Yes—for some fucked-up reason that only Troy Hartman himself could be responsible for, August was lying to me. And for the life of me, I couldn’t bring myself to care or even be offended. He was clearly put up to it and in all honesty, I liked this August.

Maybe it was selfish and wrong on many levels, and maybe this little secret was going to tear us apart, but what if it didn’t? What if we were amazing just as us and lived happily ever after?

This isn’t The Little Mermaid, Harper, grow up.

My life didn’t have fairy tale written all over it since I was born. Our castle was a three story walk up in downtown Brooklyn. The Prince I crushed on in high school turned out to be a villain. And now I served coffee and drew cute boys behind their backs.

“We’re almost on the Manhattan side, think you can make it?” he asked.

I stopped abruptly. “I don’t think so. We’d better turn back.” I turned on my heel and he swirled me back around.

“You can do it. It’ll be fine, we’ll grab a bottle of water and then walk back.”

My eyes were wide and he laughed. “Kidding.”

He reached into my pocket and pulled out the list. “What else are we doing today?”

I shrugged. “Well, we’re in the city. Did you want to go do whatever it was you needed to do here earlier?”

It was mean because I knew he had to go to work, but I couldn’t help myself.

He folded the list back up and slipped it into my coat pocket. “It’s not really a pit stop kind of thing. I’ve got a better idea.” He picked up a tourist brochure of lower Manhattan and opened it. With his eyes closed, he made circles around the map and stopped at a random spot before peering down on it. “Guess we’re going to South Street Sea Port.”

I hooked my arm under his. “Can we cab it there?”

After a fishy experience at the seaport, we went to lunch in Greenwich and then to a museum downtown. We ended our time in the city at an upscale spot by the pier then took an Uber back to my car in Brooklyn.

“Thank you,” I finally said when we stood by my car, neither of us knowing quite how to say goodnight.

He slid his hands inside my coat and gripped my waist. “I had a great time with you, Harper.” The wind blew against us and he shielded me with his body, pressing me against my car door and kissing me with his warm lips.