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Back Adult Assembly Required
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for Abbi Waxman and her novels
  3. Berkley Titles by Abbi Waxman
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Summer
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-ONE
  28. TWENTY-TWO
  29. TWENTY-THREE
  30. TWENTY-FOUR
  31. TWENTY-FIVE
  32. TWENTY-SIX
  33. TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. TWENTY-NINE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. THIRTY-FIVE
  42. THIRTY-SIX
  43. THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. Fall
  45. THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. THIRTY-NINE
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. FORTY-TWO
  50. FORTY-THREE
  51. FORTY-FOUR
  52. FORTY-FIVE
  53. EPILOGUE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  55. Readers Guide
  56. Questions for Discussion
  57. About the Author
  58. What’s next onyour reading list?

She looked up and found Bob smiling at her. His smile was slightly goofy, making his face crease and his eyes crinkle. It canceled out the smooth planes and sharp angles of his resting face, replacing them with a warm and approachable humanity. All at once Laura felt grateful she was making friends in Los Angeles. Throughout her life her friendships had come through other people, through more popular and charming girls at school, through older students of her parents, and then, largely, through Nick. Bob and Polly and Nina . . . these were friends she’d made for herself. She was on a trivia team, for goodness’ sake; that had to count for something.

“Everything good?” asked Laura.

“Yup,” said Bob easily. “Do you want anything else to eat? More coffee?”

Laura shook her head. “I’m fine, thanks. Can we go home?” She noticed how easily she’d said that, but how strange it sounded.

Bob didn’t smile. “Sure, of course.” He gathered his stuff and turned around. “I’ll go pay the bill.”

“Thank you for dinner,” said Laura, following him. She twisted her hair around her finger, then realized what she was doing and stopped. She stuck her hands in her pockets instead, and then worried she was looking too casual. Then she desperately tried to stop thinking at all.

“Of course,” he replied. “Thank you for coming today and helping.”

He faltered into silence and gazed around, having temporarily lost the ability to look at Laura. His attraction to her had grown so much during the day, and he was wondering how to navigate literally going home together. For a split second, when she’d asked to go home, he’d let himself imagine she was his girlfriend, that they were going to go into his room and she was going to let him undress her and take her to bed. He was taken aback by how much that appealed to him, but it wasn’t really that surprising. He’d enjoyed her company so much, despite the fact he found her so physically attractive. Pretty girls normally made him feel clumsy and inarticulate, and he’d always blamed himself for that. For the first time he wondered if maybe it hadn’t been his fault at all. Laura was beautiful, but when she smiled at him, he felt . . . seen, not evaluated.

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