Page 50

Claire wondered when he’d started doing things like that. Then she realized he always had. Before, she’d dismissed it as Noah simply being nice.

Now that everyone called him her boyfriend, she couldn’t stop noticing all the ways he had been acting like one long before the gala.

Example Two: Lunch

On Wednesday, Claire sat at her desk, trying to eat a sad salad between meetings.

Her phone buzzed.

Noah: Did you eat real food today?

She stared at it for a full ten seconds before replying with a picture of her salad.

Claire: This is real food.

Noah: That’s a bowl of leaves.

Claire: It has chicken.

Seven minutes later, a paper bag landed beside her keyboard. Grilled cheese sandwich. Soup.

Noah leaned against the edge of her desk as if personally delivering lunch in the middle of her workday was completely normal. To him it was.

“When are you going to quit showing up with food to rescue me?” she asked.

“When you start eating a real meal without my intervention.”

Of course her coworkers noticed Noah bringing her lunch. Again. He was always bringing her lunch.

Avery eyed the soup and sandwich. “He’s ruining the dating market.”

Claire laughed. “What?”

“Where do people even find men like that?”

Claire looked at the sandwich. “Apparently in apartment hallways.”

“Your boyfriend is so sweet,” another coworker told her.

“Yeah.” Claire looked toward the doorway, where Noah was still standing. “He really is, isn’t he?” The words felt dangerously natural.

For some reason, that sweetness was starting to affect her a lot more than it had before.

Noah hadn’t suddenly become more thoughtful. He had always been like this.

The difference was that now everyone else was calling it boyfriend behavior. And Claire was having a harder time pretending she didn’t like that.

He always walked on the street side of the sidewalk. He slowed down when she was tired without commenting on it. He started keeping an extra charger in his bag because she forgot hers once. He knew how she took her coffee.

And the worst part? He never looked at her like he was trying to impress her. He looked at her like he already knew her.

No real feelings, she reminded herself.

But it was already too late for that, wasn’t it?

Noah might have started acting like Claire’s boyfriend, but she realized she was starting to act like a girlfriend.

Example One: The Coffee Grounds