Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 128417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Both.”
“Did she say it back?”
“Yeah, she said it back—and for a brief moment in time, I felt kind of like, ‘Phew. That’s a relief. I’m normal.’” I shake my head. “But in retrospect, exchanging those words just lulled me into a false sense of security. Once I said them, I started thinking it was safe to say some other shit too—and, as I found out pretty damned quick, it wasn’t.”
I can feel Jonas’ eyes on me, but he doesn’t speak.
“As it turns out, saying the words doesn’t make the feelings real.” I pause. “It was like Emma was signing a software licensing agreement—she just scrolled to the bottom and pressed ‘I agree.’”
Jonas makes a sympathetic sound.
“In fact, come to think of it, Emma didn’t actually say the words back to me. She just said, ‘Me, too.’”
“Ooph.”
“Yeah.” I pause. “Ooph.”
There’s a beat.
“I thought I loved her—I really did,” I say. “But now that I’m watching you and Sarah, I realize I probably didn’t. I mean can you really love someone if they don’t love you back?”
My question is rhetorical, but Jonas answers me, anyway. “I like to think I’d love Sarah even if she didn’t love me back. And yet I can’t imagine I would have been able to love her like I do if she didn’t love me. The way Sarah loves me makes me feel like it’s safe to love her all the way.”
There’s another beat during which we both look out at the sprawling view of the river. This has to be the most unexpected conversation of my entire life.
“Emma never looked at me the way Sarah looks at you, bro,” I say softly. “Not once.” My heart squeezes painfully in my chest at the admission. “Seeing you and Sarah together makes me realize Emma never loved me.”
Jonas makes a sympathetic noise. “Then she wasn’t The One.”
I swallow hard, swig my beer, and look out at the Hudson again. A light from some sort of boat is skimming slowly across the black water in the distance.
“Josh, you’re better off,” Jonas says. “If a woman doesn’t look at you the way Sarah looks at me, then she’s not worthy of you.”
I nod, but I don’t say anything. When the fuck did Jonas become the wise and powerful brother in this duo? The guy falls in love with the greatest girl in the world, and suddenly he’s some kind of love guru?
“So, on a related topic,” Jonas says, “how’s it going with Kat?”
A huge smile involuntarily bursts across my face at the mere mention of Kat’s name. “Good.”
“You like her?”
I bite my lip, but I can’t control the goofy grin that’s taken over my face. “Yeah, I like her. She’s a handful, though. Kinda crazy.”
“Oh, well, that’s good, right?—you like crazy.”
“I sure do.”
Jonas chuckles.
“Which is a good thing,” I say, “because she’s batshit crazy. And stubborn as shit. But she’s also super cool and sweet and funny and smoking hot, too. A handful, like I say.”
“Sounds fun.”
“She’s the most fun I’ve ever had, if you know what I mean. Oh my God, the woman’s like a dude in the best possible way.” I snicker despite myself. “She doesn’t... hold back.”
“Excellent.”
“I didn’t even know a woman like Kat existed. She’s like a whole new species of freaky-ass fish that washes to shore after a nuclear disaster.”
Jonas laughs.
“That’s what I told her, actually. I told her she’s a freaky-ass fish.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yeah, I did.”
Jonas bursts out laughing. “Now there’s some Valentine’s Day bullshit if I ever heard it.” Oh, man, he’s laughing his ass off, which, in turn, makes me laugh, too. “You told her that? And here I thought I was the dumb Faraday twin,” Jonas says, still laughing.
We laugh our asses off together for quite some time. Finally, Jonas wipes his eyes and takes a sip of his beer. “That’s hilarious, Josh.”
“I’m a charming son of a bitch, what can I say?”
Jonas shakes his head. “A woman like that, you better make sure you deliver what she expects—don’t fuck it up.”
I shoot him a look that says he’s a moron. “I can’t fuck it up—I just told you, she’s like a dude. She’s a slam-dunk, every time. She’s amazing—a unicorn.”
“Oh, ho, ho. That’s what you might think with a girl like that. Just be careful—a unicorn will lull you into a false sense of confidence. Don’t start getting lazy.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“If you don’t know then I can’t explain it to you.”
“Try.”
He sighs. “She’s really good at getting herself off, right?”
I don’t reply. I’m a gentleman, after all.
“So that means she doesn’t actually need you,” he continues. “You’re nothing but a luxury item to her—a Lamborghini, if you will. And as you of all people should know, no one buys a Lamborghini for basic transportation. They get the Lamborghini because they want all the stupid bells and whistles (and because they’re an idiot with their money).”