Page 141 of Let's Kiss and Tell

His eyes linger on mine for a moment longer than necessary, and I can tell he’s thinking about something. Before I can ask him what, he just leans in and kisses me again.

“Did you read the story?” he asks.

“I did.” I try to control the stupid smile on my face.

“I hope you’re happy with how it turned out.”

“It’s perfect,” I say. “Thank you, Marsh. Really. Being a part of this story means a lot to me.”

“It means a lot to me too,” he says, and I lean in to give him another kiss. When I pull away, he reaches for the start button and turns on the car. “You ready?”

“Let’s do this.” I put on my sunglasses and we head east, toward Palm Springs.

“Any updates from Eman?” Marsh asks once we hit the 60.

“The column is doing really well.It worked.”

“Yeah?” Marsh looks at me. “That’s great news. So you can write about other topics now?”

“That’s the thing.” I admire the peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains in the distance. “There’s momentum with the column that I haven’t gotten before. It almost feels too soon to start writing about the downfall of the relationship.”

“Oh,” Marsh says.

“But that doesn’t mean we have to keep doing this.” I whip my head to him hoping that I’m not putting him in a weird position. “I know we said we would stop after this weekend, and I don’t want you to feel like youhaveto keep up this charade.”

“Well, we neverreallydiscussed what happens after this weekend.” Our eyes tentatively meet, then he looks back at the road. “What happens on Monday?”

My stomach feels like the beginning of a thunderstorm when I think of Monday.

“I don’t know,” I say slowly. “Do we just…stop talking to each other?”

The silence is deafening as I anxiously wait for Marsh’s response.

“I mean, if you asked me a month ago, I would say yes.” Marsh looks at me. “But I don’t know how to do that now.”

“I don’t know how to do that either,” I admit. There’s a heavy pause between us, and I just say what I want to say. “What if we don’t stop?”

“We don’t stop,” he repeats like a statement more than a question.

“Yeah.” I nod. I’m not really sure what I mean by it. I just know I’m not ready to stop doing whatever we’re doing. “Do we reallyneedto stop after this weekend?”

“You mean so you can keep writing for your column?”

“Right,” I say almost too quickly.Of course this is for the column,I tell myself. Why would it be about anything else? “For the column. Plus, I’m sure it would only legitimize everything on your end the longer we stay together.”

He peels his eyes off the road for a moment and looks at me. “In what way?”

“I mean, if you think about it…it might look a little suspicious if you and I broke uprightafter Julia’s wedding. You may as well have had no date at all,” I say, and Marsh contemplates this.

“So, we just keep doing what we’re doing until…”

“Until…it makes sense to stop?” I offer, feeling good about that answer. “How does that sound to you?” I ask Marsh slowly. “You can absolutely say no because I get if it feels—”

“Lucy,” Marsh interrupts me. “That sounds good to me.”

“Yeah?” I can practically feel my insides light up.

Marsh takes my hand in my lap and brings it to his lips. “Yeah.”