Cupids Peak

by Lee Jacquot

One of his shoulders lifts half-heartedly. “The only attention I ever wanted, I’m getting right now.”

“You could say I’m direct,” he finally says. “I like to say what I want, how I want it, and how they’re going to give it to me.”

“I’ve had a thing for you since freshman year when I overheard you and your sister talking about who you’d fuck-marry-kill when it came to the cast of The Breakfast Club.”

“I dare you to let me show you how obsessed I was with you ten years ago.”

That even after all these years, I haven’t found anyone who makes me smile or laugh or feel at home the way you did?”

“My secret—my truth, Mia—is that you belong to me. Always have. Always will.”

“I’d like for you to stand outside my window with a boombox. Then I want a confession of your undying obsession with me and how you can’t live without me.” I consider stopping there, but Eli’s growing smile pushes me to finish. “After that, Eli Brooks, I want you to keep me.” “The Diane to my Lloyd.” This instant awareness of the infamous movie only cements how we’re endgame. How we were always meant to be endgame. We just needed our third-act breakup like any great Hallmark movie, before finding our way back to one another.

He cracks it open and gives me his best-crooked smile. “Truth or dare?”