Will.

He made me want to sigh and sigh and sigh until I ran out of breath.

His mouth...my god, his mouth on mine was magic. He made me feel girly and romantic. He made my heart beat faster, his name echoing loudly through each chamber.

I’d had a couple of boyfriends over the years, and I’d even been in love for a brief period. But none of it compared to what I felt for Will.

It seemed crazy, but I knew it was real. I felt it down to my core. If we let it, if we—or really, I—didn’t run scared, this thing between us could be big. The biggest.

And still, there was that part of me, the part I’d carried since I pulled away from him as a teenager, that whispered insidiously in my mother’s voice. This won’t last. He won’t want you when you let him really see you.

I hated that part of me. I hadn’t spoken to my mom in years and still I let her voice fill my head with doubts.

But Will did know me. He’d had a front row seat to my stony outer shell, but to him I’d never been impenetrable, even when I tried.

After I got dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a loose, gray V-neck that showed just enough cleavage to hopefully interest Will, and my shitkickers, I took him to the little Greek bakery a few blocks from my place on Main Street.

“Taking a baker to a bakery, huh? It’s gotta be good,” he said as we walked inside.

“It’s a Greek bakery. I bet you don’t make spanakopita, do you?”

He shook his head. “You got me there.” He studied the menu on the wall behind the register. “What should I order?”

“Well, the aforementioned spanakopita is delicious. Really, you can’t go wrong. I’m ordering a Greek omelet.”

He tapped his chin. “I think I have to try the crepe with the lamb. It’s too intriguing to pass up.”

After we ordered at the counter, we found a table by the bay window that overlooked the street.

Will looked out the window, his head moving back and forth, taking everything in. “I feel like I stepped back in time about fifty years.”

I laughed lightly. “I know. I love it. There are some weeks I never use my car. I walk to work, there’s a little mom-and-pop grocery shop a few blocks up, and anything else I could need is right here.”

He grinned. “I think I’m gonna be hanging out at your place a lot. You have that balcony, this town- oh, and you.”

I felt my cheeks heat. Am I fucking blushing? I turned to look out the window, hoping he didn’t see, but he reached across the table and ran the back of his hand over my hot skin.

“I like that,” he said quietly.

I turned to him and let him see me. “I hope you’re here all the damn time, Will.”

He nodded once. “So you feel it too, Annie?”

“I never stopped feeling it.”

“Can you just tell me what happened, then? What did I do wrong?”

I shook my head vigorously, my hair swaying around my shoulders. “No. Oh god, I can’t believe I made you think you did anything wrong. It was me. It was always me.”

A waitress chose that moment to set our plates in front of us.

“Can I get you anything else?” she asked.

Neither of us looked at her. Our eyes stayed locked on each other, so many words and years between us.

“We’re good,” I managed to get out.

When she walked away, Will asked, “If I didn’t do anything wrong, why’d you lie to me for so long, Anna?”

I rubbed my face with my hands. “I didn’t see it until you were there, until you were in love with me.”

“I was always in love with you. Always.”

My breath caught in my throat. I rubbed the front of my neck, trying to loosen the knot.

“I didn’t know. I swear it. Not until we’d made our plans; then I realized it. But I just couldn’t...I couldn’t believe that someone would love me. And definitely not someone I actually loved with every fiber of my being.”

He leaned in, the small cafe table the only thing holding him back. “You fucking loved me too?” he rasped.

I nodded, pinching my lips together to keep the tears back. I’d fallen in love with my best friend somewhere along the way. But after we'd had sex, I couldn’t bear to even look at him. I came clean, told him I planned to move to California for college and then I lied. I said I didn’t feel the same way about him.

“Anna... god, I don’t know what to say.”

He looked close to tears, and it killed me. I reached out and touched his hand. He didn’t pull away, so I gripped it and he squeezed back.

“It was too good. I didn’t think I deserved any of it. Your friendship, the way you looked at me, and definitely not your love. I felt like nothing back then. How could a boy as sweet as you love a girl who was hollow?”

“You weren’t hollow. I won’t let you say that. Even if you didn’t know how to love me back, you were the best fucking friend I’d ever had.”

I picked up my coffee cup and then set it back down again without taking a sip. “I wasn’t that good of a friend,” I muttered.

“Are you kidding me? You literally stood in front of me when those dickheads in school tried to push me around. I was a puny little ass who couldn’t defend himself, who just wanted to bake all day and you got me. Sometimes I thought you were the only one who got me.”

“Hey.” I kicked him under the table and he raised his eyebrows. “One of those douches that used to pick on you was at the reunion. He was totally losing his hair.”

He snorted and looked down at his plate. “Good. Let’s just hope he’s a better human being than he was ten years ago.”

