His smile was enormous, and I both saw and felt his relief that I was able to joke with him. Magnus seemed to sense my lingering distress, and he leaned in to lick my face. Noah got up and left the room but came back quickly to sit down next to me on the floor again.

Noah commented, “You know, as much as that dog of mine loves his own vomit, it’s a safe bet he’d enjoy yours, too. So it would probably be better if you didn’t throw up, because neither one of us needs to see that.”

“But if I puked on this carpet, how would you even be able to tell?”

He laughed. “Here.”

I heard a crinkling sound and looked up at the Snickers bar he was handing me. He said, “The next time you’re thinking of a taste, think of something you love. Like chocolate.”

My stomach had calmed down enough that I wanted to take a bite. My fingers were shaking so badly that he had to help me open the candy bar. I took a bite, and that sugar rush actually soothed me. Why hadn’t this ever occurred to me before? “This chocolate thing works. Like in Harry Potter.”

“I hope I kiss better than a dementor.”

OMG. He spoke nerd. If I didn’t know what the end result would be, I might actually consider kissing him again. It took a few minutes to calm down, for my body to realize we weren’t about to die and that things were okay. That I had panicked, once again, over nothing.

But Noah didn’t seem to view this as a failure. “You did it. It was hard and scary, but you got through it.”

“Maybe it’ll be easier next time,” I said. He had really impressed me through this—how calm and gentle he’d been, how encouraging. The research he’d done, the way he’d memorized the steps to help keep me grounded through the attack. He was definitely the right guy to help me get past this.

He looked surprised. “You want there to be a next time?”

“I do. I want this to get better.” Another guy would be running for the hills, arms flailing like a maniac. But Noah sat next to me, helping me eat my chocolate.

My heart warmed, and I didn’t recognize what I was feeling. There were too many things racing around in my body for me to figure out what it was.

He asked, “Do you want to stay and hang out? We could watch a movie that doesn’t have me in it.”

My anxiety attacks were exhausting on so many different levels. I was going to crash soon. “Maybe another night. These things wear me out.”

“Understandable. How about tomorrow night?”

“Yes. Let’s try this again tomorrow.”