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“You okay?” he asked.
“Hell, yes, I’m okay!” She was breathing hard, the exhilaration coursing through her system in the same way that it was for Matt.
He reached between them and undid the buckles that kept them together. He held himself above her, frozen, because this was the hard part. She wasn’t strapped to him any longer. She could go.
Julie rolled onto her back under him and lifted off both of their helmets and goggles while she caught her breath.
“Matty.” She smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“That was fun. Like, really, really fun.”
“Good.” Matt tried, but he wasn’t able to smile with her.
She grew serious. “What is it?”
He couldn’t answer.
She touched his cheek, studying him and reading him in the way that only Julie did. “Are you scared?”
“No.”
She asked again. “Are you scared?”
“Yes.”
“That I’ll leave? That I’ll get up and walk away?” She was sending his own words back to him, bringing their online life further into reality.
“Yes.”
“I won’t do that. I won’t leave.” Julie reached her arms around his neck. “Close your eyes, Matthew, and listen while I tell you how I feel about you.”
He did what she asked.
“You are my everything,” Julie said. “You are challenging, and difficult, and guarded. I love those things about you. You are fascinating, and complex, and brilliant, and fu
Matt dropped his head and rested his cheek on hers, not caring that Julie felt the tears now pressed between them.
I did it, Fi
Keep Going
Flat-Out Love, Bonus Chapter 33, Julie’s Point of View
Matt Watkins I will never compromise on my poorly-thought-out, internally-inconsistent, quasi-irrational principles. That's just how I roll.
Julie Seagle You are my favorite status reader in the whole wide world. Yes, you.
Celeste Watkins has no contractual obligation to use contractions. So maybe she will use them, and maybe she will not… So maybe she’ll use them, and maybe she won’t.
Julie leaned her head against the window and looked at Matt as he drove. He was clearly trying as hard as she was to keep from smiling. The effort was particularly adorable on his part, considering that he was not prone to walking around gri
Not bad qualities for a number of things.
She shifted in her seat and drifted her hand over his thigh. Matt took a deep breath and gave her a quick glance before staring back at the highway in front of them. He tightened his hand over hers.
Aha! He was just as squirmy as she was.
“Why aren’t you two saying anything? This is incomprehensible!” Celeste leaned forward from the back seat and popped her head between them. “There has been a major event, and it seems that it would be appropriate for both of you to be engaging in some sort of dialogue in which you detail the experience.”
Julie couldn’t stop watching Matt as she spoke. “I jumped out of an airplane,” she said slowly.
“I know, Julie! You did, didn’t you! It was an act of outstanding bravery, if you ask me.”
“I jumped out of a goddamn airplane.” She was aware that she was still reeling from the day. Still in shock. The last thing that she wanted right now was another rapid-fire conversation, but with Celeste around, avoiding that would be nearly impossible. Stringing coherent words together was simply not easy, though.
“Say more,” Celeste demanded.
“I jumped out of a goddamn airplane with Matt.” She paused. “Because of Matt. For Matt.”
She heard him catch his breath. “Julie.”
The sound in his voice now, the way he spoke her name….
There was a new tone there that she wanted more of. She could feel the ache between them now. The need. This morning she kissed Matt, threw her arms around him, and told him how totally wrong she’d been to walk away from him before. Then she felt that first surge of crazy heat that came after months of denying what they meant to each other. And now that they’d jumped from that plane together, Julie couldn’t get over how deeply she trusted Matt.
Celeste sighed happily and sunk back into her seat. “I find that quite the romantic declaration. Yes, it’s true that I may not be the utmost expert on romance, but I can say for sure that gestures like this must certainly be up there with Romeo and Juliet’s. Although clearly those two died at the end of their story, and fortunately there was no glitch with your chute because here you are. Alive and well. Obviously.”
Matt practically snorted. “Gee, thank you for that, Celeste. I bet Julie made cardboard cutouts of us, though. You know, just in case.”
“Jesus, Matt,” Julie muttered.
“Ha! I thought that was fu
Matt squeezed Julie’s hand again. “You do know that we weren’t going to die, right?”
“Yes, Matthew. Today was certainly not about creative suicide. At all. It was about us. Also,” she said more softly, “I should point out that the day is not over.”
The car picked up noticeable speed. “How many more exits until we’re home?” he asked.
“Why are you in such a rush?” Celeste demanded. “It’s only six o’clock.”
“I just…. I just would like to get you back to the house.”
“What about you? Won’t you two be staying for di
Matt cleared his throat. “I’m just going to drop you off, Celeste.”
“Oh. Are you and Julie going somewhere? What will you be doing? There’s a Greek festival in the South End this evening. That could be delightful, don’t you think? Spanikopita, baklava, and lots of yogurt items, I imagine.”
Julie gri
Matt raised an eyebrow. “Tour the Greek cathedral, huh? We can call it that, if you want. Sure.”
Julie smacked his arm and then turned to Celeste. “We may get there. Matt is going to take me home so… that I can get cleaned up. I’m probably covered in dead bugs, so I need to decontaminate.”