Page 60 of Choose Me

“Well…” My body sways with the deep breath Erik takes. “Um, we’re…” He pauses like he’s trying to figure out what to call what we’re doing. I understand because I don’t really know what to call it either. “Dating?” There’s an uptick at the end, like it’s a question followed by a long, awkward silence.

I jump at the loud knock on the front door and press my hand to my chest as my heart tries to lodge itself in my throat. I squeak out “pizza” into Erik’s chest.

He squeezes me and drops his arms, and I immediately feel vulnerable and exposed. “I’ll get it.” I glance at Stef, dreading what expression I’ll find. Surprisingly, he’s calm. Curious, maybe? But definitely not angry. Thank god for that.

“No, I’ll get it.” He sweeps out of the kitchen, and when he’s gone, I turn to Erik. “Oh my god. What do we do?”

Erik’s face is pale, but resigned. He shrugs and rubs his hands up and down my arms. “Not a whole lot we can do now. He knows. Well, I mean, he’s probably assuming a lot, but he gets the general gist.”

I jump as Stef’s voice interrupts us. “Iamassuming quite a lot. Grab my wine?” With one last kiss on my forehead, Erik takes my hand. I grab Stef’s wine, and we follow him into the living room.

He’s already seated on the couch and had the pizza box flipped open. “You got the good pizza. I love Siciliano’s.” He takes a slice and waves for us to sit, like this is his living room and we’ve come for a visit. “Now, go ahead.”

Erik sits next to Stef and I sit on Erik’s right so I can hide behind him if things get too intense. He puts his arm around me, and I lean into him. “So yeah.” Erik’s normally smooth voice is hesitant and I hate hearing that. “Um, like I said, Jules and I are together.”

After an epic eye roll, Stef swallows a bite of pizza and gives us an unimpressed look. “I’d gathered that. Half dressed, both of you with wet hair and bare feet, is a dead giveaway.” He takes a sip of wine, and as he sets the glass back on the coffee table, he pulls the rug out from under us. “But I already knew that.”

My eyes fly to Erik’s, and I feel the blood drain from my face. “What?”

Stef laughs like he’s just heard the best joke, and I’m so confused. “Please. You two think you were so damn subtle. But you weren’t. In fact, you’re ridiculously, adorably obvious.” His smile is soft and genuine, and I can breathe again. He’s not mad. “It was adorable the way you two were trying to be sneaky. But just, no.” He gestures to the pizza. “Eat or it’s going to get cold, and even Siciliano’s can’t overcome that.”

Erik reaches for a slice, and I reach for my beer. “I like cold pizza.”

“Heathen!” Stef reaches over and pats my cheek. “But I love you anyway.” He smiles and takes my hand. “Idolove you, you know.”

I nod, relieved, still a little confused, but also feeling incredibly guilty for trying to hide this from him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

I get another epic Stef eye roll. “And ruin your fun?”

Erik chokes on his pizza. “You thought that was fun? That wasn’t fun. That was the opposite of fun.”

I nod. “It was stressful.” I squeeze Stef’s hand. “So you’re not mad?”

“Mad? Why on earth would I be mad? You are my two favorite people in this entire world, and I love you both to pieces. If either of you found someone else, I’d have to share you.” His smile is smug and his eyes sparkle. “Selfishly, this is the best possible outcome for me.”

If someone had told me this would be Stef’s reaction, I never would have believed them. “But you were against it.”

“Oh, my god. I’ve been trying to get the two of you together for years. You’ve both been adorably obtuse, and I didn’t want to force it, but wow, you took your sweet time figuring shit out.”

I hold up a hand. “I’m sorry. What?” He raises his perfectly manicured eyebrows at me over his pizza slice. “You tried to get us together when?”

Stef chews his bite of pizza and sets it down, wiping his hands on a napkin and torturing me with how long he’s taking to answer. “Seriously?” When he sees we’re still clueless, he settles back in the cushions like this is going to take a while. “So, I didn’t try too hard while Erik was in Arizona, for obvious reasons, though I’d hoped whenever he came home for visits you two would figure it out. I always planned lots of events when he visited and made sure to include both of you.”

He turns to Erik. “Remember the time I asked you to go pick Jules up from work because it was raining too hard for him to walk to the light rail station? And there was that other time you guys went to the farmer’s market without me because I was sick?” He makes air quotes around ‘sick.’ “There were a million instances of me arranging time for you two to be alone. Too many to count. But neither one of you caught on. Then Erik moved back, thank god.” Stef squeezes Erik’s arm. “I miss you, babe. I’m so happy you’re home. Anyway, I’ve been frantically arranging things ever since.”

“Like what?” This is all surreal. I’m trying to pay attention while simultaneously replaying every interaction Erik and I had over the past fourteen years.

Stef starts ticking things off on his fingers. “Who picked the bowling teams? Who set up the teams for darts? Who suggested the two of you move in together?” He rolls his eyes at us. “I’ve been exhausting myself trying to come up with new ways to throw you together so you’d wake up and realize that you’re perfect for each other.”

I drag my fingers through my hair, stunned. Erik shakes his head and chuckles. “Fuck. I should have known.”

It’s Stef’s turn to sound annoyed. “Yes, you should have. It was some of my very best matchmaking completely wasted on you.” He squeezes our hands and smiles. “But I forgive you. Now, what would possibly make you think I’d be upset?”

“Okay, the night of my college graduation party, I carried Jules out of my house, and you were obviously pissed off about it. You ordered me to put him down, then pointed between us and said we weren’t happening.”

Stef nods. “I did.”

We all look at each other expectantly, like we’ve made our point. Only no one’s getting it. I rub my hand over my face. “Wait, so how did we get from ‘this isn’t happening’ to ‘I’ve been trying to get you two together for years’?”

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