Page 70 of Yours, For Now

I laughed, this time, but Gabe groaned.

"Don't, Vi." Gabe asked me to squeeze closer to Vi, so he could sit on the couch next to me. "We're just seeing how this goes. Don't put pressure on it."

Vi shook her head at me, as if puzzled. "But pressure is what I do best!"

I laughed and woke up my computer. "She's committed to your happiness. I think it's cute."

I refreshed the page, but the results were not there yet.

"Dad should be here soon, right?" Vi asked. "He said this morning he wanted to be here for the results."

"Yeah. He texted me that he's in a meeting, but he should be able to make it.

"And Jake?" Vi added, her eyes on my computer. She refreshed the page this time. Two seconds later, she sighed. "Still not there."

"I don't know if Jake will come," Gabe said. Something about his tone made me look at Vi with curiosity.

Interesting. Vi didn't reply, nor looked in her brother's direction.

I sipped from my coffee and checked my watch. "Three minutes late."

My stomach turned into knots, and I bit my lips hard.

"I think we're gonna get it," Vi said. "We're so gonna get it."

Gabe rubbed my back. "It's okay. Even if we don't get it, we can try again."

"I'm refreshing again…" Vi said. "Nope. Not there yet."

I don't know what face I made, but Gabe put both our mugs on the coffee table and brought me to him.

"Come here," he said. "It's okay."

"I'm okay. I'm okay," I said, but all he did was hold me and rub my back.

No wonder I was having a hard time separating fantasy from reality, when he was so good at making me feel he was the kind of boyfriend I wanted.

"Where's Dad? I'll go get him. But first I'll refresh just in case… Ah! It's there—"

Time slowed down. Gabe hugged me tighter. We all leaned toward the screen, reading the three names listed there.

"WE GOT IT!" Vi jumped off the couch. Gabe and I did too.

I jumped into Gabe's arms, and he held me even tighter, before putting his hands on my shoulders.

"Lina! We got it!"

I gasped, no words out of my mouth.

Vi gave us a hug and marched out of the office. "I'm going to go tell Dad!"

"Lina—" Gabe wrapped my face in his hands. "Lina, we did it. We're shortlisted."

I put my hands over his. "We're almost in. We're so close!"

He dropped a hard kiss on my mouth, and breathed his words into me. "We did it."

And I didn't care about anything else, I kissed him like I wanted to kiss him. He tensed up against me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and plastered myself to him, and hoped the warmth of my body would melt him and let him kiss me for real, this time.