“Because you told me it wasn’t like that between you two, and I believed you, so, after Christmas dinner, when wine-drunk Margot bet me fifty bucks that the two of you were fucking, I took her up on that bet because I didn’t knowyou were currently having sex in my driveway.”
“Not in the driveway,” Mason reminded him with a shit-eating grin.
“Literally not the point,” Luis mocked. “The point, my friend, is that that girl was ogling you all night and everyone saw it—even me—but you said it wasn’t a thing because she doesn’t do the very thing you do all the time, the thing you expressly said you wouldn’t do with her, which is fall hard.”
“I know,” Mason groaned, hiding his face behind his shirt under the pretext of wiping off his sweat with the hem. The thing was… he thought he’d fallen hard before, but this thing with Sawyer—this thing that wasn’t even a real thing—felt more real than anything he’d ever had before.
He waited for the meathead next to them to finish his set—and weirdly sexual grunting—before continuing. It was hard to have a sincere conversation about feelings when the guy next to you sounded like he was one hip thrust away from busting. But now that Mason had started talking, he couldn’t stop. Coming clean to his best friend was the emotional equivalent of hitting the panic button on the looping treadmill of his thoughts.
“I just—” He blew out a breath, sitting up and staring at the wall as he dredged up the one thing that hadn’t slipped out of him when he rambled the whole story to Luis. “I feel like she might. There was this moment…” Her face swam before his, her grounding presence at Christmas when Bex accidentally spilled the LA secret. Therehad been a fierceness in her gaze that had nothing to do with their usual teasing. It was like her edges, the ones she kept sharp so no one could get too close, had softened. Like she’d let down her walls long enough to let him in, so she could safeguard him behind them.
Luis nodded, and Mason realized he’d said all of that aloud. “And you can’t just ask her.”
It wasn’t a question, but Mason shook his head in response anyway.
“Do you want my opinion or a sounding board?” Luis asked quietly.
Mason drew one knee to his chest in a half-hearted attempt to pretend he was stretching. “Opinion,” he said at long last. He was fairly certain he had the answer to the question he still had yet to articulate, but with Luis, he could hand him a word salad, and his friend would know what he meant.
“The way I see it,” Luis grunted as he moved into a new stretch position. “You have three options: walk away—”
“No,” Mason ground out. It was the smartest option. Walking away was the only way to protect himself. But he was already in too deep for that.
“I know,” Luis said. “So, that leaves asking her—”
They exchanged a long look. Asking Sawyer if she had feelings for him after they’d expressly stated they weren’t doing that and she’d practically ghosted him after they hooked up in his car… Yeah, that wasn’t an option either.
“Or wait.”
Mason hung his head, resting his forehead against his knee. “That makes me feel like a creep who can’t take no for an answer.”
He could feel Luis’s frown without looking. “You are not that guy. Sometimes, we fall for people we don’t expect to—like your best friend’s older sister—” Mason cut him a wry look, and Luis smirkedunapologetically. “And when that happens, all you can do is love them and wait and pray it works out, because on the off chance that it does… it’s worth it.”
When Mason didn’t respond, Luis continued, and Mason had to admit his optimism was infectious. “Besides, aren’t y’all almost done?”
Mason nodded numbly, dread squashing the small balloon of hope that had been building. The last thing on their list—at least, the ones they figured out how to do, both of them in a standoff over who would do the dramatic musical grand gesture—was New Year’s Eve. There was also the New Year’s brunch at Lily’s after that, but that wasn’t a list item—though he was sure Sawyer would find a way to make it a list item. She always did. He was really beginning to resent that list.
“Being done is a good thing,” Luis rushed out. “When the list is done, y’all have no obligation to keep doing this unless you both want to. So when she stays, as I have no doubt she will…” He trailed off, allowing Mason to draw the natural conclusion.
He prayed it were that simple. He wasn’t going to pressure Sawyer into anything. He never meant for this to happen, but now that it had, he wanted it. He wanted her. Badly. He wanted her in a way he’d never fathomed. Maybe their stupid list was working, because he didn’t feel the need to shower her with romantic overtures the way he normally would. He wanted to wake up with her, wanted to do all the things he thought he hated—like running errands at IKEA—and finding out he didn’t mind them so long as he was with her. He wanted her in the quiet, in the spaces between the big moments. His eyes fluttered shut, and he took a series of controlled breaths. He just hoped she wanted it, too.
“Oh,” Luis added as an afterthought. “And stop hooking up with her.”
Mason’s brows rose. “Excuse you.”
Luis smirked. “Trust me. Right now, she not only has the cake, but she’s eating it with a large glass of milk that you gave her for free.”
Mason pulled a face. “You just mixed so many metaphors.”
“You know what I mean,” Luis chuckled. “Besides, friends with benefits isn’t really your style. Especially when that’s not what it is for you.” Luis widened his eyes, blinking accusatorially.
His friend was right. He couldn’t keep hooking up with Sawyer when it meant something to him and nothing to her. Or maybe it did mean something to her. Who knew? Not Mason.
He sighed, feeling deflated. “What about LA? The whole point of doing this with Sawyer was to stay single. The tabloids are only just now moving on. I don’t want to give them anything new to write about, much less drag her into it—” He cut himself off, running a hand through his sweat-slicked hair in frustration.
His eyes flew open as Luis clapped him on the back. Hard.
“Falling in love sucks,” Luis said frankly. “You’ll both figure it out. One step at a time.”
