“We’d better call it a night,” I said, sitting up. “I’m not sure how much longer before we both get caught.”
“Right.”
He sat up and began to gather his stuff. He didn’t even look at me. But after a few seconds, he froze and then dropped them right back to the ground to sink his hands into the hair at the back of my head and press one more long, lingering kiss to my lips. A delicious shiver ran up and down my spine. And when he finally released me to pull back enough to stare into my eyes, my entire face was flushing.
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?” I could hardly breathe.
“For tonight. For being you.” His lips formed a lopsided smile. “For being my friend.”
I laughed and pushed off the ground as he followed. This was so not the kind of friendship I was used to. Usually, when I friend-zoned a guy, it was for good. Zane was too tempting to friend-zone.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand. “Walk me to my window.”
We strolled back and I pecked him one more time on the lips before clasping the windowsill with my hands and pushing up. I had one foot on the plush, carpet floor of my room when I heard the distinct sound of a throat clearing.
“Ahem.”
With alarm, I stood up too soon and banged my head hard on the window. White flashed before my eyes. I rubbed it with the palm of my hand and squinted at the doorway of my room where two figures stood. A few more seconds passed before their shapes became more clear and I could see Charlotte and Beth watching me, their faces dark with suspicion.
So much for not getting caught.
Chapter Seventeen
“Oh, hi, girls.” I waved pathetically at Charlotte and Beth as I lingered awkwardly by the window. My brain still rang like
a bell from that knock in the head, but it was starting to quiet down. At least there was no permanent damage. “Nice night, right?”
Hopefully, they hadn’t seen Zane outside. A girl could hope, right?
“Hi, Lexi,” Charlotte said with a forced, tight-lipped smile. She leaned slightly to her left and stared directly out the window. “Hi, Zane. Nice to see you again.”
“Hi, there,” Zane answered meekly from outside my window, the light spilling out just enough to illuminate his sharp cheekbones and jawline. “Good timing. I’m actually just heading out. Have a good night.”
I grimaced at him before he slipped away from my window. Oops. We’d both been caught, but I was the one who was going to have to deal with the fallout.
“Your dad let us in,” Beth said coolly. She slid a container onto my desk and frowned at me. “We wanted to make sure you got better soon, so we picked you up some miso soup on our sushi run.”
“Thanks.”
I picked nervously at the hem of my tee. This wasn’t good. Not good at all. I wasn’t used to being caught in a lie. I wasn’t good at them. And now I knew why.
“Sure got over that food poisoning quick,” Charlotte said, moving across the room to claim my desk chair. She arched her eyebrows, a challenge dancing in her gaze. “That is, unless Zane’s some kind of walking Pepto Bismol.”
“Ha, yeah, about that...” I scrunched my face up, unsure even where to begin. I’d been caught in two lies. One, about being sick. The other about staying away from Zane. My stomach really was starting to feel nauseated after all. In fact, I probably could’ve thrown up right about then. “I didn’t know he was coming over. He surprised me. And yes, I’m feeling better now. Thanks for checking on me.”
Beth rolled her eyes but remained glued to the doorway. “I think the sickness went to your brain. What was he doing here, anyway? I thought you two were just coworkers.”
I pressed my lips together. She always had to say it like it was, didn’t she? She couldn’t give me even five seconds to float away on this blissful cloud. The sugary sweet sensation of his lips still lingered on mine, but I couldn’t think about that. Not now. Not with my friends both looking at me so accusingly.
“Well, actually, we decided that we were going to be secret friends.” I sat on the edge of my bed, keeping my gaze to the cream-colored carpet on the floor.
“Secret friends?” Charlotte scooted closer to me. “What kind of secret friends sneak out of their windows at night to meet up?”
I shot her a guilty smile. “The best kind?”
“You mean, the kind with benefits?” Beth crossed her arms and sunk angrily into the chair at my desk.