Page 32 of Eye of the Hurricane
“I promise,” she agrees. I know that promise will be out of the window in the next sixty seconds.
“Ares spent the night last night an—” I don’t even get a chance to finish my sentence.
“SHUT UP!” she squeals, the high-pitched noise ringing out in the confines of my car. “Wait! I have to hear this in person. Come over!”
“I don’t know if I have time.”
“Make time.” Her tone leaves no room for arguing.
“Alright, alright. I’ll be there in five. I can’t stay long, we have to make it quick.”
“Deal.”
We hang up the phone and I head towards her place instead of mine.
I take the elevator up to her apartment, letting myself in with the key she had made for me a couple years back. When I get there, she’s sitting on her couch with a wide smile and two glasses of wine.
“Tell. Me. Everything.”
“It’s really not what you think, that’s why I didn’t want to come here and get you all excited for nothing.”
“It’s not for nothing. You let him spend the night on awork night. You won’t even letmecome over on a work night. That’s not nothing.”
I drop my keys on her counter and loosen the strap on my heels to drop them off on the floor nearby. I walk over to the couch and sit on the opposite end, facing her.
“It’s not like I invited him over for a slumber party.”
“No?” she questions.
“I asked him to stop by so we could talk about the whole fake dating thing. We put on a show and we both fell asleep.” I don’t mention that it was one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, despite being on a couch.
“Where?” Her face is full of amusement, like she’s sure she’s got me now.
“Huh?” Okay, so maybe I’m playing dumb a little.
“Where did you sleep, Katherine?” Her smile is wide and her eyes are knowing.
“We fell asleep on the couch. I woke up wrapped around his side with my head on his chest. It was all on accident.” I throw my hands in the air defensively. A laugh ripples out of her.
“Okay, can I point out the obvious here?” she asks. The sliver of self-preservation I have screams ‘no’. I don’t know what she’s going to say but I can nearly guarantee I don’t want to hear it.
“Sure, lay it on me.”
“You’re doing all of the distracting parts of dating, Kat. But none of the fun.”Oh.
“What do you mean? We have tons of fun,” I argue. I think of the fake dates we’ve been on and how much fun I’ve had during all of them. Some of the most fun I’ve had in my life, really.
“You’re so in your head about this planof yours that you’ve lost your common sense. You’re doing all of the time-consuming and distracting parts of dating but you’re not letting yourself kiss or have sex.”
“I just can’t afford to take myself off track right now.”
“I know your mother has it in your head that it has to be one or the other but it doesn’t. You can have the career and the boy. Jump his bones already.” I don’t miss the face Luna tries to hold back after mentioning my mom.
“You’re ridiculous,” I laugh.
“Tell me you’ll think about it.”
“Sure, I’ll think about it.” Which I do.I think about it a lot.
