“Did you see Han’s texts?”
I glanced down at my phone, tapping the screen to illuminate any notifications. I frowned at the most recent text notification.
“Uh, no,” I said, looking back up at Lottie. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, she’s just talking about the new book were reading.” She held my stare for a moment too long and I looked back at the excel sheet on my computer screen. “You haven’t started it yet, have you?”
My fingers drummed on my desk, and I shook my head.
She groaned dramatically, flailing back in her chair. “But it’s so good,” she whined with a pout. “Your boyfriend is taking up too much of your time.”
My heart stuttered at the term. I hadn’t told them that we were using that label.
Her jaw dropped as she stared at me. “Emory Crawford. Is he actually your boyfriend?”
I bit into my lip, butterflies filling up my stomach at the thought of being able to call Enoch mine.
“Yeah.”
She gasped, her hand smacking the desktop and making my pen holder tip over. “Sorry,” she muttered, collecting the pens. “Shut up! You little rascal! Why didn’t you say anything?”
I swallowed, adjusting some paperwork on my desk for something to do with my hands. “We just barely talked about it last night.”
She raised her fist to her chin, leaning against the arm of the chair as she looked on with interest expecting more details. I rolled my eyes.
She flicked her blonde ponytail over her shoulder, wiggling her fingers at me. “Go on. Spill.”
“There’s nothing to spill.”
“Don’t be so coy. How’d it happen?”
I let out a sigh through my nose, my fingers dancing over the fresh pink skin on my forearm. “Well, he asked me if I was seeing anybody else. To which I said no. And then, yeah…he said I was his girlfriend.”
She squinted her eyes at me.Damn your nosey observant ass, Lottie.
“That’s it? He just said, ‘Emory, you’re my girlfriend’?”
She held my stare, waiting for me to budge and I groaned.
“Well, not exactly.” She bit back a smile, but I could see the glee in her eyes. I sighed again, still absently tracing the hypersensitive fresh skin. “He said he’s felt this connection to me since we met in high school. He said…” My mouth twitched with a forming smile. “He told me what my name means in Hebrew. Apparently, it can mean gift. Like, a gift from God. And he believes that I am a gift from God. How we met, parted ways and reconnected now…it does kind of feel like divine intervention.”
I trailed off, flicking my eyes up to study her reaction.
“Em,” she whispered, jaw slack. “That’s…”
She shook her head at a loss for words. I cleared my throat. She shook her head again, the smile returning to her face.
“So, basically, you’re saying he’s your fated mate and you’re living out our entire book club’s dream?”
I threw my head back with a laugh. Our book club consisted of just Hannah, Lottie and I, so it wasn’t saying much that it was their dream to find a fated mate. “Stop!”
She hopped up from her seat and stepped around my desk to pull me up from my chair.
She squealed with excitement, pulling me into her arms as she rocked us back and forth. She abruptly pulled back, face stoic.
“And we’re happy with this right? We like him back?”
I bit down on my lip, staving off the hope sparking in my chest that things would work out for us. I nodded and she returned to her squealing, hopping up and down.
