Finally, Forever
by Katie Kacvinsky
Available May 9, 2014
What do you do when you run into the ex love-of-your-life? Say hello? Hug? Shake hands? Run for your life?
In
this tender and emotional story, Gray and Dylan discover that a
destination isn't always a place. More often, it's a person. Now it's
time for them to finally decide, is this forever?
And now for a little sneak peek of Finally, Forever.
Excerpt
Dylan scoots into a booth and I almost slip in right next to her, until I remember she isn’t mine and I have a pretend girlfriend
and Dylan has an over-achieving, smart, outdoorsy boyfriend that could
model for a Patagonia catalogue with all his stupid dogs. I hope they
get married and own a dog shelter together and start a reality show
about their stupid, charitable, perfect life.
For
some reason, I feel the pathetic need to annoy Dylan, because her
presence is sexually annoying the crap out of me. I had a hard-on three
times last night, and I woke up with one. It’s like a headache in my
pants.
Dylan opens her menu and I open mine and the waitress comes up and asks if we’re ready to order. I clear my throat.
“I have a question,” I speak up, and pin my eyes directly on Dylan’s. “I was wondering which was moister,”
I say moister slowly and delicately, giving every consonant and vowel
careful annunciation. “The cinnamon rolls, or the muffins?” I finish.
Dylan
scrunches her nose like she smells something foul. When we first met
she told me what her three least favorite words were. Her long term
memory sucks, but mine is prolific. It’s one of my weaknesses. I
remember everything. The challenge is to try and forget.
I
look away from Dylan and smile at the waitress, an elderly woman who
appears to have more red lipstick on her teeth than her lips. She chews
on the end of her pen while she considers my question.
“By moister, you mean?”
“I mean exactly that,” I say. “Moist, as in having a spongy, porous texture saturated in pockets of moisture.”
Dylan covers her mouth with one hand like she’s about to gag. She takes a long breath and blows it out slowly to stay calm.
“Ah-huh,” the waitress mumbles. “The homemade raspberry muffins are popular,” she offers.
“Great,” I say. “I’ll have one.”
I
smile at Dylan’s frown. This is going to be fun. Hey, if I have to be
mentally, emotionally, and sexually tortured by her presence, then the
least I can do is return the torture. I’m mature like that.
Dylan
orders coffee and when the waitress walks away, she narrows her eyes.
“Is it torture-Dylan day?” she asks and my smile widens. “I hate the
m-word. Passionately hate.”
“I know,” I tell her. “You hate the words moist, protoplasm and membrane.”
She sets down her menu. “How do you know that?” she asks, her eyes suspicious, as if I was reading her diary.
“You told me,” I remind her. “When we first met.”
She blinks with surprise. “I don’t remember saying that.”
I shrug. “I do.”
“What else do you remember?” she asks.
I stare at her. “Everything. It’s my curse,” I say.
“Wow,” she says. “I have a tough time remembering anything. Names. Places. Dates. I barely passed freshman history.”
Must be nice. “That’s probably why you take so many pictures,” I tell her. “It’s your way of remembering.”
She
smiles at me, a Dylan smile that’s part lips and part laugh
and it
always catches the corners of my lips and pulls them up.
Even when I
fight to hold them down.
Follow Katie Kacvinsky
Katie Kacvinsky is a young adult and new adult fiction writer. Her books
have been nominated for YALSA awards and First Comes Love was a
finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She currently lives in Madison,
Wisconsin.
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