Page 27 of Just Another Meet Cute
Hisjacket.
My breath got caught in my throat as everyone stopped talking. Or maybe I stopped listening. Within seconds, I could practically see everything clicking into place like a puzzle. His forehead suddenly smoothed out and the frown lines disappeared. When Ian finally looked up at me, one of his eyebrows roseand he gave me a tiny smirk. There was a twinkle in his eyes that made my stomach leap into somersaults before dropping into a pit.
“I guess it is areallylucky coincidence that Nina was there at the right place. Atexactlythe right time.”
Crap.He figured out everything.
The creamy sweet chè that Ryan’s Báoffered me after ph? felt like a lump of glue in my mouth. Crazy Gorilla Glue that wouldn’t dissolve. And it didn’t help that I could feel Ian’s gaze on me from across the room the entire time.
But somehow—by some miracle—I was able to force half the bowl down my throat. Any other day and I would have inhaled the whole thing and asked for seconds.
Any day but today.
Finally, I made a bathroom escape before my nerves exploded into a thousand pieces all over the kitchen like a grenade. I ran out of there so quickly that I didn’t realize I was still holding the navy jacket in my hands until I collapsed against the bathroom door.
I tossed it on the counter and dug my phone out of my pocket. I quickly sent Linh a 911 text to come get me as soon as possible with a dozen exclamation points. She promised to be nearby in case Ryan didn’t take my confession well, but I wasn’t sure where her idea of “nearby” was. For all I knew, she could be at home testing out her new truffle oil.
As I waited for her answer, I turned on the water faucet. I wanted to splash water on my face to calm down, but that would wash all my makeup off. All ofLinh’s hard work. Although by now my face was so flushed that it didn’t even make a difference. Still, I dabbed my cheeks lightly with a damp towel and fanned my face to cool down.
Breathing slowly and evenly, like Mom did during her yoga sessions, I tried to concentrate only on the flow of air between my lips. In and out. Deep breaths. One. Two.
Two. Like a set of twins.
My stomach churned, and I frantically fanned myself harder with both hands as I paced back and forth around the small bathroom. Ten steps to the right and back again.
Yeah, this wasn’t working.I would have attempted the downward dog or sphinx pose to calm down, but now my wrist was starting to cramp up. Plus, I had a feeling that I had been in the bathroom way too long. I didn’t need all the Nguyens to think I was weird.
One of them was enough.
Opening the door, I had taken only a step or two into the hall when I heard a low voice behind me.
“So, it’s nice to see you again, Nina. Short for Nina.”
I bumped into the doorway when I jumped backward. Pressing a hand against my slamming heart, I whirled around. “Oh my God! Why are you sneaking around like that?”
Ian snorted and pulled away from the wall he was leaning against. He made a big show about looking around. “Uh, I’m standing in the hall at my own house. I don’t think that counts as ‘sneaking around.’ ”
My eyes narrowed. “You justhappento be in the hall at the same time that I’m comingoutof the bathroom?”
“Yeah.” With both hands shoved in his jeans pocket, he cocked his head to the side and gave me a lopsided wide smile. “Call it acoincidence. Kind of like how you saved my identical twin brother.”
Damn, he got me there.“Uh, about that. I was—”
Ian let out a low whistle. “Actually, there’s been a whole lot of coincidences lately. I mean, Ryan was only picking up the dry cleaning for me because I had to go to the gym that day. Turns out they found his keys that I lost last week on a hike. Not sure how those keys ended up at the gym though, since I lost themwiththe jacket. The one you’re holding now. Isn’t that interesting?”
That shut me up.
The right corner of his mouth twitched like he knew I was trapped. And that darn right dimple popped out. Again. Taunting me.
Earlier it was obvious that Ian figured out that I deliberately went to the laundromat to findhim. But I didn’t think that he knew about the gym thing, too. Or that he would piece everything together so quickly.
Good God, was he Sherlock Holmes in his past life?
“Why did you have Ryan’s keys with you?” I asked with lack of anything else to say.
“Because I left my keys at home. Well, at my other house with—”
“Other house? What other house?”
