They Read My Secret Crush Story Out Loud At The Party Chapter 09

Julian drove me home. Before he left, I caught his arm.

“Can we see each other tomorrow?”

His eyes brightened, and he nodded solemnly. “Of course. Whenever you want to see me, I’ll be there.”

Once I was inside, I packed up everything Blake had left at my place and had our driver take the box to his

house.

His racing helmet, his skis, the jacket he’d casually left behind. Every ticket stub I’d kept for him over the

past five years.

Early the next morning, the box came back untouched. A note lay on top.

[I don’t want them.]

I glanced at it, dropped it back into the box, and told the housekeeper, “Throw it all out.”

Over the next few days, Blake started showing up wherever I went.

He stopped asking me to go to bars. Instead, he waited outside my house every morning with breakfast.

But he brought iced coffee and sandwiches. I’d had a sensitive stomach since childhood, and all I ate for

breakfast was hot oatmeal.

He bought concert tickets I’d once spent ages begging him for. He didn’t know I’d found a new favorite

pianist two years earlier.

He even turned down a racing event Sloane had organized to come to the bookstore with me. Surrounded by shelves of books, he finally realized that after five years, he didn’t even know my favorite author.

That day, he stood outside the bookstore in the rain for so long that people began to gather.

I didn’t know what else to do. Worried our situation would hurt the store’s business, I hurried to pay, bought

an umbrella, and took it out to him.

His eyes lit up when he saw it.

“Don’t come looking for me again,” I said.

“Blake, how’s any of this different from what I used to do?”

His fingers closed around the umbrella handle. The color slowly drained from his face.

“So you look at me now the way I used to look at you?”

I said nothing.

Sometimes silence is the cruelest answer.

He lowered his head, rain dripping from his brow

“So this is what it feels like. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”

He murmured the words, then seemed to summon every bit of strength he had for one more question.

“Raina, if I’d realized sooner how I felt about you… would you ever have chosen me? Really chosen me?”

His question left me silent.

I looked at his rain-soaked shoulders and remembered the young man who’d walked through that door five

years ago.

I couldn’t pretend I’d never wavered in all those years I’d spent following him around.

He’d protected me from a drunk. He’d stayed with me all night when I was sick.

One year, he’d gotten my birthday wrong. When he found out after midnight, he drove two hours back and

left a small cake on my windowsill.

In the candlelight, I’d wondered whether I could truly fall for him-whether things might be different if his

resemblance to Julian hadn’t been the reason I’d noticed him.

But I couldn’t change what had happened.

“Maybe, Blake.”

He looked up sharply.

“After Julian disappeared, all I had was you. I tried to love everything you loved, just so I could stay close

to you a little longer,”

“But you left me behind too many times.”

“You never gave me a chance to fall for you.”

The last flicker of hope in his eyes went out.

He said nothing more, but he still wouldn’t take the umbrella from me.

“Take it. Let’s not see each other again.”

I pressed it into his hand.

He was still trying.

“Raina, you’ve still got a soft spot for me, don’t you?”

“Julian!”

I cut him off.

A little way down the street, Julian had just gotten out of his car. He was walking toward me beneath a large umbrella, his pace unhurried.

All my frustration vanished. I smiled and waved, and he quickened his steps.

Before he reached me, I hurried forward and threw myself into his arms.

“What’s the rush?” He wrapped his arms around me with a quiet laugh. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’ve disappeared on me before. I’m not taking any chances,” I teased.

Blake stood behind us, staring at my smile, at the way we held each other, at our retreating figures.

Suddenly, he clutched his chest. His breathing grew rapid.

Then came a heavy thud.

Blake lay in the rain, listening to the startled voices around him.

“Sir! Are you all right?”

But none of those voices belonged to the person he wanted to hear.