“I guess I should apologize for flipping out on you earlier,” she says.
“I’m sorry I kissed you.” I lick my lips and keep my eyes straight ahead so she can’t see the lie in my eyes.
“It’s okay. Truly. I overreacted.”
“You didn’t.” I turn to her. “If you didn’t want me to kiss you, or touch you, you should have reacted that way. There’s no other way to react.”
“I didn’t say that.” She bites her lip and looks away.
“How’s this thing with Brian going?”
“It’s going.” She smiles. I love to see her smile, but I hate that he’s the reason for it. “How’s the thing with Rebecca?”
“Could be better.” I shrug a shoulder. Could be better if it was her I liked, I should say, but don’t. “You still haven’t given me more rules to follow. You know, to woo her off her feet.”
“Ah, well, flowers,” she says, checking one off the list. “Words. Women like words. But you have to mean them. You can’t go around saying things you don’t mean.” She shoots me a look. “What else . . . touch, women like to be touched, but not overboard like grabbing her ass in public without having that level of comfort, you know? Just hand-holding kind of things. Breakfast. Or any meal, really. Food is always good. Loyalty.” She searches my eyes. “It’s important that you’re not fucking around behind our backs. Listen to her when she speaks, even if she’s talking about things that bore you. And finally, make her feel like she’s important.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” She smiles with a shrug.
“Okay.”
“Okay.” She turns and starts walking toward the door.
“So, you’re going home with Brian again?”
“Huh?” She glances at me over her shoulder.
“You said you went home with Brian last night and things are looking like they’re going well between you two, so I guess I assumed . . . ”
“Oh. Nah. I need to sleep in my bed tonight.”
“I don’t know when you want to leave, but I’m getting ready to head out,” I say, hoping against all odds that she’ll leave as well.
“I’ll come with.”
And suddenly, all is right in the world again.
Chapter Nineteen
Rocky
Evidentially, tequila makes my head spin and does not make me sleepy, but somehow, I feel like I’m finally falling asleep, when I hear my bedroom door open and shut and feel the bed dip beside me.
“Rocky,” Maverick whispers.
“Hm?”
“You looked beautiful tonight.”
“What?” I blink in the dark and turn to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“You looked beautiful tonight.”
“Okay. Thanks. Why didn’t you say this earlier?” I yawn.
“Because I’m an idiot.”
“Agreed.” I laugh, propping my face on my hand. My blinds are open, so my room has an orange glow from the streetlight and I can sort of see Mav. “I take it you couldn’t sleep?”
“No.” He sighs heavily and mimics my pose.
“What’s up?”
“Do you really regret the kiss?”
My heart bumps my chest a little harder. “What?”
“The kiss. Do you really regret it that much?”
“No, but you obviously did.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because you apologized last time and when I got here, you were in your room with someone, playing that J Cole album.”
“Jesus Christ,” he mutters, falling onto his back. He looks up at me. “Are you serious right now?”
“Yeah.”
“I was with Erwin and Ray. Colson’s a fucking moron. That’s how rumors start.”
“Oh.”
“You thought I was with a girl?” He sits up rapidly. I do the same.
“Yeah.”
“After I kissed you like that? After I touched you? After you were all over me? You thought I’d go and sleep with someone else?”
“Yeah.” I shrug. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Rocky.” He shakes his head. “You’re my best friend. Before anything else, you’re my best friend.”
“I know,” I whisper, licking my lips and nodding. “Is that why you wouldn’t go further?”
“I . . . ” He exhales heavily, glancing away momentarily. “Yes and no.”
“Yes and no? This should be good.” I cross my arms.
“I don’t mean it in a bad way.” He brings a hand up, his thumb caressing the side of my face. “I just don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”
“But what if I don’t care, Maverick? What if I want to put myself in a position to get hurt? It’s my choice.”
“As your best friend, I would never let you do that.”
I close my eyes and relish the feel of his calloused fingers on my face. He’s never touched my face like this before. Not really anyway. Maybe once, back when we were sixteen and I fractured my ankle and he was trying to calm me down while the paramedics arrived at the soccer park. Still, it feels different this time. Probably because of that damn kiss that he regrets so much.
“Rocky.” The way he says my name, uneven and uncertain, makes me open my eyes and look into his again. “That kiss? It was magical, but if we go any further, it would change everything.”