Page 20 of It Happened Back Then
“I wanted you to experience life, Bennett,” she interjects forcefully, as if she’s reminding herself almost as much as she’s explaining to me. “I can’t leave this town, but that doesn't mean you have to stay. You deserve to find a life out there.”
Again, with the same old rehearsed lines. “We talked about having a life here. What changed?”
She doesn’t answer and the quiet overtakes the room. We still face each other, the small lamp illuminating our faces, and after a long pause I whisper, “This weird push and pull between us has confused me for years. But I miss my bestfriend. If I had known that us choosing to sleep together all those years ago would change our friendship, I don’t think I would have done it.”
“Now it’s my fault our relationship is strained?”
“No, it’s not. Our friendship has always been easy. I’ve loved you innocently from day one. But I’ve held on to every single minute from our nights together, and it's been hard to see you as just a friend again. Every day wanting to hold you like I did. Every night wanting to do it all over again. It’s my fault things are strained. And it’s my own fault I’m confused. I did what you wanted, dated other people. Found someone. I thought Savannah would change those feelings.”
It hasn’tis the unspoken sentence lingering in the room.
She’s quiet, playing with the edge of the comforter. “Did the interview go well?
“It did.”
“Are you taking the job?”
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. Forty-five minutes ago, I was not taking the job. I was going back to Seattle and staying there without another thought of the pact we made. Walking into my bedroom to find her here has me re-thinking every bit of that. She could always change my mind with one glance.
“What if…” her voice fades to a whisper. “What if you take it and we try?”
I shake my head, my heart beginning to race as she dangles words of hope. “I can’t change my whole life just totry,Blossom. For a chance youmaylove me like that.”
Her expression is pained, like she can’t believe I may be saying no. “What if I do love you like that?”
“Then why did you push me away?”
“Is fear a reason?” She smiles sadly, her eyes glassy, obviously concerned she already knows my answer.
“No, it’s not,” I answer more sharply than I want to, but Ican’t help it. Fear has never been a reason to keep us apart. “Not when you’ve known me forever.”
“Does this mean you’re over me?”
My jaw clenches. “I’ll never get over you, but I’ve made my mind up for my own sake. I need closure.”
Silence falls in the room. She stares at me in disbelief but with that same look of a thousand words running in her head that she just can’t get out. Like she has so much to tell me but just can’t bring herself to do it.
Finally, she whispers, “Can I change your mind?”
Five little words have just completely wrecked my decision. Iwanther to change my mind. I want her to show me everything I’ve been feeling for years, and I want to know she feels it, too.
“How are you going to do that?”
She gets up on her knees before moving closer and climbing into my lap. I sit back further in the middle of the bed and lean on my hands. I don't want to reach out and touch her. I’ve done the reaching too many times.
She straddles me, and I feel her hot pussy against my dick, those short shorts of hers hiding nothing. I do my best to keep my eyes focused on hers. She lays her hands on my shoulders before running them down to my biceps and squeezing.
“Do you remember when we were ten and we found Bean Lake on our own?”
I smile and nod. “You talked me into going that day. I was told to come right home from school. I had no plans to wander the woods.” I lay my hand on her thigh, unable to resist touching her.
Her fingers trail my chest. “You had the time of your life, don’t act like you didn’t.”
“We got in so much trouble for being there.”
She laughs. “I think that’s when the sneaking through the windows began, right? We were grounded from seeing each other so we had to improvise.”
“Probably,” I tease. “Just one more thing you talked me into doing.”
