Page 102 of Spark

Laila leans back in her chair. “Do you like him, Ruby?”

I scoff. “You know I do. I adore him. He’s my favorite person.”

“Do you trust him?”

Why is she asking me these questions, when she already knows my answers? “Yes, of course, I do. Completely.”

Laila’s eyeballs dart right and then left, like she’s exchanging looks of incredulity with non-existent people on either side of her. “Okay, so, to summarize. You love him, you like him, you trust him—andyou feel ‘supernatural, transformative’ lust for him. Do I have all that right?”

I press my lips together, feeling exposed and vulnerable. When she puts it all together like that, it seems pretty easy to see I’ve fallen for Kendrick. Romantically. I haven’t wanted to admit that to myself, but with Laila spelling things out for me, I’m suddenly finding my feelings impossible to deny.

Laila breaks the silence first. “Ruby, put all of that together, and what you’ve got is what the most passionate love songs are written about. Peak romantic love, not a best-friends-with-benefits fling.”

I can barely breathe. “Kendrick only wants a fling, Laila. He’s made that clear, and I promised that’s all it’d be. I promised.”

Laila looks skeptical. “Maybe his feelings have changed somewhere along the way. The same as yours.”

Well, there it is. I can’t deny it any longer. Shit. I’ve caught feelings. I’m in love with Kendrick.

“I can’t mess up our friendship,” I squeak out. “Laila, Kendrick’s my person. My rock. I can’t survive without him in my life.”

“If he feels the same way, which seems pretty obvious to me, you won’t have to.”

My breathing catches. “You think Kendrick’s caught feelings for me?”

“You honestly don’t?”

“No.”

Laila scoffs. “Are you blind, girl?”

“He hasn’t, Laila. Trust me.”

She rolls her eyes. “Just, please, tell him how you feel, Ruby. Will you do that for me? Please?”

“But what if I confess my feelings and wind up losing my best friend forever? I can’t let that happen.”

“What are the odds of that, though?”

“Really high! For twelve years, Kendrick wasn’t interested in me, sexually. Which makes sense because I’m not his type at all. You’ve seen the women he dates. They all look like you. Perfect and glamorous. Also, he’s the one who first insisted on a fling. He set his boundaries, and I agreed to them, so it’s not like I can turn around and?—"

“Listen to me, honey,” Laila says. “Everything you’ve described about your feelings for Kendrick—love, trust, friendship, andaddictive lust—is exactly what I feel for Adrian to a T. Myhusband. You’ve described a rare and beautiful thing here—a once-in-a-lifetime thing that’s worth fighting for. Which means you have to be bold and brave and take a risk to keep it going.”

My heart is racing. “I can’t say it first. There’s way too much at stake.”

Laila palms her forehead. But before she says another word, there’s a rap on the door, and Cooper of all people pops his head into the room.

“Hey, ladies,” he says. “Delivery for Ruby.” He holds up two box lunches. “It’s a peace offering. I thought maybe we could have lunch together and talk.”

I point to the lunch I’m already halfway through eating.

“Oh.” He steps into the room, anyway. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“Aren’t you supposed to shoot next?”

“Yeah. This won’t take long.”

Laila looks at me, and when I nod, she rises and murmurs, “I’ll go watch Savage and Kendrick with their team.”

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