Page 30 of Finally Loved

Alba smiled widely at her. “That’s just how our friendship is. Always has been. I suppose, when you’ve known someone that long, you don’t have to… I don’t know,pretend. You don’t have to filter yourself and make yourself more likable. You just know each other, you know your dynamic, you can give each other shit because you know you love each other.”

“You’re just friends, then?” The question felt too loaded, too invasive, but also a relief to speak out loud. Neve shouldn’t have needed to know so badly. She didn’t understand why she did need to know, she just did. Desperately so.

Alba groaned, tipping backwards so her legs remained crossed, but her back was against the rug again.

“Sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” Neve rushed the words out, burning with shame. She shouldn’t have asked. She shouldn’t have even thought of asking.

Alba waved a hand in the air, aiming poorly back towards Neve. “It’s not that. It’s that Zainab was right again.” She sat back up. “I hate it when that happens.”

Neve stared blankly for a moment. “Uh, what?”

She laughed lightly. “Zainab met you one time and said she was certain you thought the two of us were together.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “So, now, I have to tell her she was right. How annoying.”

“Sorry.” Neve looked down at the tiny patch of floor between their legs, her face hot again.

“It’s really okay. I’m just playing. Zainab’s always right. It’s not a big deal.” She twisted forward, ducking slightly, to find Neve’s eyes again. “But yes, we’re just friends. We live together, but not in the like… couple kind of way. In the way you do with Charlie.”

“I see.” She really shouldn’t have asked.

“Yeah, so when Zainab tells me I have to take her out for coffee again because she was right, I’m telling youyouhave to takemeout for coffee to make up for it.”

Neve bit her lip, something between a laugh and a strangled breath escaping from her. “That sounds fair.”

“Good.” She nodded, the movement awkward given the way she was twisted down to see Neve’s face. “Now. I hate to be presumptuous—”

“Do you?”

She laughed. “Not really.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re funny.” She sat up straighter, Neve following the movement. “But, anyway. I could really do with lying in a bed. Any chance I can borrow a change of clothes? I really don’t want to dirty your pristine sheets.”

“Oh. Yeah. Of course.” Neve could do that. Alba could borrow clothes. That was fine. She’d done that before with friends. As a child.

Chapter 10

Shit.

Alba was going to have to tell Zainab she was right twice. She really did hate that. Though, she supposed it came with the territory of being…optimisticas she was. She’d really thought spending a bit of actual time around Neve would help her prove the crush was nothing to worry about. It would just go away once the thrill of meeting and running into each other unexpectedly disappeared. And, yes, maybe the middle of the night wasn’t the best time to initiate that, but it wasn’t the worst.

Her arm, which was wrapped around Neve’s body, and her hand, caught between Neve’s arms, burned like a warning, like a heated reminder that maybe the middle of the night was the worst time after all.

But it hadn’t felt like that. It had felt perfect—no walls, no worrying, no pretenses. Neve in her pajamas, Alba a mess from a night out. Just the two of them and the quiet world. And Nevehad been funny. Shy, a little bashful and awkward, but funny. The kind of funny someone wasn’t working for, it just came out, even when they weren’t trying. It was Alba’s favorite kind of funny.

And then there was the way she smiled when Alba amused her. That wide, hypnotic smile and the way it crinkled her blue eyes. And Alba was really trying just to be friends with her, but now, here she was, woken too early for their late night—she really was getting too old for staying up until 5 AM—and wrapped around Neve, desperately fighting against the thought that this wasnice.

Or, it would be if she weren’t feeling so guilty. Though, most of that guilt was probably precipitated by the sounds of Charlie and Alice moving around the apartment. Alice didn’t bother her too much. Well, neither did Charlie, but Alba knew Charlie didn’t like her, and she imagined her current position wouldn’t be winning her any points, and she didn’t want to cause problems for Neve.

Plus, there was the look Zainab was going to give her when she got home. There had been a few last night, too, but everything had felt a little less real in the middle of the night. A little more exciting and a little less dangerous.

Though, so long as she was only hurting herself, what was really the problem?

Someone in the kitchen dropped a pan, the clang echoing through the apartment. Alba didn’t think she’d ever been in an apartment with two floors before and was surprised by how much the sound traveled.

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