Page 41 of Like First Love, Again

“Holy shit.” Larissa leaned back in her seat, shit-eating grin gone. “You must be a hell of a kisser.” She gestured at the espresso on Tori’s desk. “She couldn’t even go to sleep when you left.”

“I’m scared I’ll fuck this up,” Tori confessed to her own surprise, strange anxiety coiling in her empty stomach. “If I make the wrong move?—”

“Hey, you seem to have made the right moves so far.” Larissa rocked forward in her chair. “Trust your gut. Looks like it’s been right for longer than you thought,” she added seriously.

The moment Larissa was gone, Tori carefully unfolded Mia’s note. She blamed the pounding in her chest and clamminess of her hands on her lack of breakfast. On too much caffeine on an empty stomach.

Hi… So this could either be super cute or a blaring stage-five-clinger alarm. (For the record, I’m shooting for door number one.) I know I’m not supposed to show my hand or whatever, but I haven’t stopped thinking about you—okay yes, you only just left—but it’s like… I don’t know… Like I can still feel you on my lips. Anyway, I figured you could use some rocket fuel after someone kept you up all night. (God, please tell me this isn’t creepy.) — Mia

Tori closed her eyes and tipped her head back. She still felt Mia’s kiss too. In her life, she’d never kissed anyone for that long. Notonlykissed, anyway. But every part of Mia’s mouth had been worthy of slow exploration. She wanted to savor the tiny moans that sang in her throat and the way she curled the tip of her tongue.

Smiling to herself, skin tingling and pulse racing, Tori reached for her phone. Normally, she’d make a joke about Mia’s gesture, but she stopped before her thumbs started moving. If Mia had made herself vulnerable, Tori owed her the same in return.

Tori:I haven’t stopped thinking about you either.

Tori’s phone rang in her hand the moment she sent the text. Mia’s name on her screen woke up every butterfly that had passed out after working hard all night.

“We’re going to be those people, aren’t we?” Mia asked, music playing far in the background.

“What people?” Tori asked to buy herself a second to catch her breath and remind her nervous system that she wasn’t about to fall out of a plane.

“Revoltingly adorable,” she replied. “Like, am I really sitting here missing you even though you just left like two hours ago?” Mia paused after her rhetorical question. “Because I am. Even though I’m not supposed to admit any of this.”

“Supposed to?” Tori paced around her office like that might discharge the energy building too quickly in her chest. “Says who?”

“Umm, only all the dating advice there is,” she replied with an exaggeratedduhwoven through her words. “There are rules, Victoria.”

Tori laughed. “There are at least two major flaws with your reasoning.”

“Oh?” Mia couldn’t conceal the smile in her tone, but Tori doubted she was even trying. “Do tell.”

“For starters, your dating advice is at least a decade old and therefore stale,” she replied before registering that they were throwing the worddatingaround like it was no big deal.

“What’s the second one?” Mia asked when Tori paused too long.

She’d planned to point out that advice for seeing dudes didn’t necessarily transfer to women, but she was stuck in her head.

“Oh, Jesus. I misunderstood, didn’t I?” The sound of Mia’s smile was gone and replaced with the vibration of a mild panic. “We’re not dating. Why would we be?—”

“No, no.” Tori wished she could move through the phone lines and land in Mia’s house. “That’s not—I just—” She reset her brain-mouth connection with a deep breath. “Isn’t all of this weird for you?”

“Is it weird foryou?” Mia echoed, sounding calmer.

“Are you really answering my question with a question right now?” Tori sat in the chair across her desk because her shaking quads weren’t taking her a step further.

“I mean, I feel like it’s your turn to stick your foot in your mouth,” Mia joked.

“Pretty sure I’m the one who confessed a very pathetic, very old, crush last night.” Tori’s laugh was too loud and too nervous.

“Fine,” Mia decided after a beat. “You’re making me show all my cards and I don’t like it. And also, I’m not that old.”

“You don’t have to?—”

“Nothing has ever felt so right,” Mia admitted, voice low and penetrating straight to Tori’s soul. “It’s kind of embarrassing to be this eager. I’m used to being very cool, you know?”

“Oh yeah?” Tori’s racing heart added a tremble to the two syllables she managed to form.

“Yep.” Her smile was audible from miles away. “But here I am wondering when I’m going to see you again and kiss you again and, well, to answer your question… No, not weird. Kind of amazing, actually.”

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