This Girl: A Novel

eyes off mine.
    I’ve never wanted to be a coffee cup so bad in my life.
    Why do I have to go to work? I could stay here and watch her drink coffee all day. She’s looking right at me, probably wondering what the hell I’m doing staring at her so much. I straighten back up and look down at my watch. “I need to go, my brother is waiting in the car and I’ve got to get to work. I’ll walk you back. You can keep the cup.”
    She looks down at the cup and reads it. I didn’t even notice I gave her my father’s cup. She runs her fingers across the letters and smiles. “I’ll be okay,” she says as she stands to leave. “I think I’ve got the whole walking erect thing down now.” She walks through the living room and is opening the front door when I spot my jacket lying across the back of my couch. I reach over and grab it.
    “Layken, take this. It’s cold out there.” She tries to refuse but I shake my head and make her take my jacket. If she takes the jacket, she’ll eventually have to bring it back, which is exactly what I’m hoping will happen. She smiles and pulls my jacket over her shoulders, then she heads across the street.
    When I reach my car I turn to watch her make her way back to her house. I like the way she looks, engulfed by my jacket over her pajamas. Who knew pajamas and Darth Vader house shoes could be so damn sexy?
    “Layken!” I yell. She turns around just before she reaches her front door. “May the force be with you!” I laugh and hop in the car before she can say anything.
    “What took you so long? I’m f-f-f-freezing,” Caulder says.
    “Sorry,” I say. “Layken hurt herself.” I back the car up and pull out onto the street.
    “What happened?” he asks.
    “She tried to walk on the frozen concrete in Darth Vader house shoes. She busted it and cut herself.”
    Caulder giggles. “She has Darth Vader house shoes?”
    I smile at him. “I know, right?”

3.
    the honeymoon
    “I LOVE HEARING this,” she says, grinning next to me on the bed. “So you thought I was cute, huh?”
    “No, I didn’t think you were cute. I thought you were absolutely beautiful,” I correct her. I brush the hair out of her face and she leans into my hand and kisses my palm. “What did you think about me?” I ask.
    She smiles. “I tried not to. I was attracted to you, but I had so much going on and we’d been in Michigan all of five minutes when we met. Circumstances just kept bringing us back together, though. Every minute I was around you, I just fell harder and harder in crush with you.”
    “In crush?” I laugh.
    She grins. “I was so in crush with you, Will. Especially after you helped me with the bandage. And after our trip to the grocery store.”
    “I’d have to say we were both in crush after that trip.”

crush
    I ATTEMPT TO go over my lesson plans for the next week but I can’t even concentrate. I try to pinpoint exactly what it is about her that completely consumes my mind, but I can’t figure it out. After the incident with the bandage this morning, she was all that went through my head at work. I wish she would just do or say something stupid so this hold she has on me would break. It’s weird.
    I’ve never been so consumed by the thought of someone in my entire life. This is the last thing I need right now, but somehow it’s the only thing I want.
    Caulder bursts through the front door, laughing. He slips his shoes off and walks across the living room shaking his head. “That Darth Vader girl asked me how to get to the grocery store,” he says. “I don’t know how to drive. She’s so dumb.” He walks to the refrigerator and opens it.
    I stand up. “Is she still out there?” I rush to the front door and see her Jeep parked in the street. I quickly pull my shoes on, then run outside before she drives away. I’m relieved when I see her fiddling with the GPS. It’ll buy me some time.
    I wonder if she would care if I went with her to the store.
    Of course she would. That would be awkward.
    “That’s not a good idea,” I say as I approach her car, then lean through the window.
    She glances up at me, a smile hiding in the corners of her mouth. “What’s not a good idea?” She begins to insert the GPS into its holder.
    Shit. What’s not a good idea? I didn’t think this through. I say the first lie that pops into my head. “There’s quite a bit of construction going on right now. That thing will get you lost.”
    Just as she opens her mouth to