Read Online The Crushes by Pamela Wells - Free Book Online Page B

line of elder maple trees kept the hot afternoon sun at bay. A slight breeze cooled the sweat at the nape of Alexia’s neck.
    “Nice day, huh?” Jonah said.
    “Yeah. I wish I wasn’t working, though. So I could really enjoy it.”
    Jonah laughed. “Yeah. Don’t we all.” He ripped his sandwich in two and took a bite. “For some reason, my girlfriend works, despite not having to. She’s odd like that.” He smiled as if his girlfriend’s eccentric qualities were her most endearing.
    “How long have you guys been together?”
    “Two years.”
    Alexia widened her eyes. “Wow. That’s a long time.”
    He nodded before taking a drink of his soda, then, “I love her a lot and maybe it’s old-fashioned of me, but I’d like to think there’s only one love of your life. I think she’s it.”
    “Really?”
    Alexia wasn’t sure if she agreed with having only one major love, but she liked that Jonah admitted to being old-fashioned and romantic. She admired that. Ben was romantic. Too bad he wasn’t old-fashioned. If he was, he’d want to wait until they were married to have sex. That would save her a lot of stress. She could spend the next five to ten years (okay, maybe not ten) blissfully relaxed while she waited for her marriage to come along.
    Then she wouldn’t be constantly thinking about It and worrying about Ben breaking up with her if she didn’t do It.
    He didn’t seem like that kind of guy, but Alexia was definitely not like the other girls he’d gone out with. What if he realized he missed having sex and found someone else?
    Her friends would say that she didn’t need Ben if he turned out like that anyway, but Alexia really loved him. Maybe she didn’t need him, but she sure did want him.

TWELVE
Rule 4: Find out what your crush likes—hobbies, sports, music! Then immerse yourself in it!
    Sydney was due at the photo contest awards ceremony at four in the afternoon. She’d gotten up somewhere around nine A.M. and was already showered and dressed. She sat at the dining room table, her knee bobbing nervously. She tapped her pen against her open journal.
    She’d sat down intending to write a bit about how she was feeling, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate.
    “Syd?”
    Sydney looked across the table at Drew. He was working on his essay for his college applications. Drew wasn’t going to waste one moment of the summer, not when his senior year was so close.
    “What?” Sydney said, setting her pen in the open spine of her journal.
    “I can’t seem to concentrate,” Drew said, grinning. “And you aren’t exactly concentrating either.”
    Sydney sighed and rubbed her forehead. She’d never been so nervous in her life. Entering the contest at the hospital had sounded like fun, but now that she knew people were examining the photo and judging it, she wanted to take the submission back.
    “Get up,” Drew said. “I have an idea.”
    “What kind of an idea?” Sydney asked, looking over at him warily.
    He shut his notebook, then her journal, and held his hand out to her. “I’ll take you to the fish store. It always helps calm you down.”
    Ever since her mom and dad took her to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, Sydney had been in love with marine wildlife. Seeing fish just relaxed her, and she hadn’t been to the fish store here in Birch Falls in what seemed like months.
    Drew was right—going might calm her down——something she desperately needed if she was going to make it to the awards ceremony without hurling.
    “All right,” she said, slipping into her tennis shoes. “Let’s go.”
    Drew turned left down Franklin Avenue, which would take them to the I-99 East.
    “Umm, is it too late to ask you to take the side streets?” Sydney said as Drew flicked on his blinker and got into the on-ramp turn lane.
    He glanced over at her. “I’m already getting on the freeway. Besides, it’s quicker this way.”
    “Yeah, but…” She trailed off as the stoplight turned green and