Page 109 of Heartbeat

“I’m so happy to meet you!” She sounded thrilled as she came over and wrapped me in her arms.

“O-oh that’s— It’s very nice meeting you,” I said, awkwardly hugging her back.

I almost added a “ma’am” there, but it seemed wrong to do, for some reason. Not because she looked particularly young. She was young, but I figured that would maybe be insulting—not to mention really none of my business.

“I love your name,” she said, pulling away.

“She has a thing about names.” Ethan rolled his eyes.

“Ethan means ‘firm, strong,’” she said, pride exuding from her lips as she tousled Ethan’s hair. “Thomas means ‘twin,’ and it has everything to do with realism and rationality and fairness and… I’ll stop talking now because Ethan here is probably going to hate me if I start telling you all about the Constellation of Twins.” She turned her gaze back to Ethan.

“That’s okay,” I said. “You’re name’s actually pretty cool. I love As You Like It.”

“Well,” she said, taken aback. “Consider me dazzled! Do you guys need anything?”

“Nope. We’re just going to listen to some music in my room,” Ethan said. “Thanks, Ros.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it. I need to go back to the gallery, otherwise I’m doomed!” she said dramatically, rolling her eyes. “It was wonderful meeting you, Thomas.”

“You too, Rosalind.”

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and turned to do the same to Ethan. “There’s money on your dresser,” she whispered in his ear. “Go nuts.” She flipped her hair and made her way to the front door.

I followed Ethan into his room. He closed the door, flipped open his laptop, and started typing away, looking for a playlist. Soon we were in bed, with me lying on the left side, the spot I’d claimed two nights before. As I stared at the ceiling, tilting my head back and focusing on the upside-down city view, I noticed how the sky was already going from the brightest blue to almost taken over by streaks of orange and yellow. Ethan was sitting up, reading Kafka and grabbing the occasional donut without even looking at the box, remaining buried in The Castle.

“What?” he eventually asked, mid-bite.

“I didn’t say anything.” I had turned on my side and, yes, had been staring.

“Are you judging my donut intake?” He raised a single brow in suspicion, mint-chocolate donut in hand.

“Of course not.” I smirked.

“Because I haven’t eaten that many.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “I haven’t been paying attention to that.”

Five. He’d had five.

He narrowed his eyes and then looked at the open white box he’d placed between us.

“Didn’t I get the flavors right?”

“What?”

“You haven’t eaten any,” he said, glancing at the box and then at me.

“Oh.” I looked down at the box. “No. It’s not that.”

“’Cause I’m pretty sure I got it right,” he said cryptically.

I looked at him and couldn’t help but frown at such a confident statement.

“Okay. I have something I need to confess.” He put his donut down, unlocked his phone, and typed something on it.

Then he turned to me, looking solemn. “So, I’m… gifted.”

“You’re what now?”

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