Page 37 of Not Falling for the Forward
Emily
“You fucked him, didn’t you!” Jess shouts, handing me my refilled glass of wine.
“Ummm, not exactly…” I feel my cheeks heat as I hide behind my glass taking a sip, the dry liquid burning perfectly on its way down.
“Liar!” She grins and slaps me on the leg.
“What’s she lying about now?” Dan asks as he re-enters the room, his own wine glass now topped up.
“Fucking the footballer,” Jess throws his way.
“Oh. I don't know if I wanted to know that.” He cringes as he sits in the love seat at the other side of the room next to his wife, Taniyah.
It’s nice to have them all over at mine again now I’m ‘allowed’. Chris didn’t like people in his space, so I never had my friends over. Even Dan, his own brother, and his wife Taniyah had only been over to drop the kids off and very rarely saw past the front door. Now I finally get to do the things I always imagined when I bought my first home, like host wine and cheese nights for my best friends.
“We didn’t have sex!” I exclaim sitting up straighter. Not a lie. We didn't. Were we going to? Absolutely, but they don’t need to know that.
“You did something.” Jess narrows her eyes at me. “Hand stuff?” she asks wiggling her brows.
“God, what are we fourteen?” I laugh, trying not to let on how much Jess hit the nail on the head.
“Can’t get pregnant with hand stuff,” Taniyah chimes in lifting her hand to Dan who returns her high five with a grin. I groan and rub my hand over my face.
“Okay, so now we all know you got fingered by Jack Cartwright, are you going to tell us any details about the actual relationship?” Jess asks. I cringe but can’t help laughing at the horror on Dans face as he processes Jess’ crude words.
“Ew,” Dan says slowly, “And no Jess, Emily doesn’t tell us shit about anyone she’s seeing, ever.”
“Yeah. I thought those two were secretly together when I first met Dan because it felt so sketchy that he knew nothing about his ‘best friend’s’ dating history,” Taniyah adds. The reminder of this makes me want to shrivel up in a corner somewhere. I remember at the start of Dan and Taniyah’s relationship, Taniyah had become slightly jealous of the girl Dan always used to be hanging around with, especially considering he couldn’t even tell her if I was straight or gay. My lack of being forthcoming put a huge strain on their blossoming relationship, until he’d introduced me to Chris on a night out and I had gone back to his.
I’ve always thought that the less people that know things the better. No one needs to know who I’m seeing, or not seeing, because it would inconvenience them when we break up and they have to keep checking in to make sure I’m okay. Christ, Dan and Taniyah made their office into a bedroom for me so I wasn’t alone over Christmas. Talk about being an inconvenience.
But I don’t want to be that closed off person anymore. Dan and Taniyah never complained about having me over for that time, in fact, they have told me multiple times that they enjoyed me being there almost as much as the twins did. And Jess is Jess, she’s my person. This group of people have showed time and time again that I can lean on them if I need to. And right now, I want to.
“He’s nice,” I blurt.
Every eye in the room turns to me. “Go on…” Dan says, as they all lean in slowly as if I’m a small animal and they’re trying not to spook me.
I roll my eyes, “We’ve only met up a few times because of our schedules, and yes, one of them was on this sofa…”
“AHH, ew!” Jess shouts as she jumps up from where she’s sat.
“But he’s thoughtful, and he bought me flowers, and he took care of me after a hard day, we talk on the phone all the time and I’m really trying not to like him but he’s fuckinggorgeous!” I exaggerate gorgeous, because when describing Jack, ‘gorgeous’ is a word that should be exaggerated. “You guys have seen him! He is just easy to be around, and I feel like I don’t need to try and be someone I’m not when I’m with him. So, I agreed to go on another date with him and see how things go. But we still haven’t managed to find the time and now he’s away for a week because of a sponsorship job and then an away game. I’ll see him tomorrow for a coffee pre-match and then he goes and that kind of bums me out.” I shrug and take a sip of my wine.
I look up to see everyone still staring at me. Dan and Taniyah turn to each other and share a knowing glance, small smirks on both of their faces.
“What’s that look for?” I accuse.
“Nothing…” they say in sync. I swear they married themselves in other bodies. “It’s just nice to hear you talk about someone you like is all.” Dan finishes when I glare at the two of them.
“God, why does this feel like we’re in high school, I don’t ‘like’ Jack, I…”
“You…?” Dan prompts.
“Oh, fuck off. I like him,” I grumble, folding my arms as I lean back into my sofa cushions.
“Oh, now look what you did, she’s sulking,” Taniyah scolds Dan. “It’s okay, Em. We can all agree he’s hot and you said he’s a nice guy and he wants to spend more time with you. What’s the issue here?”
“The issue is, he’s all of those things, plus a famous, successful,veryrich athlete. And I’m a mid-sized, kind of smart and pretty in the right light, bottom of the food chain nurse. I haven’t even specialised yet, and my last two attempts at being promoted to charge nurse utterly failed and I’ve been there for years just stagnating!”
