Page 95 of Best Friends for Never

“You’re doing it wrong.” She turns knobs and shuffles pans around. “Let me do it.”

“What? No,” Noel argues. “Seriously, Gran. Go back to bed. We got this.”

She points a spatula at the empty kitchen table. “Sit. Both of you. And pour me one of those mimosas, will you? If I’m going to be up at this ungodly hour, I’m at least having a damn drink.”

And so Noel’s grandmother makes us breakfast at 2:00 a.m., and when she’s finished, we scarf it down like we haven’t eaten in weeks.

It’s the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten, and the second I’m finished I want to cry because now I have to trek all the way back across town to my house.

“You look like you’re about to fall asleep,” Noel says, grabbing my plate and putting it in the dishwasher. He’s already sent Gran back to bed, which is exactly where I want to be.

“I think the long day and even longer night are getting to me.”

“Stay.”

“What?”

“Stay the night. Gran doesn’t mind, you know that.”

“I can’t ...” I shake my head, picking up our glasses and setting them on the top rack while he loads everything else. “I can’t stay the night, Noel.”

“Why not? It’s not like you haven’t before.”

“Yeah, but we were kids then.Littlekids. It was different.”

He pauses, looking up at me with a mischievous grin I don’t like one bit. “Why? Are you saying you don’t trust me to keep my hands to myself?”

“Do I think you’re going to fondle me? Absolutely.”

“You’d love every second of it.”

“Shut up,” I mutter, turning away so he can’t see how red my cheeks are. I continue cleaning the table and putting away the Tabasco sauce, butter, and syrup.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he offers.

“That’s sweet, but I am not making you sleep on the couch in your own home.”

“Then we’ll sleep together.”

I nearly drop the saltshaker I’m setting back by the stove, barely catching it before it clatters to the countertop and wakes Gran up again.

He says it so casually, like sharing a bed in his grandmother’s house wouldn’t be totally disrespectful to the woman who helped raise me. Sure, we’re adults, and I truly don’t think Gran would mind, but it still feels like we shouldn’t.

Noel laughs from beside me, taking the shakers and setting them down in their place before I break them. “I’m teasing you. Sort of. I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise.”

I swallow. It’s not that I don’t trust him. I do. It’s just ... Can I trust myself?

A yawn slams into me out of nowhere, and I know then that yes, I can trust myself. I’m far too tired for anything other than sleep.

“Fine,” I relent. “But I mean it.” I point at him. “No funny business.”

He holds his hands up. “Swear it.”

“Then let’s go, because I’m about to fall asleep arguing with you.”

He chuckles. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

It’s true. We used to talk on the phone at night and debate anything and everything. Sometimes, the arguments would go on so long that we’d fall asleep and I’d kill the cordless phone battery.

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