Page 68 of Best I Never Had

“Are we celebrating something?”

I shrug a shoulder. “No.”

“So a diabetic coma is just some…” He pauses, his hands waving over the array of goods. “Lifelong achievement you’ve been striving for?”

I giggle. “Something like that.”

I bound toward my couch with Hayden’s offering in my hand as Hayden plucks the bowl of popcorn from the counter before joining me.

“I feel like you’re lying,” I say, flicking my finger against the rim of his glasses. “Are these even real?”

He dodges my hand. “Why the hell would I wear fake glasses?”

I reach toward his face, removing his glasses and settling them over the bridge of my nose. I regret it when my vision distorts, making me nauseous almost instantly. “Ugh.” I grimace, handing him his glasses back. “Never mind, you definitely aren’t lying.”

He rolls his eyes before settling his glasses back on his face. “So can you explain to me why we’re watching holiday movies in October?”

I shrug. “Because I like them,” I answer, trying to sound as apathetic as possible so he doesn’t pry deeper before adding, “and I’m in the mood for something happy.”

He gives me a wary look with one brow curved higher than the other. When I respond to his silent curiosity with an unsuspecting smile, his lips purse together into a firm line before he nods as if opting not to ask further. “What did you decide on?”

“I thought we could start strong with a Halloween movie since it’s October, but a non-scary one, and then move on to a Christmas one.” Myhand grips the remote as I gently place the box on the coffee table and plop on the couch.

“What!” he argues incredulously, standing above me in front of the couch. “How can you do a non-scary Halloween movie?”

“Ever heard of Casper the Friendly Ghost?” I pat the cushions, motioning for him to sit.

He rolls his eyes, throwing a loose popcorn kernel at me before he sinks into his side of the couch. “Fine,” he surrenders. “But I get to choose the Christmas movie.”

“As long as it’s a chick-flicky, Hallmark Channel type one.”

“All right,” he announces, setting the popcorn bowl on my coffee table. “I’m out of here.”

I lunge for his arm, grasping onto his wrist as I tug him back toward the couch. “Okay! Okay, you pick.”

I cling to his arm as he tries to shake me off. He laughs as my grip on his arm tightens, making me look like a little koala bear on a tree branch.

“Okay, Marquez!” he exclaims. “I’ll stay.”

I let out a small squeal as I link my arm through his and lean into him.

“Wow, you really are a brat,” he says as we both face the TV.

“No, I’m not,” I pout.

He reaches up to my face, pinching my cheek between his index finger and thumb. I reach up to flick the lip of his hat, making it tumble off his head. He smirks at my antics, his lips twisting into a small smile.

“It’s okay,” he says, his hands moving to pinch my cheek again before I slap it away. “You’re still cute.”

Halfway intoHome Alone 2: Lost in New York, I shift to face Hayden.

“I don’t understand the appeal for humor based on other people’s pain.” My voice filters over the sounds of Marv Murchins’s high-pitched screams.

“Here,” Hayden says, running his hand through his mussed-up hat hair. “You pick.” He lazily extends the remote in my direction. As I tentatively take it from him, he stretches his hands above his head, raising the bottom hem of his sweatshirt and exposing a sliver of a happy trail down the center of his stomach.

“I thought I wasn’t allowed to pick.”

“It’s fine,” he answers through a yawn.

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