Page 103 of Sounds Like Love
I studied her. “What doyouwant?”
She took a deep breath. Steeled herself. “I want … to go out andfindwhat I want—with Mitch. I want to do what you did. I want to chase a dream. Even if it’s scary. Even if I fail. I want to try.” She said it with the certainty of someone who had thought about it for a very long time. She finally sounded like the best friend I met in kindergarten. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, actually. Before Wyn’s diagnosis. I was going to talk to Mitch about it, but then … you know. Things happened. So I never got the chance. Then Mitch asked me to marry him a few weeks ago and …” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t know how to make us both happy right now. I don’t know if I ever want to get married—and that’s crazy, right? What’s wrong with me? If I love him, shouldn’t Iwantto marry him? If I know I want to be with him forever, shouldn’t I want forever to start as soon as possible?”
Another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, chased by a rumble of thunder. The wind was picking up, blowing limbs and leaves across the sidewalk.Beneath the murmur of the jukebox playing Joan Jett, the wind whispering through the creaks in the building grew steadily louder.
“No,” I replied simply.
“No?”
“No,” I reiterated. “Not necessarily. Forever looks a hundred different ways to a hundred different people. Why do you want to take the most boring route?”
Gigi stared at me, silent, her mouth open. She tried to find an answer—any answer, really—but nothing came to mind. Her eyes fluttered. Like she was recalibrating herself, and I had to wonder, how long had she berated herself for thinking she was broken? Because, what, she didn’t want to getmarried?
It wasn’t either of us who broke the silence.
“My sister’s got a point, Gi,” said my brother as he pulled open the ticket window. He leaned out of it, propping his head up in his hand.
Gigi looked like she wanted to burrow into the ground and die. “Babe!”
I glared at him. “Were you eavesdropping?”
“No,” he replied, and held up a flashlight. “I was finding flashlights in case the generator goes out. Found candles, too.”
Gigi stared at him in horror. “Mitch—I—what I meant was—”
“Hey, it’s my fault for eavesdropping.”
“You didn’t deserve to hear it like that,” she said, tears coming to her eyes again. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. And I’m sorry that I’m going to let Wyn down. I don’t want to do that.”
He pulled himself through the ticket window and over the counter and was to her in two quick strides. “No, don’t you dare—you know our mom. She won’t be upset. She’ll be mortified that you put your life on hold. And, babe? So am I.” He stared down into her eyes with nothing but adoration. “I’m here to ride shotgun wherever you wanna go.”
Her bottom lip wobbled. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “Besides, all I heard was that you wanna spend forever with me. I don’t care how that forever looks. As long as it’s with you? That’s all I need.”
Gigi’s mouth pursed into a line as she tried to keep her composure, but she quickly lost it as she took him by the sides of his face and kissed him.
I turned away awkwardly. They might’ve been my brother and my best friend, but it was stillweird. “Gross,” I muttered.
Gigi and Mitch broke away with a laugh. “Oh, you’re still here?”
“Ha.” I rolled my eyes.
Mitch kissed her again on the cheek. “I’ll give Mom back the ring, and hopefully she hasn’t made her mixtape yet …”
“Oh, no, I’ll take the mixtape,” Gigi joked. “I wonder what songs sound like us—”
There was another crack of thunder, though it sounded strange and deep. The lights flickered again dramatically.
“Afterwe survive this hurricane,” he added to Gigi. “Hey, speaking of songs, Jo—how’s the writing going with Sebastian Fell?”
“I told him about it,” Gigi supplied to me.
I hadn’t even considered that shewouldn’ttell Mitch everything. “We finished it.”
Mitch wiggled his eyebrows. “Did you now. And whereisyour rock star boyfriend?”
“He left,” I replied simply.
