In the Likely Event

by Rebecca Yarros

The last nine months felt like an eternity. I missed you every single second of every single day, Izzy, and we weren’t even in a relationship.

And in the seconds it took for him to reach me, I realized it didn’t matter which version of him I was getting. I was inextricably linked to every single one of them. The guy he’d been when he lived here had been the one who’d pulled me from the plane crash. The one he’d grown into had knocked me off my feet in Georgia. And the man he was now . . . the one who made my heart simultaneously race and yearn for him— Oh, God. That feeling in my chest . . . I was in love with him. And he was going back to Afghanistan tomorrow.

For a second, I forgot we were in Afghanistan. No, we were on a street on Tybee Island, laughing and flirting behind ice-cream cones. I could almost taste the butter pecan. It was a lifetime ago, and yesterday, all in the same breath. That’s what Nate was to me. As far away as a lifetime and as close as yesterday, as near as twelve inches.

“If you knew the world had twenty-four hours before some calamity struck, where would you go?” “I would go wherever you are.