Page 116 of The Wedding Engagement

Arran

Her heart pounding, Liv peered inside the envelope. David Tennant’s smiling face greeted her, glued onto the badge that Arran had worn on their blind date. David’s face went fuzzy as tears misted her eyes. She pinned him onto her jacket, fingering the badge as she left the house and trying to quiet her racing mind and heart.

—

Tuesday came, and Liv feltlike she must have read Arran’s letter a million times, her heart still pounding each time she did. She still hadn’t been able to bring herself to take off his T-shirt, as if she might jinx things by removing it.

Her mind was numb from trying to analyze everything he’d said in the letter. Could he and Jess already have decided they weren’t going to make another go of it? Wasn’t that too quick a decision? She didn’t know what to think anymore.

She made her way to the front door and grabbed her bag, a piece of toast hanging from her mouth. Another letter was peeking out from the letterbox. Her mouth dropped open, the toast falling and smacking onto the floor. She stepped over it in her hurry to grabthe envelope. Again, her name was written on the front in Arran’s handwriting. This time she dashed to the window next to the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of him leaving the area. But there was nobody there.

She ripped it open.

Dear Aggie,

Day two. I feel like I haven’t seen you in years. I miss you, sweetheart. There are two confessions I need to make.

I still sleep with and smell your T-shirt every night (see enclosed picture).

I love the way you look in a wet T-shirt. Yes, I looked.

Love, always,

Arran

Liv stuck her fingers into the envelope and pulled out a Polaroid, slapping a hand over her mouth as laughter erupted from her lips. It was a photo of Arran, pouting into the camera and wearing her T-shirt. It was so tiny on him that the sleeves were skintight around the tops of his biceps, his muscles bulging from underneath. The top hugged the upper half of his torso tightly, revealing the outline of his pecs, and the hem lay at mid-abdomen, exposing his glorious abs.

She leaned against the door for a moment, a wave of dizziness washing over her. Then she opened the door and left for work, tucking the photo carefully into her bag.

—

On Wednesday morning she aboutbounded down the stairs to the front door before even showering, desperate to see if another envelope awaited her. And there was indeed one present. But again, nobody was visible when she peered out the window.

Dear Aggie,

Morning, sweetheart. Hope you slept well. Day three, and I wanted to remind you of our cozy little hiding place and to tell you that I miss my half and half pizza buddy.

Love, always,

Arran

The Polaroid inside was of Arran inside the fort, patting the area next to him and holding an open pizza box with half a veggie supreme and half a pepperoni pizza inside.

She ran upstairs to grab her phone, texting a message to Maya.

Arran has been posting messages and tokens of our friendship through my door every morning. What should I do?

Maya messaged back:

They aren’t tokens of *friendship* dummy . And I’m not allowed to talk to you about it. Arran told us all to give you space and not hassle you.

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