Page 45 of Begin Again Again
“Oh, you mean because he wants to smash you? Why would that bother me?”
Beth rolled her eyes. “He and I just met.”
“I don’t want to be that guy, Bethany, butwejust met.”
Beth extracted herself from his side-hug. Byron held out his arm, but she didn’t step back in. He lowered it, grumpily. “I wish you’d stop doing that.”
“Tough. I have a non-banter question for you.”
“Hmm…”
“Why didn’t you text me?”
“I did.”
Her eyes narrowed. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did… But I didn’t hit send.”
“Oh my god.” She turned in the other direction. “I need to run home now.”
Byron stepped to the side, blocking her path. “Wait. I was going to resend but I realised I wasn’t putting my best foot forward, so I came to see you in person. That’s paid, right?”
Beth gave him a strange look. “Can I ask you something?”
“Another non-banter question?”
“Yes.”
“Fine, but my limit is three non-banter questions.”
“Are you high?”
He laughed and held out an arm, hoping she was ready to return to the walking cuddle. She wasn’t. “Seriously, are you high?”
“Do I seem high?”
“You seem… different than you did last night. And yeah, kind of high.”
“Well, at the risk of sounding like Josh, by which I mean an overly invested fake nice guy…”
She failed to fight back a grin.
“… maybe you’re getting me high, Horoscopes.”
She groaned. “That’s the worst line ever.”
“It’s not a line! I like you. I think you’re pretty. And fun. And I like how seriously you take touch rugby.”
She turned away, her cheeks bright red. “Thanks, I guess.”
“Anytime.” He held out an arm. “Can we do the three-legged thing again?”
Beth shook her head. “Not yet. I get one more question, remember?”
“How could I forget? Are you going to look at me while you ask it?”
She met his gaze, flushed but clearly determined. “What do you want from this? From me?”
