Page 128 of Meet Me In The Dark

Celeste hums around a mouthful of chocolate. “Yep. That’s the gist.”

“And this makes sense to you?”

She shrugs and curls deeper into my side. “Not really, but it’s entertaining as hell.”

I watch as some jerk on the screen moves from one room to another, flirting hisway through women.

“They just sit there and believe whatever bullshit comes out of his mouth?”

Her gaze flickers to mine. “It’s a bit like how we met.”

That’s just fucking offensive.

“Celeste, this is nothing like how we met.”

Laughing, she shoves another piece of chocolate into her mouth.

She’s been here for days.

I don’t even know how it happened.

One second, I was telling her to get some rest, and the next, I was making excuses for her not to leave.

Neither of us have brought it up.

I glance down at her, noticing the faint flush on her cheeks and her eyes that are brighter than they’ve been all week. She’s healthier. Stronger. Still a goddamn force of nature.

Superwoman, currently sighing over a grown man reciting bad poetry through a wall.

I shake my head. “You’re really into this, aren’t you?”

“Shhh,” she hisses. “He’s about to drop the L-bomb, and he’s only known her for four days.”

I blink at the screen as the dude wipes a tear from his eye, the words “I love you” slipping from his lips like they’ve been rehearsed in a mirror.

I turn back to Celeste, waiting.

She lets out a dreamy sigh.

“He’s a fucking fraud.”

She whacks me with a throw pillow.

Minutes later, I notice the change in her body before she speaks—her toes gently pressing into my leg, the restless way her fingers fidget with the edge of her T-shirt.

“Alright, out with it.”

Sighing, she drags her lip between her teeth. “I’m nervous.”

“About what?”

“Sex.”

I feel my stomach tighten. “You’re nervous about sex?”

She nods, gaze fixed on the TV, like she’s not sure she actually wants to talk about this but is pushing herself through it anyway.

“What if it hurts again? I mean, Dr. Patel says I won’t know until I try, and the last time was likely because I was… well, you know… about to get my period. I like Dr. Patel. I really do. But he’s still got a penis and not a uterus.”