AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why is it so long?” Before I can stop her, Beth takes it from me, flipping through to the pages Eli told me to save for later. “Oh,” she says with a chuckle, then presses a hand to her heart. “Oh.”
I don’t know what that means, and I don’t get a chance to ask because Eli bursts back in. This time, the little bell does fly off, coming to land by the fake potted fiddle-leaf fig.
“Oops,” he says.
But I’m distracted by what I can only call a candy monstrosity in his hands. “Is that for me?” I ask.
“What, this?” He holds it out, then pulls it back before I can touch it. “Itmightbe for you,” he says.
I’m still staring, head tilted. Looks like a drinking glass with a whole bunch of candy exploding out of it. “A candy bouquet?”
“Yep.” He’s so unabashedly proud and it makes a ribbon of pure joy roll out like a red carpet inside my chest. “Here.”
I take it from his hands, not missing the way our fingers brush but distracted now by his present. I hold it as carefully as a newborn kitten.
He made it, I realize, seeing the wispy strings of glue hanging off the candy bars like shiny cobwebs. One of them catches on my wrist.Elimadethis.
For me.
I will not be a grown woman crying in the lobby of an animal shelter over candy. I willnot.
“Don’t look too closely. It was my first time wielding a glue gun.”
“You used a glue gun? For me?”
“First andlasttime.” He chuckles, then leans forward to tug away a strand of glue, twisting it around his finger. “I stopped by a florist and a gift shop on the way here, but neither had what I wanted. So, I went to Walmart for a vase. They all looked like they were vases from Walmart, so I bought a box of pint glasses instead—the rest are in a box in my car if you want them—and a dozen different kinds of candy bars. I don’t know what you like yet.”
Theyetis my favorite part of the whole string of sentences that just flew out of his mouth. But it’s a toss-up because I like them all.
Eli is babbling, the way I sometimes do. Does he realize? It’s really adorable. Beth must think so too because she still has her hand pressed to her sternum, the other clutching his application.
He rocks back on his heels and starts listing things off on his fingers. “Then I got dowel rods and a glue gun from the craft section. An adapter for my car when I realized I was going to have to put this together in the parking lot. My SUV looks likea crime scene. I’m not sure who the victim was—other than my interior—but the weapon was definitely a glue gun.”
I brush my fingers over the candy bars. The basics: 3 Musketeers, Twix, KitKat, Butterfinger, Hershey (regular and special dark), Snickers, and Crunch. And then some out-of-the-box choices: Symphony, Whatchamacallit, and a Bueno.
“My favorite,” I say, tracing my fingers over the last one with a smile. “I love hazelnut.”
“Got it.”
The way he says it makes me think that from now on, Eli is going to buy me every single hazelnut thing he sees. I’ll probably have a hazelnut tree sitting in a pot tomorrow outside my door where I found Eli this morning. Do hazelnuts even grow on trees?
I hug the glass to my chest, still hoping I don’t embarrass myself and ruin the moment by becoming a weepy mess. “Thank you,” I whisper.
“Hey.” Eli frowns, his eyes bouncing across my face. “It’s just some candy. It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” I say fiercely. “Iloveit.”
Eli reaches out and gently loosens my fingers from around the pint glass. “Don’t break the glass, Leelee. I don’t want to have to take you in for stitches.”
I don’t love the idea of breaking the most favorite thing I’ve ever been given. But the idea of Eli taking me to the hospital does something to me. Since my parents died, I’ve had trouble with forms. Specifically, the emergency contact part. Shannon is my best friend, and so she’s the one I pick, but she also has a big family, and she’s probably the name on twenty other forms. And has twenty people to put on hers.
I don’t have aperson, as Meredith Gray and Christina Yang called it.
And why do forms have so many blanks for emergency contacts? Do other people really have that many people for their list? I just wantone.
“I have something else for you,” he says, and I have a ridiculous desire to tell him he needs to stop. It’s too much. But maybe I’m feeling greedy today because I say nothing. “It’s digital.”
Suddenly, Eli looks nervous, shifting his weight and giving me a sheepish smile. “Are you free the night after tomorrow?”
