Page 10 of Hello Forever
Jesus Christ. This wasnotgood.
“I think you should call him,” Amyannounced.
“Noway.”
“Way! Because otherwise this will all be incredibly awkward. I mean…the last time you saw him, you were bothnaked?”
“Notnaked,” I saidquickly.
“Oh, honey.” Amy sighed. “Please tell me that you’ve had a good time naked withsomeonein your life. Atleastonce.”
Sadly, I shookmyhead.
“That’s just plain wrong. You’re twenty-two years old. You should liveyourlife.”
It’s not that I didn’t want to. But it just wasn’t an option. My father would beat the shit out of me if he found out I was…with a guy. So if I ever wanted to date, it would have to be somewhere far away from here. If not for Scotty, Mark and Jared, I’d be out of this town faster than you can say, “So long,suckers.”
But I had three brothers who needed me. And Scotty was only eleven. That meant at least six or seven more years ofsolitude.
God, howdepressing.
“It’s not so bad,” I lied. “And who’s to say that I’d find somebody, anyway? It’s a small town. I mean…you’re sitting here with me tonight,right?”
“Well…” Amy cleared her throat. “There’s something I need totellyou.”
My stomach bottomed out.Again. Because I knew what blow she was about tostrike.
“I metsomeone.”
“Wow, that’s great,” I heard myself say. “Whoisit?”
Her pretty face took on a shy smile. “He works for the I.T. department. I’ve been having, um, alotof computer problemsatwork.”
I laughed for the first time in an hour. “You are adorable. And I’ve heard those I.T. nerds are awesome in thebedroom.”
“Cax!” She gave my knee a shove. “Don’tmock.”
I caught her hand in mine. “Amy, I’m happy for you. Really.” It was true, too. Even though I knew I was in trouble, because this would change things. Amy couldn’t be my “date” anymore. It wouldn’t be fair to Mr. I.T. Dude for us to let people think we were acouple.
“We’ll still have basketball games,” she said, readingmymind.
“Only if you want to,” I saidquickly.
“OfcourseI want to. We have season ticketstogether.Jeez.”
“Your new guy might not like that you have season tickets withyourex.”
She swirled the last of the wine in her glass. “Well, I was thinking about that. No guy is going to love the idea of his new girlfriend hanging out with her ex. But if he understood that we werereallynotcompatible…”
I shook my head immediately, and shesighed.
“Okay. It was just a thought. Because there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t hang out as much as we want.” To prove it, she turned to stretch her legs outovermine.
I grabbed the insteps of her stocking feet and squeezed. Amy loved to have her feet rubbed. We knew each other so well. It killed me to think I was losing her company to some I.T. guy. But I wanted her to behappy.
“I’m worried about you,”shesaid.
I only grunted myresponse.
