Page 54 of Not You Again
“Oh, no, I’m not mad. Not anymore. I got the message that you don’t want to work with me loud and clear.” She angrily picked up another pillow.
“So now you’re collecting pillows?”
“I’m making a pillow castle, Adam. This is my good deed for the day. I’m giving those exhausted parents over there a breather.” She hitched a thumb toward the bar, where a handful of adults watched the scene with glasses of wine in their hands.
“That’s kind of you,” Adam said, happy to be back in their dynamic.
“What do you want? Why are you here?” Carly made it clear there was nothing friendly about them.
“I spoke to my parents and Shireen,” he started, but then, because Carly couldn’t help herself, she cut him off.
“I spoke to the mayor, and I told her everything. You’re not the only one who can speak to people.” Her hands were at her hips now and she was clearly annoyed.
“You told the mayor?” Adam repeated. “You mean about the eclipse?”
“Yeah. You don’t want to work on this anymore, so I found someone who will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a moat to build.” Carly turned and, as she did, “accidentally” whacked him with the pillow.
What was happening here? This wasn’t how the situation was supposed to go. He was supposed to find Carly, tell her his feelings and then they could spend whatever time was left with each other.
“Carly, I know I was closed off earlier, but I want to work with you. More than that, I want to be with you.” He so desperately needed to touch her in that moment—to just reachout and show her how sincere he was. But she’d been on the offensive, and he had some serious defending to do. She didn’t turn around, though she seemed to be listening, so he continued. “I like you. I like you a lot, Carly. If you want to spend the rest of the loop working together, and only working together, that’s fine. I can do that. As long as I can spend my time with you, that’s all I want.”
He waited for any kind of response. But instead of Carly turning to tell him that she wanted to bemorethan colleagues, a tingling crawled up his arms. He glanced at his watch, but before he had time to see if they were about to reset, his vision went dark.
Chapter 19
Carly
Day 249
When Carly restarted in the funeral room, she immediately pushed herself up from the chair. She and Adam had unfinished business. He’d all but fled from her one minute, then acted as if he’d done nothing wrong the next. She wasn’t about to let him flip-flop all over the place.
“Dad, I think my good deed for today will be standing up for myself.” She tapped the lid of the coffin as a farewell, then hurried down the aisle of chairs.
When she came to the hall, she nearly collided with Shireen. “Oh, sorry,” she mumbled.
Shireen gave her a kind look. “Don’t stress. We don’t have time for all that now, right?”
Carly stilled. Adam really had told Shireen, then. “Right.”
Shireen nodded, then headed for the exit. Carly glanced to the office, where Adam emerged, wringing his hands.
“Can I just say something before you let me have it?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. Is it going to annoy me?” Carly asked back.
“It’s not that I didn’t want you with me this last loop.”
Adam must think she was truly gullible to use a line like that. She’d let him know where he stood. “That’s the thing about leaving someone behind. The someone doesn’t feel great afterward. I’m the someone, to be clear.”
“I get that.” Adam tucked a strand of red hair behind his ears and she had to stop herself from reaching out to feel the softness of it. “I’m scared, okay? I don’t know what the eclipse changing means for us. I’m scared of just disappearing into nothing, but I’m mostly scared of losing you. When I went to my parents’ place, I didn’t want to sugarcoat anything for them, and I didn’t want you to hear how terrified I am. Because you’re holding it together. You have hope, and I love that about you.”
Carly instantly blushed, which was annoying. He’d said helovedsomething abouther. She wanted to be annoyed with Adam, but that was sweet.
“I didn’t want to bring you into the mess that is my brain,” he added.
He was proactively apologizing. On the one hand, Carly could milk this situation for a bit. Really let Adam stew in the idea that she was livid. But then again, they might not have much time left. She’d already mucked up the ending with her father; did she really want to spend the rest of wormhole eternity beating herself up for her final words to Adam?
“First of all, that’s maybe the longest you’ve ever spoken without stopping. It was impressive,” she said.
