Funny Story

by Emily Henry

“I want to kiss you all the time, Daphne,” he says. “Sometimes it’s just easier to find an excuse.”

“I just think,” I say to Miles, “you like people almost as much as they like you. And it makes being around you feel like—like standing in sunlight.”

“You feel like sunlight too.”

“Can I do anything?” I ask. Now his smile softens. He touches my chin again. “Nah,” he says. “This is enough.” “I’m not doing anything,” I point out. The corner of his mouth twitches. “Then why do I feel better?”

Or maybe just fear. That I’m doing what I swore I never would: making space in my heart for someone whom experience has taught me not to trust.

Damn this hits home

So why can’t I seem to do the same thing with my father? Why can’t I stop missing the dad I never had? Why is he this constant dull ache in my heart?

I think it might break my heart to be someone you don’t like.”

but I’m surprised how my chest keeps twinging like my feelings have too much weight, and my rib cage might crack under them.

For once, I don’t want to be anywhere but in this moment, not thinking about what it all means or where it might go, and he makes that easy, this sunlit man.

“Expect something! You want to put me on a hook? Put me on the hook. I freaked out, Daphne, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

Oh

“And I know I’m not who you pictured yourself with, but I think I could be, eventually. If you’ll let me. So don’t go. Because I don’t want you to. Because you’re my best friend, and I’m in love with you.”

You’re wonderful. You’re the reason for the word wonderful. It really shouldn’t be used for anything else.

I love you in a way that feels brand-new. You make every single thing that went wrong feel like it was just a step in the right direction, and it—it makes me excited. For life to keep surprising me.