Anywhere by Jinsey Reese, J. Meyers Page B

one.
    When I got him there, I let go of his hand. We were finally alone and I was suddenly at a loss for words. I wasn’t very good at improvising. I did better at these things when I planned what I wanted to say. So I looked at him, this guy I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to yet, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
    “I don’t want you to go.” Which, I realized as soon as I said it, was not exactly clear.
    Asher just looked confused. “Where am I going? You mean to Spain? You don’t want me to go to Spain?” And then he took a step back, his eyebrows tilting toward each other, hurt clouding his eyes. “Are you saying you want to go to Spain with them but you don’t want me to come, too?”
    “No,” I said, and shook my head hurriedly. Shit. I was screwing this up. “No! That’s not what I meant at all.” I grabbed his hand before he could step farther away. And I went ahead and put the truth in his hands. My truth. I trusted those hands. I just had to hope my trust was well placed. “I don’t want you to go away. I don’t want to be without you. We haven’t discussed whether we’re going to stay together traveling and I…I want to stay with you. I know you might have other plans, and if you do then please tell me now because I don’t want to be that annoying person that won’t go away, you know? And, yes, I’ll feel like a total idiot and want to crawl in a hole and die, but I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find one somewhere around here—that someone dug like two thousand years ago, even. Which, come to think of it, is probably a pretty exotic way to die—in a two-thousand-year-old hole. So if that’s what I am to you, then just tell me now and I’ll…I’ll go find a hole.”
    Asher bit back a smile and squeezed my hand. “So, what you’re saying is you like me and want to keep me around?”
    “Yes, in a manner of speaking.”
    “Good, then we’re on the same page. I promised to meet up with someone in London in August. What would you say to spending the next couple of months traveling together until then…unless one of us gets tired of the other?” He held out his pinky. “Deal?”
    My mouth fell open. Yes, yes, yes! I wanted to say. Instead I wrapped my pinky around his.
    “Deal.”
    “Okay, then. I actually don’t want to go to Spain right now, but there is a place I’d like to go next, if it sounds good to you.”
    “Anywhere sounds good…as long as we add the Gelato Quest,” I said, smiling like an idiot. But I was so relieved that I didn’t care. “We can have two quests at once, right?”
    “Absolutely. Now let’s go find your brother those boxers.”
    He grinned at me, held out his arm. And those butterflies were back, but there were more this time. I was starting to think I wasn’t going to be able to wish them away much longer. And that keeping my feelings in check might be a lot more difficult than I thought.

nine

    O ur train pulled into Venice late in the afternoon. We’d said goodbye to our friends at the train station in Rome, headed in very different directions. I was sad to see them go, but I’d been so glad to have travel plans with someone, that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. It was all part of the adventure, right? People were always walking in and out of your life—it just happened more quickly, with more intensity, when you were traveling around Europe for the summer.
    On the train, Asher and I mapped out our plans for the next two months.
    “What if after Germany, we head to London, and you can meet your friend. Oh!” I said and looked up at him. “Do you think your friend would want to travel with us?”
    The hesitancy on his face made me realize my mistake right away.
    “Oh, god. Sorry. Never mind. You have plans with them. I wasn’t trying to butt in…I just wasn’t thinking.” I could feel the blood rushing to my face and was kicking myself for being so stupid.
    “It’s not that, Skye. It’s just who