I Pretended To Be His Crush For Three Years Chapter 22

I Pretended To Be His Crush For Three Years Chapter 22

On the day Nyssa left Milan, Nora didn’t go to the airport.

Neither did Reid.

The two of them stayed in his apartment. The curtains were drawn tight. A thin blade of sunlight slipped

through the crack and drew a slender line of light across the floor.

Nora sat on the carpet, leaning against the sofa. He sat beside her, the notebook held in his hands.

“Are you scared?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Of what?”

“That the system will win.”

Nora looked at that thin line of light seeping through the curtain gap and was silent for a moment.

“Do you know I once painted a picture?” she said. “A closed door. Light seeping out through the crack at the

bottom.”

Reid watched her, his eyes bright, waiting for her to continue.

“The painting was called ‘Distance.’ The professor said I was painting light itself. Because light is invisible- you can only feel it through the things it illuminates.”

Nora turned her head and looked at him.

“I think you’re the same. The system can erase your memories, but it can’t erase the things you’ve

illuminated.”

“The notebook you wrote. The smiley faces you drew. The little things you remembered about me… All of

that is light. As long as those things exist, you won’t truly forget me.”

He didn’t speak.

But his fingers slowly reached over and laced through Nora’s.

Ten fingers intertwined.

Exactly the same as every time before.

Her phone buzzed.

A message from Hailey: “Nora, Nyssa’s flight took off. Reid’s agent can’t find him. He’s absolutely losing it at

the airport.”

Nora smiled and turned the screen toward Reid.

He glanced at it, and the corner of his mouth curved slightly.

“Should I feel guilty?” he asked.

“Guilty about what?”

“About leaving someone waiting at the airport.”

“Do you want to go there now?”

He thought about it, then shook his head.

“I don’t know. It’s like there’s a voice telling me I should go, I should be on that plane, I should be sitting next

to Nyssa.”

“And now? Is that voice still there?”

He closed his eyes, as if trying to sense something.

After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at Nora.

“It’s still there,” he said. “But it’s quieter.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re here.”

Nora’s heart skipped a beat.

“Nora.”

“Mm.”

“I think…” He frowned. “I think I’ve seen you before.”

“Of course you’ve seen me. You see me every day-”

“No.” He cut her off. “Not these past few days. A long time ago. Somewhere crowded. Loud.”

Her pulse quickened.

“You were on stage.” He continued, his brow furrowing tighter. “No-I was on stage. The crowd was huge.

The lights were so bright I couldn’t see their faces. But I could see you.”

“You were in the corner, wearing a white dress, holding a sketchpad…”

His eyes reddened.

“You were crying.”

Nora’s tears fell.

It was his first concert. When he’d sung the song he wrote for her, she’d stood in the crowd, crying her heart

out.

He hadn’t known she was there-she’d never told him she would come.

But he’d seen her anyway.

His body had remembered.

“And then?” Nora asked through her tears.

“And then it was gone.” His voice was soft. “Just like that image from yesterday-gone in a flash.”

“Enough,” she said.

“Not enough.” He looked up at her, his eyes full of bloodshot veins. “Not enough, Nora. I want to remember

more.”

“You will.”

“How do you know?”

“Because your body is fighting.” Nora pressed his hand against his chest. “It’s telling you, with everything it

has-don’t let the system take you away.”

He looked down at their intertwined hands.

“Nora.”

“Mm.”

“I think…” His voice trembled slightly. “I think I might like you a little.”

Nora smiled, tears still hanging on her face.

“Just a little?”

He looked up at her. And in those eyes, there was finally a glimmer of light.

Not stage spotlights. Not the roar of fans. Not light given to him by anything external.

It was his own.

“More than a little,” he said.