Page 65 of Yours, Unexpectedly

“Are you ready for me now?”

He reaches around and grabs the bottom of my chair, scooting me until our thighs are squished together. His hand comes up to stroke my cheek, green eyes gazing at me with what can only be described as adoration. “I’ve done a lot of work on myself to get ready for you, Rebecca. I’m ready now. I’m not saying everything will be perfect and we’ll never stumble. But you are worth it to me. We are worth it. The question is, are you ready?”

“I think I am. I know I want to try. You believe in us and I want to, too.” I take a deep breath and then remember what started this conversation. “I also just can’t believe you remember that night,” I laugh, shaking my head.

“How could I forget it? You looked fucking adorable and I already had a crush on you anyway just from coming to Sunday dinners.”

I lean my forehead down on his shoulder, unable to believe that I’m here with Anders freaking Olsson, and he’s felt the same things that I have for all these years. “I also need you to realize that we’ve become those people.”

“What kind of people?” he asks.

“You know. Those couples that sit on the same side of the table because they are so sickeningly obsessed with each other that they can’t stand being apart.”

He puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer to him.

“Baby Bardot, I’ve been dying to be ‘those people’ with you.”

He punctuates that statement with a kiss to my forehead, and my heart swoons even more for this man.

“Dick told me you have a new girlfriend. Why haven’t I heard about her?” Dad asks after I’ve been summoned into his office.

What I want to say is that I didn’t tell him because of the way he acted around the last one. What I say instead is, “Gwen isn’t really my girlfriend.”

He thinks about that for a moment, eyes that mirror mine trying to decide if I’m lying or not. “Bring her for dinner. Tuesday night.”

Fuck.

Bex and I decided that I should be the one to talk to Gabe first. He’s my best friend and I want to make sure he understands just how serious I am about his sister, which is going to be a better conversation without her in the room. She’s not even ready to hear some of the things I want to tell Gabe. Namely, that I fucking love her.

After I drop Bex off, I walk up to our apartment fully ready to hype Gabe up about this relationship. I also already texted Callahan asking to meet before class tomorrow morning so I feel like things are really starting to fall into place.

As soon as I open the door, I’m greeted with the image of Gabe pacing back and forth. Our apartment is not that big so he makes it from the kitchen island to the back of the couch in about five paces before turning and doing the whole thing again. He doesn’t even register my presence, that’s how in his head he is. I immediately know something is wrong.

“Everything okay?” I ask in greeting.

His head snaps up at my question. “Thank God you’re home.” He walks over to me and grabs my shoulders. “I fucked up.”

“Okay… what exactly did you fuck up?” I’m scared to know the answer.

“I kissed Luci.”

Gabe has been panicking for the last thirty minutes, and I still can’t convince him to just sit the fuck down and tell me exactly what happened. He’s stressing me out.

“I did it all wrong,” he says again, running his hands through his already messed up hair, gripping the ends tightly.

“Right, so you’ve said. But I still don’t understand what the fuck happened.”

Finally, he sits down on the edge of the chair across from me, bouncing his leg up and down.

“I don’t really understand it either,” he admits. “I’ve—shit. I like her? It feels juvenile to say that. She… she’s Bex’s best friend. But she just, like, calms me, you know?”

I do know. Unfortunately, I know because of his sister which I still haven’t been able to tell him about.

He continues before I have a chance to interject. “Wait, sorry, of course you don’t know because you don’t really do serious relationships.” He rests his face in his hands, not even realizing the sting of his words.

“I do know, actually.” I really shouldn’t start this now but he’s kind of pissing me off.

He looks at me through his fingers. “Because of the secret girl you’ve been sneaking around with?” He raises an eyebrow in question.

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