She spoke up. "But you don't really know her. She's like my best friend, and Iknowshe'd do anything for me."
I glanced out the side windows. "Uh-huh."
"She would," Amber insisted.
"And you've been 'best friends' for how long?"
"I dunno. A few weeks."
Amber went through best friends the way hookers went through condoms. It always ended the same. One way or another, the friend would show their ass, and Amber would finally move on, onlyaftergetting hurt.
"Weeks?" I said. "That long, huh?"
"It's not like that. You'll see." Her voice picked up steam. "She and I, we're gonna make it up to you. Like a surprise, but only better."
In life, there wasn't a lot that scared me. But this was a truly terrifying prospect. "Forget it. There's nothing to make up."
"But Iwantto," she insisted. "And so does Brittney. She feels really bad about it."
I scanned the front sidewalk. "Uh-huh."
"The other night, we could tell you were mad." She hesitated. "And you hated that restaurant. We could tell."
It wasn't the restaurant that I hated. It was the way things played out. "Nah," I said. "That place was alright."
"And then, there was that fight outside." Amber's voice grew quiet. "And later, the other stuff."
I knew what she meant. At the end of the night, they'd gotten pissy when I kept them in the friend zone.
Listening, I was still watching the windows. In the shrubbery just outside the open front gate, I caught movement. I leaned forward. Damn it. Just a squirrel.
"I mean," Amber continued, "I know I got kind of clingy at the end. But I get it. Honest."
I shook my head. "You get what?"
"That you just don't think I'm pretty enough."
Damn it. "That's not it."
"I mean, I know you've been with models and stuff, so…" She let the sentence trail off.
"Yeah? So what?"
"So I can see where someone like me would be kind of a step down."
"No," I told her. "You'd be a step up." It wasn't a lie. Amber was every bit as beautiful. And more to the point, she was a genuinely nice person in spite of her shitty taste in friends. Me, included.
"You're just saying that," she said.
"No. I'm not."
"Then why aren't you into me?" she asked. "I mean, we have fun together. And now there's Brittney. You thinkshe'spretty, right? And she's hot for you, so–"
"So what do you want?" I said. "A quick fuck? A threesome? You want to cross that off your bucket-list?"
I knew I was being a dick. But Brittney was trouble, and I'd be an even bigger dick if I took Amber up on whatever she was offering. I liked her. But I didn't love her, not like that. And if I fucked her now – alone or with a friend – she'd end up joining a long line of girls who hated my guts.
If she hated me, I could deal with it. But if she hated herself, well, I didn't want that on my shoulders.