“Unfortunately.”
“He seemed…confused.”
“I think his brain short-circuited trying to figure out how his boring ex ended up with you.”
Anthony squeezes my hand. “You’re the least boring person I’ve ever met. You have entertaining views on pretty much everything.”
I shrug. “Chad never bothered to get to know me well enough to figure that out.”
“His loss,” Anthony says.
And the way he says it, without a flicker of doubt, soothes a place inside me that I didn’t know was still bruised.
“The best part was his friends fawning all over you. Chad hates not being the center of attention. He’d have hated them all wanting selfies with you.”
“Talking about selfies, do you want to take one together?” Anthony asks.
He pulls out his phone and looks at me expectantly.
I stop walking. “What?”
“Well, Chad’s friends got photos with me. Seems only fair that you get one too.”
“Ah…okay.” I can definitely think of worse things than having this moment immortalized. Even if things don’t work outbetween us, I will always have memories of this perfect extended date.
Anthony puts his arm around me and pulls me in close while extending his phone with his other arm. But instead of taking just a regular photo of us both smiling, he turns and kisses my cheek just as he takes it.
The result is a photo where I’m looking at the camera with a wide grin on my face, my eyes crinkled, while Anthony’s lips are pressed to my cheek.
It’s intimate, sweet, and perfect.
He studies the photo for a moment. Then he starts typing on his phone.
“What are you doing?”
He shows me his screen. He’s on Instagram, the photo uploaded with the caption:
Thanks to everyone who asked if my date with Nick went well. Given it’s been sixteen hours and we’re still on it, I think it’s fair to say it’s going extremely well.
“Are you okay if I post this?” he asks.
I stare at the photo he’s uploaded, my heart doing something complicated in my chest. “Are you asking me if I want to make us Instagram official?”
When I glance up, his dark eyes are fixed on me. “I guess I am.” He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I think we have something real here, don’t you?”
My heartbeat is pounding in my ears, and I meet his eyes. “Yeah, I think we do.”
“So?” He’s still holding the phone, thumb hovering over the Share button.
I take a shaky breath. “What will being your Instagram-official boyfriend mean?”
“It’ll mean that we hang out lots when I’m in town, both at my apartment and yours. It’ll mean that when I’m on tour, we pretty much continue what we’ve been doing, messaging each other constantly, telling each other small details of our days, although I’d like to add in some video calls as well.”
“Video calls could be fun,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Having experienced how thin your walls are, there will be a limit to the amount of phone sex we’ll have, but you know, I’m open to giving you a key to my place so you can go there and have some privacy when I’m gone.”
“You want to give me a key to your place?”
