Page 27 of Let's Talk About Love

Alice closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. She had cleared one hurdle only to collide into the next one.Yes, she thought,scare him off with your TV obsession, why don’t you?

“For the record,” Takumi said, making her look up. “I think you’re very, very cute, too.” He smiled, took one step before turning back. “I realize that could have been construed as sexual harassment. I’m sorry. You said it about Essie and, uh, yeah. I’m sorry.”

Alice, who had entered a slight state of shock, managed to say, “It’s okay,” without smiling hard enough to make her cheeks hurt, but, oh Good Lord, was it coming.

“If you could not tell anyone I said that, it’d be stellar.”

Stellar. Oh, what a cute word that was. “It’ll be our secret,” she promised.

“Thanks.”

“You’re very, very welcome.”

He grinned and left the room.

Alice sat back in her chair, letting her smile erupt over her face like a happy volcano. She texted Feenie:

And Alice couldn’t resist giving her a teaser for the conversation they’d have later that night:

CHAPTER

11

“Hey, you’re home.” Feenie leaned against the door frame of Alice’s room. “No work tonight?”

“I called in sick.” Her first counseling appointment was in two hours.

(She wasn’t nervous. Nope.)

“What’s wrong?” Feenie was across the room in seconds, stretching out on the bed next to her.

“Nothing worth talking about.” Alice had spent the morning thinking of exactly what she wanted to talk about with the counselor. Her list wouldn’t stop growing—from one-word bullet points to paragraphs of frenzied exasperation. She wrote and wrote and wrote until her hand cramped, until she could barely read her own writing, until she was near tears and emotionally exhausted.

(This appointment was going to suck.)

“Everything is worth talking about with you.” Feenie snorted. “Anyway, I’ve come up with some new rules for the Takumi Trials. It’s good that you figured out you can’t tell if he’s flirting or not, but Ithink Essie is super unreliable, so anytime you and Takumi have an important interaction, you have to text me so I can interpret on the spot and we can plan the next steps accordingly.”

“I can’t do that. I’m supposed to be working.”

“Like anything happens at alibrary. They’re not going to care if you text me. Just don’t be super obvious about it. I do it all the time.”

“And,” Alice continued, “Essie keeps pairing us together. He’s always right there. He’ll see me texting and will ask about it.”

“So? Lie to him. Also, ‘keeps’? Two nonconsecutive shifts is hardly a pattern.”

“And I don’t even know if I want him to flirt with me, though. I like that he goes along with my jokes.”

“So you definitely want to be his friend?”

“I didn’t say that.” Alice rolled over onto her side. “I don’t think it’s going to go the way you want it to.”

“And what way is that?” Feenie grinned. “Don’t you get it? This is good! I need to know things like this. You’re making progress, but I can’t help you if you withhold information from me. He thinks you’re cute and admitted it. That’s like steps one through three already done.”

“So? I think he’s cute, too. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“I think it does.”

“Well, I’ve decided it doesn’t. Mind over matter.”