Page 76 of Derivation

“Cute?”

“You have to know how I feel about you.”

“I don’t,” she replied and swallowed, her throat going completely dry.

“I liked you then. I like you now.”

“You liked me back then?”

“Obviously.” Gabi chuckled. “Sarai, you were beautiful, kind, funny, and so smart. I met you, and I wanted to stay in Amsterdam and skip the rest of my trip. Why do you think I invited you to Paris and wanted to come back and visit you before you went home?”

“Because you wanted me to see Paris before I left Europe?” she asked more than said.

“I knew you saw me as a kid, and I tried to change that while I was there, but you were pretty locked in on the fact that I wasn’t even in college yet.”

“I was?”

“You kept bringing it up every chance you got. You told random strangers at a museum gift shop that I was on a gap year.”

“Oh, I remember now.” She chuckled. “I can’t believe I forgot about that. But I wasn’t telling them because of that. I mentioned it because the woman said that her daughter was about to go off to art school, which was why she was buying her a Van Gogh notebook and one of those pens that look like a giant paintbrush. I was getting one for you because you said they were cool, but I wanted the red one for me and the blue one for you because you’d mentioned liking blue. When we went for the blue at the same time, she explained the thing about wanting it for her daughter, so I told her that I wanted to get it for you because you were going to college after your gap year.”

“You let her have it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. It was for her daughter, and she was going to art school. Seemed more appropriate, so I got you–”

“The magnet. I remember. I still have it.”

“You do?”

Gabi nodded and said, “It’s in a box in my closet, along with the rest of my travel stuff. I used to have it on my fridge, though. I put it away when I moved in here because the three of you aren’t really fridge magnet people.”

“You had it on your fridge?”

“Sarai, I liked you,” Gabi repeated. “Yeah, I had a girlfriend before you and I met, but I really liked you. I felt something the second I laid eyes on you, and you seemed so uninterested in me.”

“I was interested, but–”

“I was too young for you.”

“No. Well, yes, but it wasn’t really the age thing. It was the life stuff. I was about to graduate from college, Gabi. You were still going on your world tour before you even started college in Paris, while I would be starting out in some entry-level job somewhere. It felt like an impossible situation, so I talked myself into thinking that it was just a crush and tried to push you out of my mind and move on. I did on and off, but you were somehow always in the back of it. Then, you’re in the front of it because you’re standing at a bar, with a menu in your hand, and I’m totally floored because I can’t believe you’re right next to me.”

Gabi’s smile widened.

“So, can we go out on a date already, then?”

Sarai had been smiling a little, too, but stopped.

“Or not…” Gabi added.

“I want to.”

“I’m sensing a but coming.”

“But, Gabi, we live and work together. It’s complicated now. It’s somehow more complicated than it was back then. I didn’t think that was possible.”

“We can figure it out,” Gabi replied before she shifted a little closer to her and took Sarai’s hands in her own. “It doesn’t have to get in the way.”

“I know. But it could. If we try, and it doesn’t work, it will be awkward, and Enya just got done reminding me how we’re making actual progress at work right now.”