Page 61 of My Ex's Best Friend

His eyes widen and his mouth is hanging but no sound is coming out.

“And then you broke my heart. Or I did… But I just want you to know that I’m glad it was you.”

We are both silent for a while just looking at each other.

He takes my hand and squeezes it. “I’m happy it was me, too.”

There’s an accordion player just a few paces away. It feels nice to drown my thoughts in the music.

“What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“I thought we were going to meet up with the museum people again.”

“We haven’t set a hard date with them yet,” Jake says. “Besides, I think they’ll be bored to death with us droning on about restoration two days in a row.”

“That’s their job,” I point out.

“Exactly,” Jake says. “We’re ahead of schedule already. There’s no harm done if we take the day off.”

I turn to him. “But we took yesterday off too. Isn’t that too much?”

“No, I booked a week knowing I was planning some days just for you to sightsee,” he says.

“You did that for me?”

“I did. And I would do it again,” he says with a shrug. “Besides, they loved the presentation, and they loved you. You nailed it, Kiera, and I think you deserve a break.”

“So, what’s the plan?” I say. “Not that I’m condoning you wanting to take a vacation in the middle of a work week.”

“Again, it’s Paris. We practically owe it to ourselves.”

“Okay, fine.”

There’s no point saying no to him. Besides, the thought of taking the day off is definitely intriguing. I have spent sleepless nights working on the presentation, and it’s not like we have slept a lot the last two days, either. Just the thought of it makes my ears grow hot.

“So, it’s a date?” he asks, matter-of-factly.

My heart skips a beat, and I realize that this will be our very first date. We are really doing this.

“It’s a date,” I say.

16

JAKE

I wake up with a sense of anticipation and a smile on my face and get up from bed to start the day.

"Good morning," I greet her with a smile a few minutes later as she wakes up, stretching and rubbing sleep from her eyes.

She smiles at me. “Look at you. You look like a child with candy. What’s up?”

I step forward, cradling her in my arms. “I’ve got everything I need.”

I kiss her deeply and she tries to pull me back down to bed with her.

“Oh no, you don’t. You need to hurry up and get dressed.” I check my watch. “We leave in an hour.”

“What exactly have you planned?” she asks suspiciously.

---