Page 18 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend
And I don’t have to give up any of my time with Oakley.
“So, do you want to go home, or spend the night here? We can watch TV or I have a lot of puzzle books if you do want to stay,” I offer.
“You don’t mind if I sleep here with you?”
“No. Oak and I used to share a bed all the time. I don’t think it would be weird, if you’re okay with it.”
Aspen gives me a questioning look, like she wants to comment on that statement, but decides against it. “That would be great. I’m sure Sage will be staying,” she says with another pointed look at our shared wall where things have finally quieted down.
“We can see what they say in the morning as far as seeing each other again.”
“Want to watch that new blind dating reality show for a bit before we sleep?” she suggests.
“Where that guy thinks he’s talking to a girl, but it’s a man?” I check.
“Yeah, the commercials look so funny.”
“Sure, let’s get ready for bed first though.”I head to my ensuite, finding an extra toothbrush and some of my clothes that Aspen can sleep in before we settle into bed and pull upLove Without Labelson the TV. My king-sized bed is plenty big enough for us both to have our own space, and there’s zero tension. It feels like I’m hanging out with Oakley’s siblings.
I grab the constrained cube from my nightstand to keep my hands busy while we watch. It’s one of the more difficult spin-offs of the Rubik’s cube that Oakley’s gotten for me over the years. After a few episodes, we’re both drifting off, so we turn off the show and the lights, going to bed with simple, “goodnights.” Maybe the situation should feel strange and I should be more worried about exactly what I’ve agreed to, but I feel a sense of calm about it in a way that I’m embracing.
In the morning over breakfast at our dining room table, Oakley asks Sage when she’s free for their next date. I look to Aspen, who gives me an encouraging nod before I suggest we all plan something together again.
Oakley lights up even more at that, and I know he’s thinking the same things I was last night. How nice it will be to go on like this, that we might have each finally found someone who could accept our friendship without having to constantly justify our bond. I should probably feel guilty about hiding this from my best friend, but what Aspen and I have agreed to doesn’t feel like I’m lying to him. Wewillbe going on dates, we just won’t be having sex with each other. Despite us normally talking about everything, I don’t bother to share the details of my hookups with Oakley. There’s never really been much to tell.
Something about this feels right, like I’m on the path that I should be. So, I’m going to try not to get hung up on what I think I should be feeling, and just focus on the positives of the situation. I’m helping my new friend, and I won’t lose my time with Oak to his new girlfriend.
9
OAKLEY
May
“Ijust got the email from our lawyers: the sale has been finalized and we’re officially the owners of a run-down resort in Bora Bora!” I announce as I burst into Parker’s room, too excited to wait for him to finish getting ready to tell him. He doesn't have a shirt on yet, and his abs are popping. “Damn, if I looked like that, I don’t think I’d ever want to put on a shirt,” I comment, forgetting why I came in here.
“What are you talking about? You’re way hotter than me,” Parker scoffs.
“My muscles don’t look like these,” I point out as I poke his rock-hard stomach, laughing as he tries to swat me away.
“Why did you come in here again?” he asks, but his tone sounds amused, not annoyed.
“Oh right! We got the resort! We officially have about eleven months to turn it into the best wedding destination ever before the tourist season starts,” I announce as I bounce up and down, unable to contain my excitement.
“You do realize that we’ll be hiring people to do most of theactual work for it, right? You still need to run a giant international company,” Parker reminds me skeptically.
As if I could forget the job that has literally consumed my focus for half of my life now. “Yeah, yeah, but this will be my passion project! I want to be as involved as I possibly can with the decisions,” I explain.
“I’m sure the designers will love that,” he says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. “But I’m happy too,” he assures me. “Now, can you help me find my Werewolves jersey so that we aren’t late?” he asks, reminding me that wearecutting it pretty close to the time we told the girls we’d meet them.
“Maybe it ended up in my closet again. I’ll go check,” I say. We send out our laundry, and the people who clean the apartment also put it away. At six-three, Parker’s significantly taller than the five-foot eleven inches I claim on a good day. His giant muscles fill out a bigger size than me in most things, so it’s usually easy to keep our clothes separated, but the jersey sizes can be confusing. Sure enough, the one I know he wants to wear is mixed in with my own collection, so I grab it for him.
“Your sweater, kind sir,” I say in a weird formal British accent as I present it to him over my bent arm, bowing my head. He laughs like I hoped he would and throws it on over the Werewolves T-shirt he must have put on while I was gone. I like how silly I can be around him, like I’m allowed to still act like the goofy kid I was when we met, even though I need to have my shit together in front of everyone else to prove that I’m good at my job and have worked hard to excel in the position that I inherited. I love making him laugh or smile, even if it is just at something stupid that I do. He spends so much time in his own head, and he worries so much about fitting in around new people, so knowing that I can make him forget about all of that makes me feel great.
Tonight is game six in the second series of the Stanley Cup Finals. My family owns the team, so we’re planning to take thegirls to our box to watch the game. Neither of them were huge hockey fans going into the finals, but they’ve come to a few of the games with us now over the last few weeks and have had a good time. My family is amazing and they can welcome anyone, and the girls are so sweet, so there hasn't been any awkwardness over bringing our new girlfriends.
My older brother Beck, who’s the team’s CEO, is bringing his “friend” to the game too, and I can’t wait to meet the guy who convinced my grumpy playboy brother to follow him to a self-help seminar in Florida, of all places.They’re definitely going to end up together.
We swing by the girls’ condo, and they look cute in the oversized Werewolves jerseys we got for them at their first game. My driver takes us to the parking lot where all of the players and staff park, and we make our way through the Caldwell Center to the owner’s suite.
