Nick walked into the living room, and when he reached Lily’s book stack against the wall, he paused, picking up her old copy of The Elves of Ceradon with the battered and plain, red cover. He frowned and stared at it for a long while. Finally, he turned to Lily and held up the book.
“Hey, where’d you get this?” he asked.
Of course of all the books she owned, he’d picked up that one. Lily should have thrown out her copy because looking at it was triggering. But she couldn’t bear to do so. She loved the story too much.
“I got it at my old job.” She walked over to him. “It’s an original edition, but it’s being republished now. Have you heard of it?”
He nodded, still frowning. This close again, Lily had the perfect view of his handsome face. Days before, she’d been too nervous to even speak to him and now he was inside of her （temporary） apartment and had very nearly kissed her soul out of her body.
“Do you want to sit?” She gestured to the couch, ready to pick up where they’d left off.
Nick glanced away from the book to look at Lily. “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”
He followed her to the couch and sat beside her. He was still holding her copy of The Elves of Ceradon, then his gaze zeroed in on Tomcat, who was stretched out on the floor right in front of them. He glanced back and forth between Tomcat and the book and slowly his expression morphed into one of alarm. Was he really that afraid of cats? Lily didn’t like shutting Tomcat up in Violet’s room, especially because Violet didn’t like Tomcat being on her bed, but Lily would have to temporarily remove Tomcat from her current situation if she wanted Nick to relax.
She walked to the hallway and took off her Keds. Tomcat eagerly followed behind because he had a weird obsession with smelling her shoes after she’d sweated in them all day.
She approached Nick again, but now he was staring at her bare feet with that same alarmed look. She slowed her walk, feeling self-conscious for a moment. She knew her feet were okay-looking. Plus, she’d given herself a shimmery lavender pedicure before Violet’s engagement party last weekend.
He pointed at her right foot. “Is that a tattoo of a lily flower?”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her foot. “My sisters have matching ones for their names. Violet and Iris.”
Nick’s eyes became the size of golf balls. He quickly stood and dropped her copy of The Elves of Ceradon in the process. He fumbled to pick it up and haphazardly put it back on top of her book stack.
“I, uh, I have to go,” he said abruptly, brushing past her toward the door.
What?
Lily had the strongest feeling of whiplash. He’d just had his tongue down her throat and now he was leaving? She hadn’t even brought up the wedding!
“Wait!” she called, sliding on her shoes and rushing behind him.
5
“My sister Violet is getting married at the end of summer and I made a bet with her that I’d find my own date to her wedding.”
It all came out like word vomit as Lily hurried behind Nick into the hallway. Where had that come from? She wasn’t supposed to tell him about the bet! Whatever, it was too late. She might as well plow through while she had the chance.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go with me,” she continued, right on his heels. “To the wedding, I mean. There’ll be free food and an open bar. We’ll have fun! What do you say?”
Nick whipped around, displaying an expression of pure panic. He stared at Lily like she’d just spoken to him in gibberish.
“I—I, no. I can’t. Sorry.”
His immediate rejection stabbed her right in the heart. “Oh . . . um,” she stuttered.
“It’s just that I remembered I’m not trying to date right now,” he said quickly.
“I don’t want to date anyone either!” Her painful embarrassment at being rejected was swiftly replaced with a feeling of relief. He was confused about her intentions. That was all. “It’s just one night. I don’t want you to be my boyfriend or anything.”
Then she laughed, like the thought of Nick being her boyfriend was the most absurd idea she’d ever heard. She didn’t even want to imagine how ridiculous she must seem right now.
Nick was still looking at her with that wide-eyed, confused stare. “I . . . I can’t even commit to one evening. I’m kind of avoiding anything like that altogether.”
Now Lily was confused. “But we just kissed.”
Well, actually she had kissed him now that she thought about it.