My hand still burned despite being absent of his. I looked up. “And Evie?”

“I don’t like lying to my mom, but I will if you don’t feel comfortable mentioning we are friends and only that.” He stepped forward. “Please. I’m begging you. This is me begging.”

He started to get on his knees before I grabbed him and forced him up.

He chuckled. “I’m joking.”

Clearly, his need for friendship was desperate—clearly.

But wasn’t mine as well?

I’d been so lonely.

“Only friends?” I asked him, needing to be sure. “I really can’t have anything else right now.”

I wasn’t ready for anything else. I think I could take being Ramses’s friend.

But his lover?

God, I hadn’t known him long, but I felt he literally had the capability to destroy my entire heart. It’d be a blazing fire with him, so good and hot all the way in.

But on the way down?

Even worse, if I let him go there.

He approached me again, his smile down on me. He lifted a hand. “Thumb war you for it? I win, you stay and be my friend. You win, I walk away.”

He’d sucked at this game before but offered anyway.

I raised my hand. “You promise?”

He didn’t have to say, our hands touching. He counted us down, and I didn’t think it mattered who won. We both knew I’d call him back like I had that night.

Because I sucked at this game too.

Chapter Fourteen

Bri

The foray into Ramses’s and my friendship started with texts. Just texting. He’d send me these meme things he found funny throughout his day. Completely ridiculous, but I went along with them because they were funny in how often hilariously outlandish they were. They made sense with, well, his age and his laid-back personality.

Don’t do the age thing.

I didn’t for the most part, not really a thing. In any sense, we were friends now, and only that. I’d been hesitant when, during one of those ridiculous text messages, he sent me one about running. Apparently, he liked to run, just like me. He tended to go in the evenings since that was the best time for him after work and school.

And so that was how that happened.

Ramses and I running.

Ramses and I exercising together like actual friends.

Go figure, right?

I’d been hesitant at first. Texting had been one thing but meeting up entirely another. He assured me there’d be no funny business, and since his running schedule matched my preference, I decided to try it out. Doing so also let Evie off the hook. She hated running outside during winter anyway and did prefer mornings.

“Oh, I don’t mind, dear. Have fun!”

I’d literally gotten her blessing. I left out the detail I was running with her son, and at this point, I wasn’t sure there really was a lie. I was running with a friend, a platonic friend at that. I could run with a guy and it not be a thing.

Tags: Eden O'Neill Court University Romance
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