Page 50 of Let's Talk About Love

“I really want us to be friends.”

Her resulting breathy laugh was about as awkward as you’d imagine it to be.

“What?” he asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

She fell backward, covering her face with her hands.

He had made the distinction between her liking him as a personand her being attracted to him. On his own. The former point seemed to be important to him, which did something strange to her head. Hope was for the heart, not the mind. At least, that’s where hers lived. Takumi saying that meant he might possibly understand if she chose to tell him she was asexual.

Because he could separate attraction from emotional connection.

Alice inhaled, deep but shaky. He had one of those faces that would never stop surprising her. It had been stupid to try to hate him for something he couldn’t control. It was even stupider to hate herself for being unable to control her reaction to him. She decided to let it go. All of it. From that moment forward, none of that would matter anymore.

What mattered was this: the unshakable feeling of being exactly where she wanted to be and with whom she wanted to be with.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” His tentative touch at her elbow almost made her smile.

“I’m fine.”

He stared at her for a moment. “You know you don’t always have to befine, right? It’s okay to not be okay.”

She shrugged. “I don’t like bothering people with my stupid problems.”

“You’re not bothering me.” He made eye contact with her and held it. “Talk to me anytime about anything. I’ll listen.”

Her palms began to tingle. She flipped over onto her stomach, reaching for his phone.

“My music’s not that bad,” he joked.

“I’m giving you my number,” she said, entering herself as♦♦♦ALICE♦♦♦. “Anytime you want to talk, I’ll listen, too.”

CHAPTER

17

“And then what happened?” Feenie asked, clearly distracted. Her palpable disinterest somehow managed not to kill Alice’s buzz. She was probably hung over and unhappy at work. If Feenie were truly upset about something, she wouldn’t have answered the video call.

“We talked for a few hours. Then he brought me home.”

“And?” Feenie asked, impatient. “Did you kiss him?”

“No, we didn’t kiss.” Alice bit her lip, trying to fight her smile. “We did hold hands.”

“Oh my God, are you guys totally going to go steady now? Did you let him see your ankle? Oh God, the scandal! What will the neighbors think?”

“Shut up, you ass.” Alice giggled. “It wasn’t like a date. We just talked and ate pancakes. Well, I had pancakes. He had an egg-white omelet.”

“Did he pay? Because if he did, it was a date.”

“It wasn’t!” Alice said. “He is pretty amazing, though. He’s reallyinto family. He loves them so much. And he’s a photographer! Not professionally or anything, but he’s super passionate about pictures and documenting his life. And he has his own apartment and he—”

“And, and, and.” Only Feenie could roll her eyes with a smile like that and have it come across as endearing (even if Alice wasn’t sure if that’s the way she meant it). “You are so gone on him.”

“I am not. Not in that way. I mean, I could see it. But it’s still kind ofjumbly wumbly.”

“Not sexy-wexy?”

“Not even a little, you jerk. There’s definitely something, though. Which is good.”