Page 114 of Make Me Swoon

“Hey! What are you guys doing here?” I ask them as I get up to hug them.

“We haven’t seen you in a few days and we were in the neighborhood.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy.”

“We heard,” my dad says and I know that he’s talking about Coraline.

“When do we get to meet her?” my mom asks and I know that that’s why they were really here.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask her and we can grab dinner sometime soon.”

My mom nods and I start to relax, glad that they aren’t going to push the issue. My parents have the perfect marriage, the perfect relationship. My dad worships the ground that my mom walks on and they have always been close.

Maybe that’s why I don’t share my girl trouble with them.

I catch up with my parents for a bit but then Eye Candy Ink opens a few minutes later and my parents say they’ll call me soon as they leave and I turn to get back to work. My first client arrives a few minutes after that and I get to work, eager to get lost in tattooing.

It doesn’t quite work. I’m distracted all day, planning out what I’ll say to Coraline when I go to see her tonight. By the time Eye Candy Ink closes, I’ve got everything set in my head.

Now I just need to go find my girl and make things right with her.

FOURTEEN

Coraline

I’m checkingthings off on my clipboard when the kitchen door opens and Harvey pokes his head in.

“Hey,” I greet him with a nervous smile.

I’ve been thinking about how I freaked out and ran away from him all day and I was just about to stop for the night so that I could go talk to him. I need to tell him how I feel and apologize for running away from him. I just hope that he doesn’t think I’m too much of a weirdo for freaking out like that last night.

“Hey, you got a second? Am I interrupting anything?” he asks, looking around the dark, empty kitchen.

“No, the staff just left for the night and I was just finishing my nightly checklist.”

“Cool. It looks really good in here,” he says.

“Thanks.”

I shift anxiously on my feet, wanting to bring up last night but not knowing how.

“How’s the tattoo?” he asks, giving me the perfect opening.

“Good, I love it.”

I could swear that he winces at those words and I want to smack myself.

“I’m glad that you stopped by. I was about to come find you when I was done.”

“You were?” he asks, sounding surprised and I nod.

“I’m sorry about last night—”

“I shouldn’t have rushed you,” he cuts in and I shake my head.

“No, you should never have to apologize for how you’re feeling. I just, well I haven’t heard those words a lot in my life and I thought that maybe you just said them in the heat of the moment. I didn’t want things to be weird if you didn’t mean them, but then I ran away and made it weird anyway.”

“I didn’t just say it in the heat of the moment. I meant it, Coraline. I love you.”

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