Page 83 of Like First Love, Again

Tori kissed the back of her shoulder where she’d left a deep purple mark. Without the fog of lust, she wouldn’t have left so many bruises.

“Why? Do you have somewhere to be on a Saturday afternoon?” Tori curled her arm around Mia’s ribs.

“You mean other than in my girlfriend’s bed dropping L-bombs?” Mia rested her arm over Tori’s and rubbed her feet against hers like every extremity needed to touch.

“Other than that,” Tori played along.

Mia sighed, asking her own question rather than Tori’s. “I can’t stop wondering what life would have been like if we’d gotten together in high school.” She ran her fingertips over the veins in Tori’s hand. “Like imagine never having experienced a breakup, or any heartbreak really, or never being apart?—”

“You don’t know that we wouldn’t have broken up.”

Mia flipped around, cheeks flushed. “What the heck does that mean?”

Tori smoothed Mia’s wild, red hair. “It means that almost nobody stays with their high school sweetheart,” she said with a shrug. “We got to make our mistakes with other people. Whatever path we had to walk, it’s the only way we can be here now.” She grinned. “Be in the place where I can tell you I love you with my whole chest.”

“Very fortune cookie of you,” Mia teased before her eyes lost their shine. “I just regret?—”

“Regret is a painfully useless emotion?—”

“What, are you and Marigold teaming up on me now?” Mia deflected then she sighed. “I know, I know. I’ve lived in the past so long. In scarcity. It’s hard to live in the now. In all the thingsI have.” She followed the curve of Tori’s collarbone. “That I’m so profoundly grateful for.”

“And what do you think you’re going to do next?”

Tori didn’t know the exact amounts, but Mia had gotten an inheritance from her mother along with a nice chunk from the sale of her house in Pennsylvania. It might have been enough to carry her for a bit, but it certainly wasn’t enough to retire on.

“I guess I should say, what do youwantto do next?” Tori corrected herself.

Mia took a deep breath before she replied, “I don’t know, but I want to take some time to think about it. I don’t want to fall into something. I want to walk into it, you know?”

Tori nodded. She played with the ends of Mia’s hair, still slightly damp from sweat and sleep. “Would you ever want to go to med school?” she asked.

Mia let out a startled laugh—more breath than sound. “What? Now?”

“Yeah.Now.” Tori kept her tone light, but her fingers stilled. “You’ve clearly got the bedside manner.” She smirked before getting serious. “And Mia, I’m sorry, but you barely gave it a real shot the first time. And you’d wanted it so bad. Don’t you remember?—”

Mia laughed louder. “Tori?—”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re serious about me starting med school in my mid-thirties?” She shook her head. “That’s unhinged.”

Tori shrugged. “Do you know how many people start med school later in life? I bet it happens every single day.”

Mia rolled onto her back, squinting up at the ceiling like it might have answers. “Yeah, but they’re not me.”

Tori remained at her side to face her, propping her head on one hand. “Exactly. They’re notyou. You’d be incredible. You’re so smart and tenacious,” she said. “And think abouthow different your application essays would be from most other applicants’. I think maturity and experience could be a real asset.”

No one was as sharp, and capable, and relentless as Mia. Tori knew Mia could do anything if someone just gave her the chance to breathe.

Mia glanced at her, eyes soft and uncertain. “You really think I could do that?”

Tori didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Mia looked away, her voice brittle around the edges. “The loans I’d have to take out would be massive. And trying to work while going to school— if I even did get in. Which is thebiggestif.” She shook her head, more to herself than to Tori. “It’s not realistic.”

Tori hesitated for a second, but there was no point in holding back. Not anymore. “You could move in with me.”

Mia blinked at her.

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