to not meet his gaze—I couldn’t resist looking up at him.

To my surprise, Ian wasn’t even looking at me. Not at first. He was staring at my hands—no, my lap. Specifically, the navy jacket on my lap.

His jacket.

My breath got caught in my throat as everyone stopped talking.

Or maybe I stopped listening. Within seconds, I could practically see everything clicking into place like a puzzle.

His forehead suddenly smoothed out and the frown lines disappeared.

When Ian finally looked up at me, one of his eyebrows rose and he gave me a tiny smirk.

There was a twinkle in his eyes that made my stomach leap into somersaults before dropping into a pit.

“I guess it is a really lucky coincidence that Nina was there at the right place. At exactly the right time.”

Crap. He figured out everything.

The creamy sweet chè that Ryan’s B á offered me after ph? felt like a lump of glue in my mouth. Crazy Gorilla Glue that wouldn’t dissolve. And it didn’t help that I could feel Ian’s gaze on me from across the room the entire time.

But somehow—by some miracle—I was able to force half the bowl down my throat. Any other day and I would have inhaled the whole thing and asked for seconds.

Any day but today.

Finally, I made a bathroom escape before my nerves exploded into a thousand pieces all over the kitchen like a grenade. I ran out of there so quickly that I didn’t realize I was still holding the navy jacket in my hands until I collapsed against the bathroom door.

I tossed it on the counter and dug my phone out of my pocket.

I quickly sent Linh a 911 text to come get me as soon as possible with a dozen exclamation points.

She promised to be nearby in case Ryan didn’t take my confession well, but I wasn’t sure where her idea of “nearby” was.

For all I knew, she could be at home testing out her new truffle oil.

As I waited for her answer, I turned on the water faucet.

I wanted to splash water on my face to calm down, but that would wash all my makeup off.

All of Linh’s hard work. Although by now my face was so flushed that it didn’t even make a difference.

Still, I dabbed my cheeks lightly with a damp towel and fanned my face to cool down.

Breathing slowly and evenly, like Mom did during her yoga sessions, I tried to concentrate only on the flow of air between my lips. In and out. Deep breaths. One. Two.

Two. Like a set of twins.

My stomach churned, and I frantically fanned myself harder with both hands as I paced back and forth around the small bathroom. Ten steps to the right and back again.

Yeah, this wasn’t working. I would have attempted the downward dog or sphinx pose to calm down, but now my wrist was starting to cramp up. Plus, I had a feeling that I had been in the bathroom way too long. I didn’t need all the Nguyens to think I was weird.

One of them was enough.

Opening the door, I had taken only a step or two into the hall when I heard a low voice behind me.

“So, it’s nice to see you again, Nina. Short for Nina.”

I bumped into the doorway when I jumped backward. Pressing a hand against my slamming heart, I whirled around. “Oh my God! Why are you sneaking around like that?”

Ian snorted and pulled away from the wall he was leaning against. He made a big show about looking around. “Uh, I’m standing in the hall at my own house. I don’t think that counts as ‘sneaking around.’ ”

My eyes narrowed. “You just happen to be in the hall at the same time that I’m coming out of the bathroom?”

“Yeah.” With both hands shoved in his jeans pocket, he cocked his head to the side and gave me a lopsided wide smile. “Call it a coincidence . Kind of like how you saved my identical twin brother.”

Damn, he got me there. “Uh, about that. I was—”

Ian let out a low whistle. “Actually, there’s been a whole lot of coincidences lately.

I mean, Ryan was only picking up the dry cleaning for me because I had to go to the gym that day.

Turns out they found his keys that I lost last week on a hike.

Not sure how those keys ended up at the gym though, since I lost them with the jacket.

The one you’re holding now. Isn’t that interesting? ”

That shut me up.

The right corner of his mouth twitched like he knew I was trapped. And that darn right dimple popped out. Again. Taunting me.

Earlier it was obvious that Ian figured out that I deliberately went to the laundromat to find him . But I didn’t think that he knew about the gym thing, too. Or that he would piece everything together so quickly.

Good God, was he Sherlock Holmes in his past life?

“Why did you have Ryan’s keys with you?” I asked with lack of anything else to say.

“Because I left my keys at home. Well, at my other house with—”

“Other house? What other house?”

“At my dad’s.” He shook his head. “Wait, why are you asking me all these questions? I should be the one asking you the questions.”

Damn. I thought I distracted him enough to make a quick getaway.

It was a tiny bit ironic that I spent days searching for Ian only to be running away from him now.

Okay, really ironic.

“Or … we could go back to the kitchen and hang out with everyone.” Quickly I turned and tried to move away. “In fact, I think I should eat another bowl of your grandma’s banana chè. She’ll be sad if I don’t.”

Freedom was just a few steps from the end of the hall when Ian’s arm shot out and hit the wall in front of me, blocking my escape.

With one swift movement, I ducked under his arm—or at least tried to—but Ian grabbed the edge of the jacket that I was still holding to pull me back toward him.

For a few seconds, we played tug-of-war before I realized what I was doing and released the jacket.

He stumbled backward a few steps like it was a rubber band.

“You should take that back. It is yours after all.”

To my surprise, Ian shook his head and handed the jacket back to me. “I can’t. If I take it now then everyone will wonder why you had my jacket in the first place, and then your secret’s out.”