Page 51 of Love Thy Neighbor

No reason to screw that up, right?

“Right.” I clear my throat when the word comes out hoarse. “You’re right. It was just a one-off thing. A mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“Because we’d be fools to ruin this great friendship we have.”

“Exactly,” I agree.

“Besides, I know you slept with a teddy bear until you were twenty-one. That’s not something you should know about someone you’re sleeping with.”

“True.” I laugh lightly. “You know what happens if you ever tell anyone about that, right?”

“You’ll post pictures of me with my underwear on my head on the internet, from that time I was super drunk.”

I nod. “Precisely.”

“Even though that’s totally not a fair playing field. I was drunk—you knew exactly what you were doing.”

“I’ll deny it until I die.”

She grins, shaking her head at me. She looks down at the mess on the floor, then drops her head back on a groan. “Ugh. I really hate steam cleaning too.”

“I’ll worry about cleaning the rug. Tomorrow. Tonight, let’s just watch a movie, huh?”

“You still want to watch a movie?”

“Yeah. We’ve kind of been ignoring each other for the last few days. And, well, you better not tell anyone this, but I sort of missed you.”

She laughs. “I sort of missed you too.”

She peeks up, her blue eyes studying me probably harder than they ever have.

I will myself not to react. Will myself to remain cool. Neutral. To not let her know there’s a whole shitstorm of emotions whirling inside.

Sadness. Regret. Confusion.

Disappointment.

“Are we good?” she asks.

“Of course. Come on. I’m fucking starving.”

8

Caroline

We can’t.

Those two words have been haunting me for days now.

For the most part, things with Cooper have gone back to normal. Or as normal as things can be between two best friends who kissed.

It’s as if there’s a thin cloud of uncertainty just floating above us, waiting to crack open and shake everything up again.

Part of me wanted to tell Cooper to keep going, wanted to see how far we’d take it.

But the other, more logical part of my brain said to stop.

Crossing that line would be a bad idea. He’s too important to me to lose over something like sex. I don’t want to risk my friendship with him all for a good lay.

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