“Oh, man. My family wouldmurderme if I eloped.” I take a sip from my shake, pondering the idea. “Which means I totally have to do it.”
“Obviously,” he says. “It’s settled, then. Our future visions for what our lives look like are aligned. If this thing works out, we agree to elope and not have kids.”
He raises his hand over the table and I high-five him.
“I still can’t believe I didn’t remember you.” I tilt my head at him,taking in his features as if for the first time. Our original date is still a bit hazy, but it’s bonkers that I didn’t recognize him right away. “You haven’t changed that much in appearance in four years, and I don’t think I have either. Geez, do we need to get our eyes checked or what?”
“Checkyoureyes.” He pops a fry into his mouth. “I remembered you fine.”
“What?”
He stares at me, the picture of casual and calm as I try to grasp what exactly he’s telling me.
“What do you mean, you remembered me? We both forgot all about that first date. That’s what you told me.”
“I never said that,” he says, and I rack my brain for confirmation but can’t quite remember what it is he said after I realized we’d been on this date before. “Leticia, I knew who you were the entire time.”
“But…wait.” I still can’t wrap my head around this. “You were just as confused as I was. How could you possibly have remembered me?”
“Because I saw you back in April.” At this, the edges of hesitation begin to show in the crease at his forehead and the frown pulling his mouth down. “You walked into Havana Bar for my cousin’s scavenger hunt, and I hid behind a barstool.”
“You did?” I try to recall ever seeing him that night. “What else do you remember?”
“We met again briefly after the scavenger hunt, at Angela’s party. We’d barely shaken hands when someone called for your attention. I was…thrown, I guess is the right word. I still had your death glare burned in the back of my brain, hence the hiding behind barstools when I first spotted you. My cousin was fucking with me when she introduced us later, but you didn’t recognize me at all.”
I met so many different people that night, it’s easy to understand how he could’ve gotten lost in the shuffle. And yet, itisn’t. Myfocus was set on Angela and winning the scavenger hunt, despite her changing the incentive at the last minute after falling for Krystal. I was bummed when I lost the competition, sure, but how I could’ve completely overlooked Julian being there that night is baffling.
“How do I have zero memory of this?” I shake my head. “Julian—”
“Then, at the end of August, I came across your profile,” he continues. “I wasn’t going to swipe right. Not at first. The mere memory of you laying into me four years ago was still terrifying as fuck. I’m not sure why I changed my mind.” A low, rough laugh escapes him. “Actually, that’s a lie. I know exactly why. Because even when you’re terrifying, Leticia, you are endlessly fascinating. When we matched, I thought you finally remembered me. It wasn’t until we started messaging for a little bit that I realized you had no idea who I was.”
Tiny aspects of our initial interaction start clicking into place.
Leticia Maldonado, as I live and breathe.
I can’t believe how easy this is.
Talking to you. Last time didn’t work out so well for me.
He didn’t mean the last time he matched with someone on a dating app. He meant the last time we spoke, four years ago. Maybe even the last time we saw each other back in April.
“Hold on a minute, is that why you took so long to respond when I asked you out? Because I didn’t remember you?”
“I was trying to find a good way to say no,” he admits. “Until I finally realized I didn’t want to. Damn the consequences. I had to see you again.”
I had to see you again.There’s no logical explanation for the way those words make my heart race inside my chest. And then we did see each other but our date wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Would everything between Julian and I be completely different if I’d given him a real second chance?
“You’ve really known who I was this whole time?” I ask him.“How come you never said anything? All this time, when we became friends and then slightly more than friends. Why did you never tell me?”
“I didn’t want to scare you.” He blows out a breath. “Even after you agreed to let me take over your dating apps, I was so focused on trying to get you totolerateme, let alone like me as a person.”
“I more than tolerated you,” I grumble. “I just didn’t want you to know that yet.”
“Yeah, I figured that out for myself fairly early on.” He smirks. “Still, you were skittish. Too much all at once would’ve had you running for the hills. Believe it or not, I wanted to ease you into the truth better than this, but…” He shrugs. “I don’t want to lie to you anymore.”
“There are worse lies you could’ve told, I guess,” I admit. “Honestly, though? I feel kind of stupid for not remembering you.”
“You’re not stupid, Leticia,” he says. “It was hard not feeling like a stalker, and then you went and accused me of being one, and I wanted to die of mortification. But it wasn’t like that at all. I never willingly sought you out before August. It was a series of strange coincidences that led me back to you.”
