He chuckled, looking out the window. The streets were widening, and the buildings were growing taller as we drove deeper into the city. “What do you think about walking around Piedmont Park? Maybe we can have lunch on the Beltline. The weather’s nice, and I really wouldn’t mind some fresh air. Or spending the day with you.”

I couldn’t tamp down my smile. It stretched up my cheeks, my eyes crinkling. The bubbly sensation made me feel as if my blood had been replaced with champagne. Fizzy. Excited. And all because of the simple prospect of hanging out with Jake for the entire day.

“Yeah, let’s do that. I think that’s a great idea,” I said, looking over and seeing Jake matching my grin. “Bestie.”

He laughed, licked his lips, and looked out the window again so that his jawline cut a sharp crease across his face, highlighted by the sunlight. He was fine art. Perfect angles and flawless symmetry. He didn’t have a good side because all of them were great. As if painted by a master artist, almost unreal.

And I’m supposed to be friends with him? How is that going to work when all I want to do is climb him like a fucking tree twenty-four seven?

16. Jake Perez

16

JAKE PEREZ

A squirrel skittered up a tree, leaping onto a branch and bringing up the nut it had in its tiny hands, stuffing it into its cheek as it eyed everyone that walked underneath his home.

Piedmont Park was packed with people. Families were gathered on blankets, kids ran around the emerald-green grass, there was a game of flag football going on, joggers were doing their laps, and friends celebrating Sunday Funday were riding around on scooters. The skyline was framed by towering office and apartment buildings, their metallic and stone peaks reaching up to a cloudless sky, as if even they wanted to emphasize just how nice the day was.

It was exactly the kind of environment I wanted to be in after the shitshow of a morning Noah and I had. My knuckles were still sore, and disbelief at what happened still filtered through me, but the more we walked and joked around with each other, the more normal I began to feel. There were very few people I’d throw a punch for in this world, one of them being the man currently sipping on iced coffee and telling me a story about his first time out of the country.

“It was pretty wild,” he said as we moved aside while a bachelorette party zoomed past us on their scooters, the bride wearing a white-and-pink sash around her chest. “Thankfully, I learned pretty quickly how to drive on the other side of the road. But drinking water without ice? Now, that’s where I had to draw the line.”