Page 26 of Mistletoe Mistake
“Dude, you gotta get some better chairs, these ones kill my ass,” Linc gripes.
“I know,” I mumble around a mouthful of food, knowing full well I won’t do anything about them. “How’s things? How’s your girl?”
“We broke up.” He picks up his drink and gulps down half the can before digging back into his taco.
“You seem devastated,” I observe wryly.
He shrugs noncommittally. “We weren’t serious.”
“So why’d you break up?” I really am curious. Linc’s relationships never last long and he ends things for the most ridiculous reasons.
“She used too many emojis.”
My taco stops halfway to my mouth and I let it hang there while I try to make sense of what he just said. “Too many emojis?”
“Yeah, like she ended every message with about twenty emojis. Sometimes it would be an entire message of emojis. It was too much.”
I shake my head slowly, watching him closely. “You know that’s messed up, right?”
“Yeah,” he sighs, finishing off his last bite. “She just wasn’t the one.”
“God, you are such a Chandler,” I mumble under my breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. Listen, how are you going to find the one if you keep breaking up with women over stupid shit like that?”
He crumples his trash and tosses it into the trash can. “It’s complicated. And not worth talking about. What about you? Did you get that coffee table finished last week?”
“Yeah, I even got it delivered a day early. It’s been a good week.” I give him a quick rundown of everything that has happened since last week.
“I can’t believe you finally did it. I thought you were too scared of Brandon to ever make a move on her.”
“Hold up.” I hold a hand up in denial. “I am not scared of Brandon. I was being a good guy and putting our friendship first.”
“And now you’re not a good guy?” He snorts. “I don’t care why you finally did something about it, I’m just glad you did.” Linc sobers suddenly. “Friendship is great, but love is better. It’s what gives us purpose and if you have the chance to actually be with the person you love and you didn’t take it, I would judge you pretty damn hard.”
There’s a story there, I’m sure of it, but Lincoln quickly changes the subject, making it clear that he’s done talking about it.
Later, when he’s gone, I consider his words and realize how right he is. I love Brandon and if this ends our friendship it will suck, but what’s happening between Holly and me feels inevitable.
We have chemistry that can’t be ignored and a foundation of friendship and history that together creates something exceptional.
I won’t lose that for any reason.
I won’t loseher.
* * *
The parking lot is almost full when I pull into it and it takes a while to find an empty space. Cursing myself for not leaving work earlier, I’m about to get out of the car and head into the supermarket when my phone goes off. Happy to delay the inevitable crowd I’m about to face, I pull it out of my pocket.
“For fuck’s sake,” I groan. I don’t know what the hell is going on with Brandon’s sudden affinity for phone calls, but I really miss the days where we only communicated through text.
Lying that way inspires a lot less guilt.
“What’s up, B? I’m about to run into the grocery store, so can we make this quick?”
“Since when do you go to grocery stores? I thought you got everything delivered?”
