The Conditions of Will

by Jessa Hastings

and I stare at it for a few seconds because it’s begging for it, and then Sam grabs me and kisses me, urgent, desperate, arms wrapped around me, pulling me into him. I sink into him, kissing him more, and we fall against the vending machine.

“Loving someone’s an obsession—and being in love, even fucking—you get that high.” “Oxytocin.” I nod. “They say it’s as addictive as coke.” I nod again. “They do.”

“You asking me to fall in love with you?” I smile coyly. “Maybe.”

“Maybe I will.” He shrugs. And then he looks serious. “You’ll watch me?”

“Because I can remember ours.”

can see how you might fall in love with a person here, have a secret affair with a woman

your family’s never heard of, give her a lake house no one else knew existed.

I love Sam hovering, I want him to hover forever, but I can feel his breath on the back of my neck, which means he’s likely less than half a foot, he has to be—and anyone, anyone at all could sense that there is something more than nothing going on between us.