Page 46 of Deal Breaker
“Did you want to get dinner?” I asked.
Sophie shook her head. “I’m kinda tired. Could we stay here instead? Curl up and watch a movie?”
“Like a Friday night sleepover?” I grinned.
“Perhaps a more adult version of one.” She winked and disappeared into the bathroom.
I made the bed comfier and added more pillows and another blanket to create us a nest. Once I was satisfied, I stripped off my clothes and slid beneath the covers. I found the TV remote and flicked it to a movie channel to see what was on. At this time of year, the Christmas films were starting up. I wondered ifLove Actuallymight be an option.
The bathroom door opened.
Sophie stood there, wearing a New York Giants football jersey.TheNew York Giants jersey from our childhood. It definitely didn’t swamp her body any longer, the material clinging to her curves in all the right places. My dick twitched, all those teenage hormones racing back.
“What are you looking at?” She tilted her head to one side, a grin spreading over her face.
“You seriously still have that jersey after all this time?”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. “Once a Giants fan…”
“Always a Sophie fan.” I crooked a finger at her, and she closed the distance between us, landing on the bed and straddling me. “Seriously, I should have done this all those years ago.”
My lips met hers.
She was mine.
It may have taken me ten years, but it was totally worth it.
Epilogue
Sophie
The following August…
“Max is acting really shady.I swear it’s like he’s going to leave me.”
Autumn’s laughter echoed in my ear. “Don’t be ridiculous. I can categorically say Max is definitely not going to leave you.”
Bent over in my chair, trying to make sure Tim Tarrant didn’t spot me on the phone making personal calls, I looked like the shady one. Some things didn’t change; my boss still didn’t like me talking to my friends on work time.
“But when he’s been on the phone, and I’ve walked in, he’s hung up. Is he calling some porn line or something? I should check his phone.”
“Don’t. Do. That.” Autumn was firm. “Like, don’t ever do that. My brother is a totally trustworthy person. If he wasn’t, do you really think I would have let you get together with him?”
In the nine months since Brianna and Joshua’s wedding, things between Max and me had escalated quickly.
Our first proper date had been at Chazz Palminterni on West 46thStreet, followed by a walk in Bryant Park, and we’d shared a kiss on the carousel in the park. He took me home on the subway, even though it was out of his way, and while he didn’t come in, we had another kiss at the door of my apartment. Exactly like he’d told me the night before the wedding. We’d spent Christmas together and on New Year’s Eve, Max had asked me to move in with him. What felt like a whirlwind was the culmination of ten years of not being together when we should have been. Autumn was fully supportive of us, and we often double-dated with her and whoever she was seeing that week. Jodie, on the other hand, had pretty much disappeared from our friendship group. It seemed her crush on Max had been far deeper than any of us had realized and seeing him and I together hurt.
However, in the past few weeks, Max had been distant and, as I’d explained to Autumn, spent a lot of time on his phone, making secretive calls. Truthfully, I probably didn’t have anything to worry about, but it didn’t stop me.
“I’ll speak to him tonight.” I checked the time. It was shortly after 3:00, so there wasn’t much of the working day left. Friday nights in our apartment were usually fairly chill; we ordered in—pizza mostly, a throwback to those teenage years—watched a movie, and went to bed early. After a week on site, Max was usually tired, and I didn’t mind snuggling up to him, reading before I went to sleep.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” warned Autumn. “Make it out to be something it’s not. It’s probably nothing.”
She sounded so sure, and I wondered if she already knew what was going on but didn’t want to tell me. I dismissed it. She was right. I was likely worrying over nothing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Tim coming out of his office. “Gotta go, the boss is coming. Talk to you over the weekend.” Without waiting for her response, I cut the call and dropped my phone in my bag, pretending to pick up a pen which had fallen on the floor. “Tim, I was just coming in to see you. We were going to prioritize next week’s meetings.” I flashed a professional smile and stood up, grabbing my notebook.
Worked every time.
