“Okay fine. We’ve been spending a bunch of time together over the past few weeks.”
“Naked time?”
“Are you ever serious?” I ask Jordan.
“Dude, I cut kids open for a living. My entire professional life is nothing but serious. That’s why I don’t want any other part of my life to be.”
“Fair point. And no, not naked time. Running time. Cooking dinner time. Hanging with her and Maddy time.”
Asher points a finger at me. “There has to be more than that. Even I didn’t jump straight from hanging out time to booking the Presidential Suite time, and I pretty much fell in love with Julie on sight.”
I chuckle because Asher might be president of simp-town but at least he’s self-aware.
“There’s been kissing. Lots of it.”
“Fuck. Yes. Tell us everything.” Jordan leans forward, elbows on his knees like a little kid getting ready for story time.
“That is everything.”
Ben has been curiously silent, but he finally speaks up.
“It isn’t everything, Jer. Like I said a few weeks ago, you don’t have to tell us, but there’s much more between you and Emmathan a crush and a few kisses. You’ve had feelings for her for a long time. It’s okay to say that.”
I blow out a breath, itchy at the thought of talking about feelings, dread pooling in my stomach at the thought of revealing too much. Feeling like I might explode if I don’t release the pressure valve, just a little.
“My feelings for her are…not casual. I’ve had them for a long time. Like, years long. And the past couple of weeks…” I trail off, wondering how to put the past few weeks into words.
“They’ve been special. We’ve been spending the kind of time together I’ve always wanted to spend with her. Talking the way I’ve always wanted to. And Maddy? Jesus, she’s something. I’ve never really hung out with a kid before, but I like hanging out with her and teaching her how to cook and listening to the things she says. She’s sweet and funny and curious, and watching her come out of her shell has been really fucking cool. And seeing Emma with her? Fuck, it’s beautiful. It’s like she was born to do this. And now I get to kiss her and touch her and it’s better than I thought it would be and I just want more but I don’t know if she would ever even want more with me and why would she?”
I stop talking, chest heaving. Turns out when I released the pressure valve just a little, I blew the top clean off and now all three of my friends are frozen on the couch, staring at me.
Asher recovers first.
“You’re in love with her.”
“I’m not.” My reaction is knee jerk, the word love making me want to get up and run.
“You are. You’re in love with both of them.”
I shake my head, trying to dislodge the wordlove,but now that it’s out there, it tumbles around my head, searching for a place to dig in.
“Why wouldn’t she want more with you?” Ben has a concerned look on his face as he studies me, and fucking hell, I need a save because I really don’t want to go there right now.
As if by divine intervention, my phone dings with a calendar reminder. I glance at it and jump up immediately.
“As fun as this has been, I have somewhere I need to be.”
“Yeah, you need to be at happy hour with us. That’s why we’re here,” Jordan says.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, I completely forgot about happy hour. Emma is taking the afternoon off to take Maddy to the first day of the fall afternoon hockey camp. She wants to learn to skate and I’m meeting them there.”
“You’re meeting them there?” Asher asks.
“Yeah.”
“At the ice rink?”
“That’s where the camp is.”
