Page 121 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
I force a laugh that sounds more like a squeak. “Yup. All good.”
“You’re acting kinda weird.”
“It’s the sunshine, I swear,” I say to my phone. “I’m not used to the warmth this early in the year.” I silently curse myself for how squeaky my voice is.
A few seconds later Ingrid gasps.
“Oh my god…” She shoots up on her lounge chair. “Something happened between you and Theo, didn’t it?”
I think about denying it. I think about looking my best friend in the eye and lying straight to her face, but I can’t. I’m tired of hiding this from her.
I finally look at her and nod.
I take in Ingrid’s wide, unblinking stare. “Tell me everything.”
I bite my lip as I work up the nerves. “Theo and I…we, um…we had a bit of a thing.”
I give her a summary of how living together helped us see each other differently, how we spent more time together, how we started to get along, how we started to actually like each other.
Ingrid doesn’t blink once the entire time I speak.
“We became friends after a while. I mean, we still argued and bickered, but it was different. There was a flirty vibe that developed between us. And well…one night, we locked ourselves out of your cabin by mistake and ended up in the guest house,” I say. “And there was only one bed…”
Somehow her eyes go even wider. “No…”
“It just sort of happened.”
Her jaw falls to the ground. “Maya, are you serious?”
I nod again. “We were essentially friends with b—”
She makes a face like she just tasted something rotten and holds up a hand. “Please god, no details. I can fill in the blanks on my own.”
“Right. Sorry.” I clear my throat. “Feelings started to develop between us,” I say in a soft voice, too scared to say more. “Anyway, it’s over now.”
For a while, we’re both quiet as I observe Ingrid and her thousand-yard stare.
“You and Theo? Were together?” she finally says.
“Yup.”
Another long pause and more staring.
She glances off to the side, looking at nothing in particular. “Wow. My mom was right when she joked about you two getting together. Never in a million years would I have thought you two would be a couple.”
“Same,” I murmur.
“What happened?” she asks. “Why did it end?”
Snippets from our last conversation flash in my head. How he pleaded for me to give us a chance. The broken look on his face when I rejected him.
“He wanted a serious relationship. I didn’t.”
Ingrid’s eyes go wide. “He did?”
I nod. “I just couldn’t figure out how it would work. His job is nuts. When I told him that all the traveling and training he does would make it almost impossible for us to see each other regularly, he asked me to come with him. But I can’t. I have my own dreams I want to pursue. I can’t put that on hold for a relationship.”
I tell her about running into Tracy and Kendra.
