“Really?” Young Skyla looks smitten with this idea.
“Really”—I pause—“I had to break it off with her, but she didn’t want to.”
“What do you meanhad to?” She bats those doe eyes up at him and I wonder how I ever held it together around her.
“Two Celestra make a very big bull’s-eye.”
“Oh.” She looks crestfallen by the news.
“Two Celestra dating are too stupid to live,” this younger version of me says it as if it were gospel, but it isn’t.
“Excuse me?” She bucks back, affronted.
“You and I, we can’t see each other anymore”—he takes in a breath—“not publicly.”
“So, we’ll date in private.” There’s a slight air of panic in her voice.
“It’s not that simple. We need to take it a step further.”
The younger Skyla shakes her head as if trying to process it.
“You need to have a boyfriend,” I insist like an idiot. “A real person who everyone thinks—believes you’re with.”
I give Skyla a squeeze and she tips her ear my way. “This is the part where I’d like to slap my head right off.”
Skyla gives a quiet giggle. “You mean before Chloe slices it off in the Faction war?”
The younger Skyla scoffs. “Who in their right mind is going to agree to that?”
“Gage.” I watch as I close my eyes when I say his name.
“Gage,” she repeats. “His prediction—it’s probably a fake marriage.”
“Let’s hope.” I watch as the old me twists his lips, hoping that just this once Gage Oliver’s prognosticator is broken.
“So, when does this start?” She blinks up at him as if he truly had all the answers.
“I think it should take effect now. And trust me. Gage made it clear that he would make this very believable.”
I give Skyla’s ribs a quick tweak as we watch the doe-eyed pair beneath us.
“He made it pretty darn believable,” I whisper.
Her chest bucks. “He should be up for an Oscar.”
The younger version of Skyla seems to be reminiscing on something, and I remember exactly on what—that kiss she shared with Gage.
“I know.” It croaks from the old me mournfully.
“I’m so sorry,” she pleads, but she never had to.
“Don’t be. I was stupid to let Michelle hang all over me.”
I nod to the angel in my arms. “I was.”
Skyla lifts her finger to her lips. “We’re getting to the good part, Oliver.”
The younger Skyla’s chest trembles, and I wonder if I noticed that the first time.
