“Of course.”
“Do you really think that, or are you just saying that?”
“I’m just saying that.” He smiled. “As your best friend, my job is to feed you false hope whenever you ask for it.”
“Fuck you, Grayson.”
“Kyle!” His wife called out from the bedroom. “Stop cursing!”
“Okay, wait a minute.” Grayson tapped his chin. “Let’s pretend you did tell me about her. Why is she relevant all of a sudden?”
“You know how in that movie, The Notebook, Noah never stopped pining for Allie? Like, he actually waited for her to write back?”
“Why do you know the names of the characters, Kyle?”
“Or how in When Harry Met Sally, they were friends for all that time without realizing they belonged together?”
“I’m getting really concerned now.” He raised his eyebrow. “You’ve always hated romance movies.”
“I’m serious, Grayson.” I looked at him. “I loved her—still do…I wanted her to be with me. I never thought that she would ever have the audacity to move on with someone else before talking to me again.”
“The audacity?”
“It’s a long story, but we made a pact before we graduated … She could’ve at least sent a text saying she was serious about this guy, even though I don’t think she is. Something was off in her eyes at the engagement party.”
“Why were you at her engagement party?”
“I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time.”
“Jesus, Kyle.” He let out a breath and motioned for me to hand over the baby. Then he leaned back against the cushions.
“Is this the part where you’re about to give me some advice?” I asked.
“You didn’t come here for advice,” he said. “You want me to tell you that whatever you have planned to get her back isn’t stupid and reckless.”
“Is it?”
“You haven’t told me what it is yet, but from the look in your eyes, I don’t think I want to know.”
“You don’t.”
“On a scale of slight explosion to hydrogen bomb, how much damage will it do to your personal brand?”
“It’s fucking nuclear.”
“Is this girl worth it?”
“Beyond worth it.”
He let out a breath. “You want to decipher all the lies you told me about senior year now or after you set the bomb off?”
“Now.”
Courtney: Now
Present Day
Seattle, Washington
I can’t believe Kyle had the audacity to show up to my party …
I pressed the elevator button for my floor and stared at the ring on my finger. It was exactly like the one I’d pinned on a Pinterest board years ago, but it felt too heavy.
And far too soon …
Although I’d been friends with Graham for the past couple of years, we were still getting to know each other. Or so I thought.
Our schedules were so hectic, that our dates were mostly stolen moments in passing. My never-ending day shifts conflicted with his late nights; his international travels always came unannounced and in the middle of an important assignment, and our sex …
I downed the rest of my espresso at the thought of it. It was practically nonexistent.
Even though our kisses could last for what felt like hours, and there were nights when I never wanted them to end, he never took things any further.
He always led me close to the edge—until the anticipation raced through my veins, and then he always let me down.
“I want to wait until I know you’re mine one hundred percent,” he’d say. So, I’d slip into the bathroom and use my vibrator to finish the job.
“You have now arrived,” The elevator’s system sounded, drawing me out of my thoughts. “The Fine Print Publishing. Floor seventy.”
I stepped onto the floor, grateful that no one else was here six hours early. I hadn’t slept all weekend, and whenever I tried to shut my eyes, memories of Kyle flooded my brain, and tears fell past my cheeks.
As much as I hated him for being the second element to that awful surprise party, I couldn’t deny that I still thought about him quite often. There were still nights when I fell asleep with my fingers pressed against my clit, drifting to sleep after fantasizing about him having his way with me again and again. Nights when I couldn’t help replaying the start of the friendship again and again.
Plopping into my chair, I turned off my phone and pulled out my notes on this season’s baseball predictions. I managed to make it through a few projects in peace before my colleagues started trickling into the office.
As I was making my personal list, someone tossed a ream of paper into the air. Then, someone else rang the giant iron bell at the front of the room.
The silly code for all hands-on deck.
Grey and black suits ran in and out of cubicles. Every phone on every desk was suddenly ringing.
I unplugged mine from the wall and continued working on baseball.
The last time there was this much hysteria in the office, LeBron James announced that he was returning to play basketball in Cleveland.