Page 11 of Let's Talk About Love

“Alphabetical. Last name.”

“I noticed that.”

“Right. Of course.”

He grinned, making eye contact with Alice. She stood up straighter, holding her breath, counting to ten, and releasing it slowly.

Takumi twirled his badge between his fingers. “So what do I do?”

Alice pointed to the red box. “Just swipe it and you’re set. Clock in and out for lunch. Breaks are paid time.”

“Now what?”

“I’m not sure exactly. Essie only wanted me to show you how toclock in. I guess you can wait here for her to come back. I have to get to work.”

“Is that for me?”

Alice handed him the forgotten handbook she’d been holding the entire time.

“Okay. Bye.”

CHAPTER

5

“Why are you crying? What happened?” Feenie’s concerned face filled the screen on Alice’s phone.

She had been curled under her blankets for the past hour trying to get it together. Gasping hiccups kept ripping out of her throat, her nose wasn’t so much a nose anymore, rather a snot-filled mess, and her eyes were oh so swollen. She was so distraught she had even skipped dinner.

(Alice did not skip meals, ever.)

(That was tantamount to treason in Alice-Land.)

“H-he l-looked at m-me a-and I—” She hadn’t cried this hard since she had watched theFringeseries finale.

“I can’t understand you. Take a breath, woman.”

She breathed in and it came out as a sob. “And h-he probably th-thinks I’m really stupid n-now.”

“Oh, good God. I take an emergency break to talk to you and you’re incoherent,” Feenie mumbled. “Who ishe?”

That made Alice cry even harder, because guilt was an abusive bastard.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened.” Feenie sighed. She pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. “Would you rather talk to Ryan? He’s better than me with the emotional crying thing.”

“No.”Feenie was the only person she wanted to talk to abouthim.

“Then suck it up and talk.”

In elementary school, while all of Alice’s friends had talked about boys they liked, she had kept quiet.

In middle school, she had pretended to have a crush on Patrick Furlong so she would have someone to talk about, too.

(This was where she had begun to perfect the art of playing along.)

In high school, Alice had gone all out, pretending to be hopelessly in love with Sam Oliphant. She had damn near snatched thethis love is our destinycrown right off Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane Winthrop’s head.

(Passionsremained the only soap opera Alice had ever watched.)