“We don’t have to,” I told him, not wanting Jake to feel like I was keeping him on the hook for anything. “It’s in the past. We’ve both moved on. And after this week, it’s not like you’ll be here for me.”
I shut my eyes tight before blinking, trying to will the fogand glassiness away. I really needed to get ahold of my mouth; who knows what stupid thing I’d say next now that my inhibitions had taken a vacation and were currently doing the conga line on some tropical island along with my dignity.
“You’ll just walk right out of my life again, anyway,” I finished.
Jake watched me closely, like I was something he was desperately trying to divine an answer from. “Do you really believe that?”
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” I sighed. It was what it was. I just had to stop myself from missing him. It’s not like he deserved it, if he didn’t miss me. I guess he hadn’t ever meant to hurt me either. But had he seriously believed I’d never cared about him that much, that his absence wouldn’t affect me? “It’s not important.”
My eyes drifted shut.
Vaguely, I registered Jake settling a blanket over me.
“Lucy,” he said, his voice feather soft, “youarethe most—”
But the darkness overtook me before I could hear what he said.
Chapter Nineteen
“Leon’s got no boundaries,” Phillip tells me from across the diner booth. “Now, that we can agree on,” Aspen adds. “He’s always lounging in your personal space or stealing food off you.” “That’s not true,” Leon protests loudly, from where he’s currently resting his elbow on Jake’s shoulder and snacking on fries. Jake, for his part, merely looks down at his own suspiciously empty plate and laments, “I’m pretty sure those fries were mine.”
—“A Diner Date with US: The Interview”
When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Leon.
He sat on the edge of a footstool, munching a piece of toast, looking at some book, and appearing right at home inmyhome. What was he doing here?
When I stirred, Leon didn’t stop chewing, but looked up with curious, unblinking eyes. It reminded me of the cats when I was a little kid and used to fall asleep in the café and then wake up to them watching over me.
“You okay?” Leon asked.
I propped myself up on my elbows. I still felt tired, but not sluggish, and the world no longer blurred together like I was spinning around in a teacup ride. “Yeah, better.”
“Oh good,” Leon said, exhaling a happy little sigh of relief. He shoved more toast into his mouth. Where had he gotten that? “Jake just said you weren’t feeling good and to watch you. I didn’t know if you had that thing where you, like, forgot to breathe while you were asleep. If you died under my watch, Jake would kill me.”
“That’s sleep apnea. Which is a concerning medical condition... that I don’t have. I wasn’t going to die.” I rolled my eyes. Cats and boy band members. So dramatic.
“Hey, this is you and Jake, right?” Leon asked, holding up the book in his hands.
Wait. That was Mom’s photo album. What was he doing looking through that?
I squinted at the photo Leon was tapping. It was a super old one of Jake and me on school career day. I wore a plastic stethoscope around my neck and had a plush cat tucked under my arm, because even back then, I’d dreamed of becoming a vet. Jake had a microphone, because, well, you know.
“Kind of predictable, though,” Leon commented. “You two really never switched it up, did you?” He grinned down at the photo, way too delighted. “Look at your little baby faces.”
I stared at him, not sharing any of his enthusiasm. “You’ve been going through my photos?”
“The book was on the coffee table,” Leon said defensively. “I thought it was like when there are magazines and stuff in waiting rooms. It was just sitting there going,Flip through me!” Hewiggled the book like it was actually speaking to him, and said the last three words in a high-pitched voice. Because, apparently, talking photo albums had squeaky voices.“I saw the picture of you mid-laugh after you got your blue ribbon at the science fair, by the way. You want to tell me who was behind the camera who made you smile like that, or are you going to make me guess?”
I glared.
Leon seemed more than happy to ignore it.
“There were some serious heart eyes going on too,” he continued, all caffeinated and conversational. I never thought I’d miss cranky, coffee-less Leon, but I really did. At least that version of him didn’t literally nose around in my personal life. “I swear you turned into that little emoji. You know the one.”
I grimaced. Had I been that obvious and easy to read? HadJakebeen able to tell? The idea made me want to pull the blanket over my head and never come out. Maybe it was good I never told Jake I had a crush on him back then. What if he’d already known and was just ignoring it?
Speaking of Jake . . .
