I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

Author:Maurene Goo
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

STEP 13:

Reveal Your Vulnerabilities in a Heartbreaking Manner

I instantly noticed all the embarrassing things you notice about your own home when looking at it through the eyes of a first-time visitor.

The cool-at-the-time-but-now-outdated teal-painted living room walls. The ratty and obviously overused recliner. That one window that never got proper curtains so it had a bizarre paper screen propped over it—a screen with a popular Korean cartoon bear pattern.

Power through, Des. Power through.

“Shoes off, please,” I ordered breezily as I dropped my backpack onto the cold tile floors of the entryway and kicked off my sandals. But Luca had already started unlacing his black high-top Vans, bent over with one hand balancing himself against the wall. Hm, for some reason, his Asian house-training appealed to me.

“You can go sit in the living room.” And then my voice faltered. “Huh … I feel … light-headed…” I stumbled over to the sofa, where I had already set out a pretty gray-and-white-striped throw and a nice fluffy pillow that morning. I resisted the urge to bring my palm up to my forehead. That would be taking the damsel-in-distress thing a bit too far. Maybe.

I peeked to see Luca walking toward me, but he was clearly distracted, picking up a copy of Popular Science on the way over. “Did you hit your head on something?” he asked as he absentmindedly flipped through the magazine. Annoyance shot through me—when he hurt his own face he sure was concerned!

“I don’t know,” I responded weakly. “Can you maybe grab me a cold washcloth?” I had conveniently set a fresh one on the kitchen sink next to a small pink plastic tub (a staple in every Korean household). “The kitchen’s that way.” I pointed.

“Sure.” I heard him rummage around in there.

I readjusted myself on the sofa so that he could either sit next to me or kneel by me. I fixed the hem of my sweater so it covered all rolly bits of my belly, then moved my hair off my forehead so that Luca could place the washcloth there all gently and lovingly—

“Catch!”

I looked up to see a frozen pack of peas headed straight for my face. My hands went up to catch it instinctively.

“Those will be way more effective than a washcloth,” he said with a smug you’re welcome tone in his voice.

“Er … thanks.” I placed it gingerly on my head. “Hm, so … Yeah, might need to take a little breather.”

Luca was bounding away from me already. What the heck, where was this energy coming from? “So what’s up there?” he asked at the foot of the stairs.

“Uh, just the bedrooms, you know? Like in a house,” I replied, annoyed that he wasn’t tending to me in my current state of distress.

“Your room?” He turned around with an eyebrow cocked.

“Yeah?”

He started up the stairs. “Cool, let’s go see it.”

I sat up straight and scrambled over to him. “Wait, what? No, don’t go in there!” My room was not part of the plan. No way did

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