Page 113 of Make Me Swoon

“So, you do have a girlfriend?” Maxine asks as she heads behind the front counter to boot up the computer there.

“Not yet,” Banks mumbles and I take mercy on him.

“So back to me and my problems.”

“Just go talk to her. Tell her that you love her again but that you recognize that it might be too soon for her,” Ames says and I nod.

“That could work.”

I wonder when I’ll have time to see her. She’s been super busy with opening the new restaurant and I have a feeling that she might be avoiding me now after last night.

I couldn’t sleep last night. I just kept going over and over what happened in the shop. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut but I couldn’t hold the words back any longer.

But now I rushed things and could have pushed her away. I don’t know what I’ll do if she breaks things off with me over this.

“Thanks, Ames,” I say, getting ready to head back to my room.

“What about me? I offered you advice too!” Rooney calls after me.

“Your advice sucks!”

He laughs and I hear him follow after me and head into his room. A second later, he comes into my room and tosses me a bottle of Clorox wipes.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He hops up on my table and I eye him for a second but when he doesn’t say anything, I go back to working on my tattoos for today.

“Are you going to talk to Coraline?” he asks a few minutes later and I nod.

“Yeah, I can’t lose her.”

“I know,” he whispers and I stop drawing to turn and look at him.

“You do?” I ask him and my mind flashes back to the way that he was looking at Sayler. “Did you ask Sayler out?”

“Yeah,” he admits after a minute.

“Cool, man. When are you going out?”

“We aren’t.”

“What? Why not?”

“She turned me down. It’s just… I could swear that she wanted to say yes.”

“Do you want me to ask Coraline about it?” I ask him and he nods, not looking at me.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I just, I can’t stop thinking about her and if it’s something that I can fix, then I’d do it for a chance with her.”

I nod, knowing the feeling well.

“I’ll talk to Coraline,” I promise him and he gives me a grateful smile before he hops off the table and heads back across the hall to his room.

My first client is supposed to be here soon, so I push thoughts of Sayler and Rooney and Coraline from my mind the best I can and get to work.

A knock at my door has me looking up and I smile when I see my mom and dad standing there.

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