“Hmm, I guess we have. Well then, why the warning?”
“We’re going to a more public space.”
“Okay then, bring it on. I’m excited. Think grown men will cry? I hope they do.”
“I hope they don’t.”
“Wait,are we going to Granville Island on the aquabus?” Blakely asks as we walk down the dock toward a brightly lined boat.
“We are.”
“Aw, I’ve always wanted to do this. Perry gets seasick very quickly, so we never got to experience the aquabus, and I don’t know why I just mentioned my ex-boyfriend on our date. Please forget I said anything about him, and let’s move on from this comment.”
I laugh. “It’s okay.”
“I know he’s not your favorite human.”
I flash our tickets to the boat captain and lead Blakely to the head of the boat where we sit on one of the benches. It’s small so we don’t have a lot of room to work with, but thankfully, we’re the only ones on board for the moment.
“Would I be friends with Perry? Probably not,” I say as I place my arm behind Blakely on the bench. “But I don’t hate the guy. I think he’s a moron and, fuck was I a jealous asshole when you were with him, but I’m sure he has good qualities. I just don’t care to find them out.”
She chuckles. “That’s a very honest answer.”
“That’s the point of this, Blakely. Getting to know you, being honest, and not holding back on anything.”
“I appreciate that,” she says and turns toward me. “So then, tell me about the first time you met me. What were your thoughts?”
“My thoughts?” I ask. “As in what did I think when I first saw you?”
“Yes,” she answers.
I tug on a strand of her hair and twist it around my finger as I say, “Well, I thought ‘holy fuck, this woman is gorgeous.’”
She gives me a get real look. “Seriously, Halsey.”
“I’m being fucking serious. You stunned me. It was your eyes that captivated me first. And then you smiled, and I was fucking gone. I honestly don’t think I heard one thing the entire time you talked to me. I was so caught up in the fact that I was feeling something for someone. I hadn’t felt anything since my brother died.”
She sits taller. “Really?”
“Yes,” I answer. “I was pretty dead inside, Blakely. I shut down after Holden passed, and when I met you, I felt this sudden zap of life inside me. Like this fog had momentarily parted and let me see something, someone outside of my dreary life. You rocked me, and I knew I needed to learn about you. I didn’t talk that much that day, but what I did say, I know it was more than I’d said to a stranger since losing Holden.”
“Oh my God, Halsey, I had no idea.”
“How would you know? It’s not like I told you. And when I was signing all those things for you, I just kept thinking, how can I ask this girl out? I was fucking nervous, but I felt this deep need inside me not to part without giving it a shot. That was until you mentioned you had a boyfriend.”
“No, stop, I did?”
I nod. “You don’t remember?” When she shakes her head, I continue. “You were talking about how you were playing fuck, chuck, and marry with Perry, and you chucked me and felt bad about it since you met me.”
“Why the hell would I say that to you?”
I laugh as the boat starts, and we pull into the water.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “But it was the subtle hint that I needed that you were off limits. I swallowed my crush, and I sat on it. The boys found out at one point, and once they did, theystarted dropping hints like . . . asking how I thought you looked that day, in front of you.”
“Really?” she asks with such a cute smile. “I don’t remember any of this. What would you say?”
“That you looked beautiful. That the color you were wearing looked really good on you. Just little things here and there.”
