“You and me?”Us.
“Yeah.” She began to peel at the label on her bottle. “I don’t normally do things this secretively. It’s not who I am.”
“Are you enjoying it so far?”
“You don’t need me to answer that,” she said quietly.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it.” Needed to at this point.
“Yes, I’m enjoying… sneaking around. Even though it feels naughty.”
I tried not to focus on how the word ‘naughty’ sounded coming from her innocent mouth, or the effect it had on me. “Maybe this is who you really are, you’ve just never let yourself meet this version of Phoebe Turner before now.”
“Are you saying I’m actually a liar and a cheat deep down?”
“A cheat? Who are you cheating on?” If she mentioned another guy back home, I didn’t know how I’d react, even though I was the one supposed to be keeping this thing between us casual over here.
“No one.” She shook her head again, thankfully, as her brows knitted together again. “Although I kinda feel like I’m cheating on myself and the promise I made before I flew out here.”
“The no men rule?”
“Yep, Shouldn’t the promises you make to yourself be the ones you stick to the most?”
“As long as those promises are things that really benefit your life, sure.”But me, Phoebe? I’ll be a good thing, I swear.
“That’s the problem. Before coming here, I really did think it was for the best that I kept men out of my life for a while. After what Rob did…” She trailed off.
“The ex?” So, that was the bastard’s name. My nostrils flared, but I just gripped my bottle tighter, hoping she didn’t notice. “Not all guys are like him.”
“The ones I’ve met are.”
“What about me?”
“I don’t know you yet.”
The look in her eyes shouldn’t have made my chest ache for her, but the thing I was slowly learning about Phoebe was that she wore her heart on her sleeve whether she wanted to or not. Right then, she wanted to trust me, but she also expected me to disappoint her sometime soon.
Maybe I saw through everything Phoebe tried to hide because she and I were the same. Two people lost, always trying to do what pleased everyone around us instead of doing what made our lives better. Two people who needed to start putting themselves first like everyone else seemed to do so easily.
I took another drink of my beer, then dropped it down to the table. “Want to know another little secret, then?”
“Always.”
“I had a similar rule to yours in place before I flew out here.”
That scowl of confusion was back, and she sat forward in her chair as she idly continued to peel at the corners of that damn label. “You had a no men rule in place?”
“No, smart arse. More like a no anybody rule. This holiday was supposed to be about Andy and me rebuilding a few bridges. Getting away from the rat race, from everyone back home—his parents, his sister, ya know—figuring out if our friendship could survive what I’d started to worry I’d broken.”
“Henry.” She said my name full of sympathy. “You did the right thing with Andy’s sister, even if he can’t see it yet. You can’t beat yourself up over it forever. Sometimes things just… don’t work out.”
“I know, but he means a lot to me, even when he’s being a giant dick, and despite what people think about me and this, I dunno, persona of mine, when I give a shit about someone, I really give a shit about someone. It’s not a fickle thing I give up on easily.”
“That’s an admirable trait to have.”
“Don’t be thinking I’m a nice guy or anything.”
“You? No chance.” She smiled, never taking her eyes off mine, and I didn’t mind the way she studied me. “Seems like we’ve both broken the same rule, then, though don’t think I’m as natural as it as you are. The rule breaking, I mean. I may need some guidance along the way.”