“Let’s hope we all are. Well, not you. You’ve always been awesome.”

“I definitely wasn’t awesome to you in the end.”

“No, but I deserved it.”

He squeezed my hand again. “No. You didn’t. I was too caught up in my own hurt feelings to even try to see what you were going through. I shouldn’t have cut you off so completely.”

“I think we can admit we both fucked up. And we let our silence go on far, far too long.”

“Are we starting fresh?” he asked.

I nodded. “I would like that more than anything in this world. But I want you to know, I don’t run from my feelings anymore. I’m kind of intense at times.”

He chuckled. “What’s fucking new? You’re the most intense person I’ve ever met.”

I grinned. “You didn’t know the half of it back then!”

He threaded our fingers together. “No more hiding shit, okay? This is gonna be real, Annie.”

“Well, then, real talk: if I don’t eat this omelet, I might eat your face. And not in a sexy way.”

He laughed and let go of my hand. “Please, go ahead. Don’t want my face eaten off when I just got the girl.”

I dug into my eggs while Will ate his crepes. I felt like a thousand pounds—weight I hadn’t even realized I’d been carrying around—had been lifted off me. I looked up from my food and watched Will eat, and I had to grip the table for a moment to keep myself from floating away. I still fucking loved this guy. It didn’t scare me at all, but damn, it might scare him.

“This is amazing,” he said around a mouth full of food.

“I wouldn’t steer you wrong, my friend. You may know how to bake, but I know how to eat!”

Will wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Your friend, huh?”

“Aren’t you my friend?”

“Always. But am I just your friend?”

I shook my head. “I hope not. Because I really think we need a take-two on our first time.”

He studied me for a beat. “Can I take you on a date?”

I waved him off. “You don’t have to do that. I’m kind of a sure thing.”

“Annie…” he groaned.

I shot him my sauciest smile. “Will…”

“Let’s do this right. Drinks, dinner, dancing.”

I giggled. “Dancing, really?”

“Yeah, dancing. I wanna dance with you now that I’m actually taller than you are.”

I tucked my hair behind my ear and smiled. “I don’t know. Prom was pretty lovely.”

“True. I can’t say I minded resting my head on your chest during slow dances.”

“Oh, we were quite the pair, weren’t we?” I bit my lip. “But you were just as handsome in your suit back then as you were last night.”

“I’ll never forget you in that blue dress.”

“And the thigh-high boots. Don’t forget them!”

He flopped back in his chair and blew out a breath. “I could never forget those fucking boots.”

I smiled and pushed my food around with my fork. “I’ll go on a date with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course!”

He pumped his fist in the air. “Hell yes!”

“When is this date going to be?”

“Well, I kinda go to bed by ten during the week, so—”

I held my hand up. “Ten?”

“Sorry, babe. I can’t be a night owl anymore. I gotta rise with the sun.”

I wrinkled my nose. “That’s so gross.”

He smiled. “How about next Saturday?”

My stomach dropped. “I have to wait a week for this date?”

“What’s a week when we waited ten years?”

“Too long, that’s what it is.”

Even though I hated the idea, we made plans to go out the next weekend and finished up our meal. We walked slowly back up Main Street, hand in hand, toward my salon.

When we got to the dark purple building, I said, “This is it.”

He peered through the front window. “Looks really nice, Annie. But are you sure you have to go to work?”

“Pretty sure. If I don’t, I’m going to have some pissed off ladies with really bad roots.”

He caressed my cheek gently. “Look at you, all responsible and stuff.”

I leaned into his hand. “So responsible. It’s kind of annoying.”

“I’m gonna miss you,” he said softly.

“Well, good thing I’m super needy because I’m planning to text you so much you won’t have a chance to miss me.”

He pulled me into his arms and held me securely against him. As soon as his arms wrapped around me, my body went limp. “This is my favorite spot in the world,” I murmured into his shoulder.

He kissed my cheek. “Mine too.”

We finally separated and I went into mourning for Will immediately, even though he still stood in front of me.

“It’s just six days,” he said.

I nodded. “I know. I’ll make it.”

He started walking backwards, his eyes on mine. “Bye, pretty Annie!”

I held up a hand. “Bye, beautiful Will!”

I watched him walk down the hill until he disappeared from sight, and then I stood there a while longer, staring at the spot he’d just stood on, wondering if any of it had been real.

“Hey, Anna, what’s up?” my coworker Frannie asked as she came sauntering toward the salon from the opposite direction Will had gone.

I snapped out of my stupor and smiled at her. “Oh, hey, Frannie. I saw your boy last night.”

She raised a brow and we went into the salon together where I filled her in on bartender James, and I swear the coolest chick I’ve ever met actually blushed when I told her he’d been asking about her. Girl’s got it bad and she doesn’t even know it.