Page 160 of Paint the Town, Dove
We were flying into JFK early tomorrow which meant that for once, everyone took it easy.
The guys went on the slopes while the girls and I spent the day at the spa – hot springs and a good massage… changes lives. That’s all I’m going to say.
Dean and Polly, well… thank God for sound proof walls. They really were making it official, if you know what I mean.
Zayla and Derek were getting along.That’s never going to happen, no matter how much he wants it to.
And me and Ryden, well.
We were back to staring at each other from across the room again. Like little fuckingchildren. It was deplorable.What are we, five?
“Do you think it’s weird you ate me out?” I said, bubbling up in laughter.
He burst out laughing, “Well that’s one way to get me going, Christ.”
“No, but like, seriously,” I wiped my eyes, “like you and I have been friends since we were pre-teens, Ry. Slept in the same bed, lived together, basically saw the stratosphere together, and yet nothing.”
“Well, I did kiss your neck once,” he said, “never forgot that.”
Right. Before his first show. “That was a lifetime ago.”
“Yep,” he chuckled, “still remember it like it was yesterday.”
“Mm.”
“It changed things,” he admitted. “For me.”
I felt the rapid thump of my heart. “How could it not?”
“Did it change things for you?”
I exhaled, shutting my eyes. “How could it not.”
He let out a soft laugh. “More than a few words would be nice.”
I turned to face him, allowing my own inhibitions to slide. “I feel like I don’t know you like I know you anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean” –take a breath– “I mean is there a newusnow? Do we carry on like nothing ever happened, that all of it was the heat of the moment and – and we’re just,friends, again? Like we always were?”
I could feel the piercing gaze of his eyes, the intensity brewing beneath those green irises. “We were neverfriends, Dove.”
My fingers curled around the sheets as I processed his statement.
Weren’t we? Has that not been our title all along?
Why do you always need a fucking title Scarlett?
Why can’t you just exist, accept, and feel – feel fucking everything, for once just –
Let.
Him.
IN.
“Never did say thank you for that, by the way.”
