Julie, Do You Love Me? by Carrie Ann Hope

Author:Carrie Ann Hope [Hope, Carrie Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

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SEVEN

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Two days ago? Was that all it had been? Two days since he’d been sitting in the library, wondering if he’d ever be able to exchange a few words with Julie Moore—and really, what the point of it would be, since he certainly wasn’t someone she’d ever consider going out with.

He couldn’t even figure out why she was in the library so often to begin with. If she liked those coffee-table photography books, couldn’t she buy copies of her own?

If she’d been someone else, he might have thought she was waiting for a friend who worked there to finish their shift, or for someone who got off the crosstown bus on the corner those two afternoons a week. Part of him enjoyed trying to puzzle things out, until he reached the point where none of it made sense.

A couple of times, he stayed until she finally got up and left, but she didn’t greet anyone either inside the library or out in the parking lot; she simply got into her car and drove away.

She didn’t sneak off into a corner to kiss someone. She didn’t even seem to know any of the librarians by name, although a couple of them seemed to recognize her.

He was wasting his time, he’d thought more than once.

Going there. Spending hour after hour leafing through a series of books, waiting for something to happen. Some sign that his life was about to change.

And now, here he was: standing up at the peak of one of his favorite hiking trails, a place he’d visited over and over during college and the first couple of years afterwards. Usually alone, sometimes with a friend or two. Once or twice with a girlfriend, although they’d never been as impressed with the place as he’d hoped they would be. His friends weren’t, either, for that matter.

Here, although it was a climber’s victory point by no means—he saw old folks and children nearby sometimes—he always felt as if he’d conquered something. That he was standing up above all the problems and frustrations of everyday life, enjoying the big, wide sprawl of nature.

Up here, he was a winner.

Today, especially.

He tried his best not to grin like a fool when they broke away from that amazing kiss, but he could see in Julie’s eyes that he hadn’t succeeded. In fact, she seemed awfully close to breaking into giggles herself, and when he tried to step back, to give her some space, she held on to the sleeve of his coat.

It was a perfect day. The landscape stretched out behind her looked like a postcard, a brilliant wash of blue and green and white. Everything had come together perfectly, and he felt a flash of satisfaction that no one had helped to arrange any of it. He was here with Julie without any of the machinations of the Matchmaking Squad, or his family, or some reality TV show production team.

Be happy with that, he told himself. No matter what happened from here, this was a perfect moment.

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