What He Didn't Tell Me by Jenny Lynne

Author:Jenny Lynne [Lynne, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

“That movie was amazing,” I say to Ben as we exit the theater. “I kept thinking I knew what was going to happen next, but every time I was completely wrong.”

Ben’s apparently-randomly-chosen movie was a great surprise. It was so engaging that it actually succeeded in distracting me from my feelings. Unfortunately, now that we’re back in the real world, everything comes rushing back with a vengeance.

“What movie did you see?” a woman who had been admiring the footprints in the courtyard asks me in an accent I can’t place.

“The Darkness Outside,” I tell her. “I’d definitely recommend it. And the theater here is absolutely gorgeous.”

“We’ve been meaning to see that movie. My daughter read the book for school, and she liked it so much she convinced me to read it too,” the woman says, and then she turns to a teenage girl beside her. “Do you want to see The Darkness Outside here tomorrow after our Hollywood Sign hike?”

“Oh, yes!” the girl says.

“You can hike to the Hollywood Sign?” I ask the woman.

“There’s a trail that takes you just above it,” she answers.

“I could use a hike,” Ben says.

“I’ll show you how to get there.” The woman takes out her phone, pulls up a map, and points out the trailhead. It isn’t too far from a stop of the Metro train that Ben and I took to get here.

Before she puts her phone away, she asks, “Would you mind taking a photo of my daughter and me with the theater?”

I accept her phone. “No problem.”

The woman and the girl pose with one of the fanciful stone creatures by the theater entrance. Together, they mug adorably for the camera. I swallow away the ache in my throat and snap a picture.

“Do you want me to take a photo for you?” the first woman offers.

“Sure.” I trade my camera for her phone and wave Ben over.

I feel that exciting, disconcerting tingling again when he leans close to me for the photo.

“Smile!” the woman calls out to us as she aims the camera.

I smile, but I can’t shake my unease. I know I need to allow myself to connect with people again, to maybe someday make new friends, even best friends, but I should probably take things slow. I barely know Ben. Just days ago, he was a random stranger in a coffee shop. And now my relationship with him feels like it is progressing at warp speed, skipping right past friendship and hurtling toward something more. Something … inevitable.

And that scares me to death.

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