Page 234 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

I wanted to tell him I loved him for the first time in person.

Wanted to feel his smile.

Wanted to see his expression.

Wanted to twist my hands in that dark, dark hair and prove to him that he wasn’t the only person who was capable of giving chase.

It was raining, like a cheap rom-com. The kind Alex had privately admitted he loved.

This would be a ridiculous gesture of disastrous proportions.

By all rights—a horrible, terrible, bad decision.

My worst yet.

It could go so wrong.

But…

It could go so right, too.

It’d be a declaration as silly, as dramatic as we both were.

And that was…perfect, wasn’t it?

The perfect conclusion to our love affair.

We’d started this thing together—and we were going to end it that way too. At least, if I had anything to say about it.

If someone had told me it’d take less than a week for me to fall in love again, I would have laughed in their face. I would have scoffed and growled, and possibly stormed off. The sentiment was frankly ludicrous. And yet…that’s what I’d gone and done.

Mom was right.

It was time to choose my own happiness.

Maybe the best things in life had no logic at all. Because I certainly felt excited at the prospect of seeing Alex again. Of surprising him. Of watching his eyes go wide. Of breaching that distance between us for the final time.

Pulled out of my thoughts, I recognized a familiar glint of silver. Frowning, I moved my bag out of the way, horror dawning when I realized what exactly I was seeing. Alex’s watch. His special, precious—most prized possession….on the floor.

I’d heard a little thunk when I’d retrieved my phone but I hadn’t thought anything of it.

Reaching down, my heart skipped a beat as my fingers met the worn metal.

There were a lot of dings in it, betraying its many years. The watch face didn’t move, stuck forever on 6:52. Running my thumb over the smooth surface, I struggled to breathe.

Brendon’s texts sat open on my phone screen. I’d read them. They’d incited no reaction.

But this?

This was…

I pressed my lips to the watch face, eyes pinched shut. The drum of my heart was louder than the thunder I’d left behind outside.Thump, thump, thump.

If there was such a thing as a sign, this was one.

And Alex had left it for me.

What exactly it meant, I wasn’t sure. But it certainly meant something.

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