Page 61 of Crazy About Love (All About Love)

“You’ll have to make me.”

Her hand shoots up, and I pull my arms in front to block her, but she just snaps into the air and whistles. Next thing I know there’s a giant man-of-the-universe torso in my face.

“Step back,” he says in a voice so deep it rumbles through my feet. My heart dubsteps in my chest, and I slowly raise my eyes to meet his.

“Hiya,” I say weakly. “I’m in charge of the auction tonight. Just running over some rules with our bidders.”

The winner sighs behind the massive amount of man, clearly no longer amused by my presence.

“Take her outside, please. I don’t feel safe around her.”

I’m about to plead my case—they can’t kick me out when I’m part of this whole charity shindig—but he starts caging me toward the door.

“Wait, no. I’m not done here!” I shout like a crazy person. “Alec! Tell them to stop! Where the hell are you? Don’t go with that woman; she’s psycho!”

Laughs erupt around me, and I know I’m a big hypocrite but I don’t care. I lunge forward, trying to duck under He-Man’s arm, but he blocks me again, causing people to cheer and my cheeks to rush with warmth. My feet hit the pavement outside, and the cool air pinches at my skin.

“You’ll be invited back in momentarily,” he says, standing in front of the entrance. “Rian does not plan on staying.”

I try to wriggle around him, to no avail. I wonder if he’d understand if I explained that Alec is my soulmate and it is a crime against love to not let me proclaim myself…and yeah, I sound crazy even in my head.

“Let me back in right n—” I blink and catch my breath. Wait…“Rian?” Who thehellis this Rian?

18 MONTHS, 9 DAYS AGO: 3:00A.M.

After hours of tossing and turning, I finally drift off into a semi-sleep. My mind keeps swirling around Alec, his confession, and the promise that he broke immediately after he made it. Things have changed, and heaven forbid he return any of my calls.

My phone buzzes against my nightstand, and I reach my arm up there and fumble around for it, cursing under my breath. Under normal circumstances I’d roll over and ignore the buzz, but if Alec has decided to break the radio silence, I want to catch him doing it.

“Hello?” I croak out, not even bothering to open my eyes. There’s no answer, because what I mistook for a phone call was only a text. I open one eye and brace myself for the blinding light of my phone. After my eyes have adjusted, I focus enough on the message to read it.

I need to cash in on the pact we made on graduation. :) :)

Liz needs to find a better time of day to send non-emergency text message— Wait. Graduation pact. The memory starts unfolding in my sleepy brain, feeling almost dreamlike. After months of waiting to hear if we’d be accepted to the same school, we celebrated our NYU status with a trip to the Big Apple to look for housing, dorms, and cute boys, and we skipped our graduation for the vacation. A barely awake eighteen-year-old version of myself rolled over in the hotel bed the night we were officially graduates, knowing I was on the cusp of a brand-new life, stuck out my pinky, and said to my best friend, “Promise when we get married, no matter how many years from now that is, that we are each other’s maid of honor.”

Liz snorted, also in a sleepy daze, drunk on exhilaration and the idea of freedom and adulthood, and linked her pinky with mine. Little did we know that a few short months later she’d be meeting Landon, and three and a half years from then…she’d send me this text.

I sit upright and call her, feeling 99.9 percent excited for my best friend getting married. However, that 0.1 percent of jealousy makes me want to call Eli instead and ask him if he’s ready for me yet. He doesn’t know, but I’ve said no to something that could’ve been extraordinarily special, just to keep my heart saved for him.

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