“Because I miss you. Because the past week has been awful. Because staying away from you is killing me,” I admit.
“Oh,” she breathes.
“So what do you say? Want to have dinner with me?”
Her sadness melts away and the most beautiful smile lights up her face. I want to be responsible for making her happy every day.
“I’d love to go for dinner with you, Phillip.”
CHAPTER 13
TALLY
Iusher Flip into my apartment and close the door so I can release Parsnip, who is clawing my arms in an attempt to escape them. He does a backflip off my chest and promptly rubs himself on Flip’s legs. Show-off.
“Do you want to come in? Can I get you anything?”
“I’m good. Why don’t you just grab what you need.” Flip tucks one hand in his pocket, a smile kicking up the corner of his perfectly luscious mouth as Parsnip continues to rub himself on his shins.
“I’ll grab my purse.”And fix my face.
“Okay.”
I walk backwards a couple of steps. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be right here with my new best friend.”
“His name is Parsnip, and he loves pets.”
“We have that in common, then.”
I almost trip over one of Parsnip’s many toy mice. “I won’t be long.”
I rush down the hall and throw myself into my bedroom, making sure Parsnip hasn’t followed me before I gently close the door. I grab my Flip body pillow from my bed, run to thebathroom, shut that door too, and scream into the soft fabric. “Oh my God, oh my God,oh my God.”
I hold Flip’s two-dimensional face at arm’s length. “We are going out for dinner!”
He smirks back at me.
“Is this a date? Should I call it a date? I don’t even know.”
What if I’m having some kind of episode? What if I’m hallucinating?
I open the bathroom door and shove my Flip pillow into the closet, in case this isn’t a fabrication of my mine, tucking it behind my clothes. I take a deep centering breath, then quietly open my bedroom door, and peek into the hall. Parsnip slips through the crack.
Flip’s back is to me, and he’s perusing my bookshelf.
Flip is in my apartment, and we are going out for dinner.
Just the two of us.
This is like…a dream come true. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and it’s happening right now.
I close the door again and slide down my wall, my legs suddenly too unsteady to hold me up. I’m instantly sweaty. Parsnip climbs in my lap. “Holy shit, ’Snip.” I cuddle him. “I don’t even know what this means.”
I do some deep breathing and finally peel myself off the floor and force my unsteady legs to carry me to the bathroom. I cringe at my reflection and set Parsnip on the vanity. “I need to manage these eyes.” They’re puffy from crying.
Parsnip meows and taps the faucet, unconcerned with my face. I turn the water on, and he sticks his head under the thin stream, letting it run down his forehead like a weirdo as he drinks from the sink.
