I move toward her, dipping my head to look into her eyes that won’t leave mine. “I’m going to press one more time.”
Hazel swallows. She’s so close I can smell the cherry on her lips. Then, before either of us says anything else, she puts her mouth on mine.
The kiss takes my breath away. It feels like it isn’t the first one between us—and that it won’t be our last. If the air wasn’t charged before, it’s full-on vibrating now.
But then Hazel pulls back, and I immediately miss her mouth.
She steps away. “Oh my—I’m so sorry,” she mumbles, pressing her knuckles to her lips.
I move forward to meet her. “I’m not.”
Her cheeks flood with pink. “I don’t know why I did that.”
“Whywedid that.” Because I undeniably kissed her right back. I swear I see a sparkle in her eye.
In an instant, the sparkle turns to sadness. “On any other night,this might’ve had a future,” she says. “We’d get pizza. Maybe gelato. But I just… I need to leave tonight in the past.”
I hope she doesn’t mean permanently. A pang of disappointment hits me, but I understand where she’s coming from. I’ve had those days, too. “Being with you in the present was enough,” I manage.
She bites down a smile. “That’s so cheesy.”
“Just like the pizza we’ll never have. Or we can rain check it,” I offer.
Hazel looks down at the ground.
“You don’t have to explain anything. Just… here.” I locate the Advil box in the bag. “Don’t forget this.” I drop the pain reliever into her bag and slip the lottery ticket in with it.
“Thanks for the medical attention,” she says, shouldering her bag. “See you at the next fortune-crashing.”
And with that, she’s gone.
Chapter 4
HAZEL
I wake up the next morning with a throbbing headache.
I need to leave tonight in the past?
I groan into my pillow. Why did I have to say that to the one good thing about yesterday?
And because my brain can’t help itself, I run through my other mistakes like a mantra. The layoff. My lost bracelet. The fortune reading. Kissing a stranger.
But if I’m honest with myself, kissing Logan didn’t feel like a slipup. I’m just going to chalk it up to the way he gently took care of me in my weakened state. He was a spot of sunshine in a shitty day. I wanted to bask in that warmth for as long as I could. I wanted one good thing.
I mentally edit my list. Kissing Logan wasn’t a mistake. Leaving him at that bodega was.
And okay, maybe walking away from millions of dollars was, too.
It’s that last part that makes me doubt any of it happened at all. Winning the lottery? Yeah, right.
If not for the Hello Kitty Band-Aids on my arm, I’d think yesterday was one big disaster of a dream. One that could do without analyzing. I trace my fingers along the outline of Kitty’s face, remembering how Logan’s rough fingers felt against my skin.
The fact of the matter is that I should not know how strangers taste. Or how this particular one’s mouth feels on mine. I also should not know that he has exactly three crinkles next to each eye when he smiles or laughs. Which is often.
And I really should not know that he’s someone who can quickly unnerve me in a way no one ever has.
Maybe I was low enough to think I could change the prophecy by doing the opposite of what I should do. Or I was trying to throw what’s written in my future off its tracks.
