When I Fall

I force my eyes to close tightly as I let my head hit the back of the booth. “Stomach cramp. I think there was something in my guacamole.”

“Or you just can’t run with the big dogs. And that’s fine. I won’t tell anybody.” A soft laugh rings out from her direction. “Or, I’ll tell everybody.”

I open my eyes, glaring at her as the smile on her face calls out to something inside of me. Something that would do more than I’m willing to admit just to see her face light up like that.

“Give up?” she asks, looking down at my platter, then back up at me.

I answer her by sliding my food away from me, and she begins to wiggle in her seat, bopping her head back and forth as her eyes close and her mouth quietly utters the phrase “oh yeah, oh yeah” over and over.

Damn. That’s cute as hell.

“Would you like a to-go box?”

I look up at our waitress who has arrived at the table.

Beth dissolves against the booth, halting her victory dance and shaking her head quickly as she acknowledges the woman with a nervous grin.

“No thank you,” she tells her, clearly embarrassed for getting caught basking in her win.

I pick up my platter and hand it over to the waitress. “I’m good. We’ll just take the check.”

If I had gotten anything but tacos, I’d consider taking it with us and devouring it in my truck after I drop Beth off. But I don’t do cold or reheated Mexican food, and it’s been decided already. I’m stopping for burgers.

“Finished gloating?” I tease, getting Beth’s attention off her lap.

“For now.” She smiles, drops her elbow to the table, and rests her chin on her hand. “We need to come up with our history together. How we met, how long we’ve been dating, all the relationship stuff. I’m pretty sure those are questions that could definitely be asked on Saturday.”

“Okay.”

“And since I said we’re in love, I think we should at least be going on a few months together. Like two or three, which would put us at meeting . . .”

Two or three?

“Wait a minute.” I hold my hand up, halting her insane line of thinking. “You’ve fallen in love with someone that fast before?”

That’s not possible. Besides the only two people on the planet who are the giant freak exception to that rule, Ben and Mia, no one falls in love that fast. It took me almost a year to realize I loved Molly.

She slowly drops her hand down to her lap, joining her other one. “I’ve never fallen in love with anyone. But I think you can fall in love that fast. I think sometimes it can happen almost instantly. Like as soon as you see someone. You immediately feel this pull toward that other person.”

“Yeah, you want to have sex with them. That’s what that pull is. Or in my case, it’s usually a firm squeeze, and then a pull.”

I grin.

She rolls her eyes.

“No,” she says through a shake of her head. “Sex obviously does play a part in it. But you can also have feelings for somebody right away that you don’t understand. Maybe at the time you think it’s just a desire to sleep with them, but then weeks, or months later, you think back and it’s like, wow. That’s what that was. That’s why I needed to be with them.” She drops her eyes to the table. “That’s what I would want,” she says through a much softer voice. “Love should be unpredictable. I want it to hit me and like, knock me on my ass. And I don’t want it to take me years to realize that’s what I was feeling. I think two to three months is plenty of time, if not sooner.” She blinks up at me. “But I’m not an expert on this. You probably have more experience on this subject than I do. So, you decide. How long would it take you to fall in love with me?”

This woman. Fuck.

I stare at her as the stomach ache I was faking becomes something very real. Though it’s not really an ache. It’s more like a fist wrapping around every organ in my body and squeezing it just until it becomes restricting.

I know her question is justified. I know this is something we need to have locked down before Molly or someone else asks us separately about our relationship. Beth is asking me this because she has to, but this feels like something much more important to her. And shit, it’s now suddenly important to me. Giving her the answer she wants isn’t my only option, but it’s the only way I want to respond.

I struggle through a swallow, getting down the last bit of saliva left in my mouth. “Three months sounds good. That’ll work for me.”

She blinks several times before her nose crinkles with a smile. “Okay. Three months would put us at March. Where would we have met?”

“Can we say McGill’s? There’s at least some truth to that.”

“I was playing pool, and I had no idea what I was doing. You came over and gave me a few pointers.”

I smile playfully at her set up, and she reacts by slowly nodding, as if she knows what I’m about to say. The little minx.

“I showed you how to handle my pool cue.”

“And your balls.”

She masks her own amusement with a serious face, and I give her one right back.

It’s a stand-off, neither one of us cracking until I see the slightest twitch in the corner of her mouth. I can’t hold my reaction in anymore, and we both start laughing at the same time. Hers muffled by the hand clamped over her mouth, and mine echoing out around us.