The Time Traveler's Boyfriend Read Online Free PDF Page A

around in the glass, making sure I wasn’t missing seeing a diamond ring, scared I had swallowed it. I dug through my chocolate mousse with my fork, searching for it. But it wasn’t there.
    And then the waiter pulled away our dessert plates and the opportunity to hide the ring in food was lost. Still, I was hopeful. And then Adam pulled out a blue velvet box and I nearly fainted. Before he could even open it, I started tearing up, murmuring, “Yes, yes, yes …”
    Except Adam didn ’t ask me to marry him. He just looked confused.
    The box contained earrings, by the way. Diamond earrings that were beautiful and horribly expensive, and I absolutely hated them. I wanted to take them and throw them in Adam’s face.
    “ I’m sorry,” he said, a deep crease between his brows. “Did you think I was going to …? I mean, I didn’t know you were expecting …”
    “ How could you not know?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice down so as not to let on how very upset I was. I mean, he did get me some beautiful and expensive earrings. I should have been grateful.
    “ Well, it’s only been a year,” he pointed out.
    “ Only a year ,” I repeated. “Adam, we’re not kids . How long exactly are we supposed to wait here?”
    Adam tugged at his tie, loosening the knot like he needed some extra air. I’d seen men look that way before. It made my stomach turn. “I don’t know …”
    “ Didn’t you just say that I’m the best goddamn thing in your whole life?”
    “ Yeah,” he admitted. “So … why do we have to spoil it?”
    “ Spoil it?” My voice rose an octave, and I cleared my throat quickly. As much as I didn’t want to turn into the kind of woman I’d always felt sorry for, I also needed to be straight with him: “Adam, that’s bullshit and you know it.”
    He slumped down in his wheelchair, his expression glassy. I think it was safe to say all the romance had been sucked out of the evening. “I’m just not ready yet, Claudia.”
    I really loved him, but I hated him for saying that. I hated him for being like every other guy, especially when I loved him so much more than I loved any other guy and I thought he felt the same way.
    Something changed between us that night. I felt like I’d suddenly evolved into this nagging girlfriend that I really didn’t want to be. I knew that our relationship had to move forward or it would die, but it wasn’t up to me. I hinted at marriage a few more times or even me moving in with him, but he always had an excuse. Something about not being ready, or that I deserved better than him, or my personal favorite: that The Bitch had messed him up so badly that he just couldn’t settle down.
    Part of me kind of feels for him. I mean, he had this awful experience with another woman, and it can be hard to bounce back from that. But there are other fish in the sea, Adam. It’s pretty sad if you can’t get over some girl from ten years ago.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I have a spectacularly bad day at work that makes me glad my migraine is completely gone. The student bathroom is just across the hall from my classroom, so when one of my kids raises a little hand and says, “Miss Williams, I gotta use the bathroom,” I give them a pass and they scoot across the hall to use the bathroom then come on back like a good little girl or boy.
    Except today Sophia Wright decides that aft er using the bathroom, she wants to take a little stroll around the school. After she doesn’t return for fifteen minutes, I finally have to contact the principal’s office, and we locate her finger-painting in the empty art classroom. I think her parents may have forgotten to administer her ADHD meds this morning.
    This incident drags me into a meeting after school, where we have to discuss how to fix things so that we don’t have “a repeat of Sophia Wright.” Considering she was never in any real danger, I feel that punishing Sophia would be sufficient, but I’m in the minority. Ideas that get