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“For six minutes?”

“It wasn’t that long!”

Melodie shook her head and smiled, shooing me away.

“Shit.”

“Go introduce yourself. You can do this,” I said to myself. “Noo…I’ll sound stupid.”

“You always sound stupid.”

I couldn’t help but agree with myself. My feet moved before my brain agreed.

Okay.

Deep breath.

Smile.

Not too much smiling.

Too much smiling looks like a serial killer.

Normal smiling?

Wait, wasn’t I worse than a serial killer?

I reached the table.

“Hi.”

The man looked up and I saw his pretty blue eyes and freckled face.

“Oh. Hi.”

“I’m Cry—uh. I’m happy to meet you.”

“I’m Ethan,” he said with a smile.

“So…”

Silence. So much silence, and he was staring at me like I was a lost waiter.

Shit.

“So…” I tried again.

More silence.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

My brain had emptied itself like someone’d pulled the emergency drain plug, and I looked over my shoulder at Melodie, but she was busy flirting with the bartender.

“You…uh…” I pointed and my finger landed on the novel in his grip. “Book.”

Kill me.

“Yeah.” He looked so uncomfortable that I started to sweat.