“Fine,” she says with a drop of her arms. She plops onto the couch, dropping her notebook on the coffee table and grabbing the remote. “But you know what this means, right?”
“No,” I sigh, accepting defeat without ever putting up a fight. Why bother? I owe her, after all.
I fall onto the couch beside her with just enough space between us. “But I can tell I’m not gonna like it.”
“Oh, you’re gonnaloveit, baby.” Her playful devious grin lights up my chest, placing a smile on my lips without even trying.
“Oh, so it’s okay whenyousay it?”
“Ew, shut up!” she says with a punch to my shoulder. I chuckle and rub my arm in response.
She searches through the streaming networks before she finds her selection. When her eyes illuminate, my heart warms. I realize I’ve been watching her the entire time, so I force my eyes to the TV, my smile falling.
“No.”
“Yes!” she nearly squeals.
“Allie,no. Please—”
“Yup. Consider it payback for making me trek all this way for nothing.”
“It’s like six blocks!” I defend. I wasn’t going to complain, but this hardly seems fair.
“And it’s raining, which makes it worse. I believe someone you know personally considered rainhighly inconvenient, no?”
“It’s barely even drizzling.” My hand motions to the window as I give her a pleading look, begging for another option. The shimmer in her eyes tells me she’s already won. I wouldn’t stand a chance if I wanted to. “Ugh,” I grunt, my head falling backward. “Thisonetime!”
She giggles victoriously, and then she hits play.
I take a deep breath, letting the consequence of my actions completely roll over me as the opening credits ofThe Notebookbegin to mark the screen.
ALANA
“Was that not the greatest love story of all time?” I ask through the knot in my throat. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I can nevernotcry.
“Jake?” He’s been silent for the last twenty minutes. His lips puckered as he bites the inside of his cheek. “Hello?”
“Tell me why that’s a great story.”
His tone is flat and almost…heavy. It takes me by surprise.
“Well, I mean…they loved each other. They were meant to be. He waited for her—”
“And then she gets Alzheimer’s anddies,” he counters.
“Well, they die together, but after living a whole lifetime with one another.”
He releases a breath. “That’s horrible.”
“Aww,Jakey,” I tease as I nudge his shoulder, trying my best to lighten the mood. “Are you sad?”
“Yes, I’m sad. That was a sad story!”
I hold back a laugh, tucking my lips between my teeth.
“That was worse thanTitanic,and that movie kills me.”
“You…” I trail off, trying my hardest not to giggle. “You cry atTitanic?”
