Page 107 of What I Like About You

Best,

Alyssa Peterson

Senior Publicist—Spark Books

[email protected] | 212-555-5059

EIGHTEEN

Iwake up to the smell of bacon and eggs.

Gramps is at the stove, frying the turkey bacon. Ollie is chopping veggies to the beat of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way.” Scout runs around in circles, sniffing our scraps. I pause in the hallway to watch the well-oiled machine that is Gramps and Ollie making breakfast together and wow, my heart is so happy.

“Morning, Hal,” Gramps says. “How was the movie?”

I hope my lips don’t look as raw as they feel.

“Fun,” I say. “Super fun. Yeah, so fun!”

“Sounds … fun,” Ollie repeats.

We lock eyes and I hope mine scream,We need to talk!!

He gets the message and his look replies,My room after omelets!!

Gramps smiles. “I’m glad. Breakfast?”

I plop into my chair at the kitchen table. “Please.”

Gramps slides a plate in front of me and I basically inhale thefluffy egg, cheesey turkey bacon goodness. Not as good as regular bacon, but Gramps keeps theno porkpart of kosher, which means we can’t have the real deal. Usually, I have a jab or two in me to complain about it, but this morning I’m too famished/anxious to care.

Ollie’s eyebrows ask,What’s going on?

My pursed lips scream,News! News, I have!

I don’t know how I’m so calm because my insides are exploding with all the gooey shit that comes with kissing someone for the first time. It’s the aftereffects of the kiss that remind me it happened, it was real, I didn’t dream it or read it or make it up. I kissed Nash and he kissed me back and I am already thinking about kissing him again.

I’m dying slowly through the longest breakfast ever, I swear. When we’re finished eating, we help Gramps clean up, thank him for the awesome breakfast, and then bolt upstairs to Ollie’s room.

“Tell me everything!” Ollie whisper-screams.

I don’t speak until the door clicks shut behind me. The moment it does, I spill the details of the entire night, from the flirty beginning, to the awkward middle bit, to the perfect ending. I love telling Ollie stories because he is the best listener—he animates at all the right moments.

“Finally!” Ollie says.

“I know.”

“I told you so.”

“You did.”

Ollie plugs his laptop into the TV monitor on his desk andopensToy Storybecause it’s the only appropriate thing to do when something major happens.Toy Storyis one of our many things—we got in heated toddler fights about Woody vs. Buzz.

But now, we share them whenever Something Big happens. Like the morning Mad and Ari got their first nomination. Or the day last year when Ollie kissed Mark Lieberman under the bleachers after hitting the game-winning home run. Or the first time One True Pastry got a shout-out from an author on Twitter.

And now, hours after Nash said,I’m so into you.

It’s definitely aToy Storyoccasion.

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