Page 87 of Come Back to Me

A hopeful romantic believes in the possibility of a genuine and fulfilling relationship, while a hopeless romantic believes in the idealistic view of love and often pushes reality to the side. He knows that someone is out there, and he won’t give up on finding her.

I’m definitely not a hopeless romanticora hopeful romantic. I’d place myself somewhere in the middle. I knew about hopeless romantics, but hopeful romantics is something I learned about from Violet.

Violet is the literal embodiment of a hopeless romantic. She always was. You’d think the opposite because she loves her romance books, but she’s someone who lives in reality and in an alternate universe at the same time.

Snap out of it, man.

Ugh, wake me up when it’s game time.

now

VIOLET

The last time I went to one of Grayson’s basketball games was during our senior year of high school. Ironically, it was a homecoming game. I know he wants me to be there, but I’ve been debating on telling him I can’t make it to the game tonight because I don’t know if I should be there.

Although, I’m his good luck charm.

They’re not my words.

They’rehis.

I’ve been trying to distract myself by creating some graphics for Noah’s book, but it isn’t working. My work usually does a good job with distracting me from getting too deep into my thoughts. This is why I like to keep myself busy.

I’m on break at work, so I figured I should utilize my time by doing more work.

I really need to learn how to take an actual break.

“You’re zoning out again,” Willow says.

Once my eyes readjust, they land on Willow.

Her ginger hair is down with a cute floral headband to match her burnt orange sundress and white Converse.Her makeup is always natural, highlighting her light brown freckles.

“Mm-hm.”

“Does any of it have to do with a certain basketball player who invited you to his homecoming game tonight?” She slightly narrows her eyes, tapping a pen on the checkout desk.

“Get out of my head, and stop with the pen.” I start to put out more stock on our bookshelves.

“Can I ask you what the big deal is about it?”

“It’s complicated.”

“How so?” She picks up a stack of books to help me.

“The last time I went to one of his games was the year when everything blew up.”

“Right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to open a can of worms for you.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

She makes eye contact with me after she stocks a few books in the LGBTQ+ romance section. “Have you guys talked about all that stuff yet?”

“Nope, and I want to. It’s just…I’m not ready. I don’t want him to hate me again when I tell him the truth.”

“He’s not going to hate you, Violet. You did what you thought was right.”

“What are you girls chatting about?” A familiar voice asks us.