Page 64 of Crazy About Love (All About Love)

“Landon only calls in an emergency.” She pulls out a silver-cased phone. “And in my rush to get here, I accidentally grabbed the wrong cell.”

“I’m telling you, he won’t answer.”

Liz holds out the phone and swipes across the image of Alec’s face, which even on a screen gives me massive hormonal butterflies. She presses speaker, and we huddle in to listen to the ringer. After five rings, Alec’s voicemail pops on.

“Okay, texting then,” Liz says, not deterred at all, even after the arrogant look I toss her way. “We can at least find out where he is.”

“Are you texting as Landon or as you?”

“I can fake dude texts. No emojis or punctuation.”

I shake my head, but my sad heart starts to pound underneath the thin layers of my jacket and dress. I feel a bit rebellious, a sensation I haven’t felt in a long while. Structure and courtesy and rule-following are simple and make things easier most of the time. But I followed Eli’s rules in our open relationship, and that only led me here—to having lost so much time with Alec that every second he spends not knowing that I’m deeply in love with him makes me feel all the more anxious to spit it out. I think Liz understands, even though I haven’t said it out loud, and I crack a small smile at her face, which is bathed in the light from Landon’s phone.

“Why do you want me to do this now?” I ask, not refuting her, but just wanting to know what response she’ll have for me. “Why not let me wait until his date is over?”

She pauses over the keypad, flicking her eyes up to mine. “Given all the nights you guys did nothing, I think it’s time that one of you finally dosomething.”

18 MONTHS, 8 DAYS AGO: 2:31P.M.

After spending all morning and a good portion of my afternoon planning an impromptu engagement party for Liz and Landon, I flop down on the living room floor, too exhausted to take the three steps to the much more comfortable couch. I’m sure a good half-hour nap and a 5-Hour Energy will revive me enough to host the all-nighter I have in store for the lovely couple.

My eyes flutter closed, and I roll to my side, using my arm as a pillow. I’ll regret this position, I know it, but right now I’m too close to sleep to care about the inevitable sore neck I’ll have when I wake up.

Soft images start invading my mind, and a stomach flutter upturns my lips into a subconscious sleepy smile. Alec’s red vest is the first fuzzy image I see. He was wearing his Bed Bath & Beyond uniform when I stopped by his place this morning. The engagement of our best friends broke the icy silence he’d been maintaining over the past few weeks, and instead of being infuriated with him, the moment I saw him in that red vest, all seemed forgiven. On my end, at least. There was this moment right before I left when his eyes connected with mine. Alec has always made such great eye contact with me, and though I can’t explain it, I’ve managed to reciprocate. Though if you ask me to have eye contact with anyone else, I get a bit too jittery to achieve the task at hand.

His eyes are green—the next fuzzy image I see. Show me a man with green eyes and I’ll show you a woman with wobbly knees.

Something vibrates against my hip, and my half-asleep mind wants it to be Alec calling, texting, IM-ing, emailing…but my awake mind frowns when it realizes it’s an unknown number.

Since it could be one of the people I invited for tonight, I do the unthinkable and answer it instead of ignoring it, like I do with every other mystery phone call.

“This is Theresa.”

“This is Eli. I come in peace.”

My soft and gentle stomach flutters dip into a heavy tarlike substance, and I sit up, feeling the weight of the familiar voice echoing through the phone.

“H-hey,” I stutter, then clear my throat. “Did you…did you change your number?”

“You know how you told me to stop sticking my phone in my back pocket?” he says, playfulness in his tone. It makes a small laugh sneak its way out of my mouth.

“Did you sit on it? Crack the screen with your bony ass?”

“Worse. Fell into the toilet when I pulled my pants up.” He laughs. “It was a goner.”

His lighthearted tone and humorous story tug at parts of me I haven’t felt in a long while. Suddenly, turning down Alec doesn’t feel like the wrong decision. This reminds me of why I had to tell him no.

“So please save this number,” Eli says.

“Only if this phone doesn’t find your back pocket.”

“It’s in the front. Though I’m telling you, it’s not comfortable.”

“You get used to it.” I run a hand over my knee, noting that a shave before the party tonight is probably in order. “I…I was going to call you, actually.”

“Yeah?”

I shouldn’t be nervous. This is my boyfriend. Sort of. Maybe I shouldn’t refer to him as that because I’ve done what he’s asked. There are certainly more notches in my bedpost, but anyone who got close to taking my heart I turned away. “Anyone” meaning Alec. No one else has come close.

---