Page 18 of Friend Zone to End Zone

Where is he going with this?

“You see, even though Arianna had proven to not be the kind of girl who worried about kissing on that first night, she was a lot more reserved when it came tootheractivities.”

I grabbed his arm, “Um, Chad,” I said, in a sweet voice. “Are you sure you want to tell all my viewers this story?”

“I’m not going to say anything that will embarrass you.” He waved me away then turned back to the camera. “So anyway, I realized that even though this girl was hot enough to be on the cover of a swimsuit magazine, she was a lot more old-fashioned than I initially thought. So I decided that if I was ever going to get to home plate with her, I would probably need to give her a little more of a safety net. So, I talked to a few of my buddies and decided it was time to drop the ‘L’ word.”

“You told me you loved me so I’d sleep with you?” I asked in a hushed voice before I could stop myself.

“Well, that’s not theonlyreason.” He patted my knee like it was no biggie. “Of course I loved you, too. It just gave me a little more push to say it first.”

A wave of nausea rolled over me as the moment that I had thought was so special was suddenly cheapened by what Chad was admitting…to over two thousand viewers who were now watching us live.

Sure, I had been a pretty wild teenager, and Chad wasn’t the first guy I’d slept with. But after having a few really rough years, I’d decided to clean up my act and be a lot more picky with whom I’d share that part of me. I had actually promised myself that I’d only ever have a physical relationship with a guy if I knew we were really in love with each other.

I’d originally planned to wait quite a while longer with Chad, since I wanted him to know everything about me and all my secrets before I’d let him take me into his bedroom.

But hearing that he loved me had flipped something in my brain, and the part of me that had always felt unworthy of love had kicked into high gear at that point and grasped onto this guy who was telling me everything I wanted to hear.

And so I’d loosened my rules for myself and took that step with him.

I hadn’t regretted it, since I really thought we were destined to get married one day. But hearing his side of things had me doubting all my decisions.

Had Chad really loved me when he’d said it?

Because true love didn’t use manipulation to get someone to sleep with you, did it?

“How about I pick the next question?” Chad said, breaking into my thoughts, not seeming to notice how quiet I’d gotten.

Even though I wanted to dissect every interaction we’d ever had, I knew there were several thousand people watching us right now so I forced a smile on my face and said, “Yes, you can choose the next one.”

The show must go on.

I looked at the comments. There were a few viewers scolding Chad for what he’d just revealed about our relationship, but soon, new questions started populating the screen.

“Oh, this is the million-dollar question,” Chad said, pointing to one of the comments. “@loranasanchez is wondering if we’ve ever talked about marriage and kids.” He glanced sideways at me. “You want to answer this one, honey?”

“S-sure.” I sat up straighter. Maybe if I took charge of this question it might go better than the last. So I cleared my throat and said, “To answer the first part of the question, Chad and Ihavediscussed getting married in hypothetical terms. But it has only been hypothetical. We haven’t really gotten all that serious about it since the time has never seemed right.”

Chad nodded from beside me.

“But as for kids…” I said, knowing that I was probably about to surprise a lot of my followers with my answer. “Chad and I are both in agreement that if we did get married one day it would just be us and maybe a fur baby. Neither of us are interested in becoming parents.”

Surprised-face emojis filled the screen after I finished, along with a few angry faces.

Yep…I figured that would happen.

And then, just like I also expected, several comments followed, displaying my viewers’ shock over the fact that I didn’t want to have children with Chad someday.

@boysrbabes23:How can you not want to create babies with Chad? They would be gorgeous.

@riley_franklin66:I thought you loved kids. You always gush over your nephew and niece.

@beatricetheowl:No surprise there. You are all about the fame. So selfish.

Several other commentsfollowed along the same lines. And even though I knew I didn’t need to defend my position, I said, “It’s not that I don’t love children. I think they are so adorable and fun to be around, and I plan to continue to be the best auntie in the world. I just haven’t seen myself being a mother for several years now and I don’t expect it to change. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I have to have children. I’m fine with other people having lots of babies, it’s just not for me. And that’s okay.”

“Next question?” Chad turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

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