Page 42 of Darn Knit All

“Well,” he said, avoiding my gaze. “We know that’s not going to be a problem.”

A hysterical giggle bubbled up my throat and burst out of my mouth. I slapped a hand across my lips, staring at him wide-eyed as I tried to find some calm.

His lips twisted into a half smirk. “Good night, Mai.”

“Night,” I whispered, sobering.

His hand snaked out and he gently, if not awkwardly, patted my head before walking out the door.

“She’s all yours, ladies,” he said to my friends before speed-walking away.

Annie stared at me, her eyebrows raised.

“Excuse me,” she said, tilting her head to one side as Theo left. “Why are you all flushed and sweaty?”

Flo jerked upright. “She’s flushed and sweaty?”

I groaned, slapping a hand over my face. “This is a nightmare.”

Frankie pushed through my door, wheeling toward my couch. “Get inside, we need to hearallabout it.”

Sighing heavily, I knew there would be no escaping their questions. Resigning myself to a night of interrogation, I pulled my cell from my pocket.

“Pizza?” I asked.

Annie eyed me as she took a seat on my couch. “You might want to put in an order for a six-pack, while you’re at it.”

How true her words were.

The best and worst thing about friends is how well they grew to know you. Sometimes I didn’t need to say a word for them to know exactly what I wanted—be it chocolate, a hug, or space.

Other times, it sucked ass that you couldn’t slip anything past them.

“We were just practicing,” I repeated for the millionth time as we finished our dinner. “It meant nothing.”

Annie pointed her pizza crust at me, her expression filled with scepticism. “Don’t forget, I’m married to a Garrett twin. I know how those boys work. They suck you in with sweet words and gentle touches and before you know it, they’re bending you over a table and fucking you pregnant.”

I made a face. “Jesus, Annie! TMI!”

She waved a hand dismissively. “As if you haven’t heard this before.”

“Or seen it,” Frankie muttered with a shudder.

“Hey, you’re the ones who didn’t knock.”

“You were screaming like someone was murdering you!”

“He was,” Annie agreed with a wide smirk. “With his dick.”

Flo leaned into me, pressing her shoulder against mine. “The question you haven’t answered—and the one in which I’m most interested—is how did you feel kissing him? You guys have been friends a long time. I know how your brain works. Is there any interest?”

As a person who identified as demisexual, I didn’t experience sexual attraction until developing a close bond with someone. Primary sexual attraction—the kind a lot of people experienced upon first meeting someone—just didn’t happen for me. I could appreciate a person’s attractiveness objectively, but it wasn’t until I knew them that I began to experience arousal.

Based on the way my body had responded to Theo—and the arousal still simmering through my blood hours later—it appeared I’d subconsciously moved him from friend to crush.

“I don’t know,” I groaned, slumping back in my seat to stare up at my ugly popcorn ceiling. “I’m confused.”

Frankie knit her hands together under her chin. “What is your confusion stemming from?”

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