“Because it wouldn’t look good foryou.” I gave him a small smile. “Bad enough they know you’re friends with the weird guy who lives in the woods, right? But then to say you lied to protect me?” I shook my head. “They’re gonna wonder what you’re protecting me from. They’re gonna harass you night andday.”
Julian blew out a breath. “I hadn’t consideredthat.”
“Ifigured.”
“So… what do wedo?”
“We donothing.”
“Nothing.” Heblinked.
“Uh huh. But we do nothing asboyfriends.”
He pushed the fingers of both hands against his eyes. “MaybeIam the one having the break withreality.”
“‘Fraid not.” I grabbed both his wrists and pulled them away from his face, forcing him to look at me. “Here’s how this will work. You will go be a veterinarian in O’Leary. I’ll stay here and keep throwing wild parties with Honoria and She-Ra. On Saturdays, or any other day you want, you come here and party with us.Okay?”
His lips twitched in a smile. “This… sounds remarkably like what we currentlydo?”
“Exactly. Because O’Leary has nothing to do with us, Julian. I don’t care what they think, and I’m not gonna start now. But you, I care about. So we’ll play it this way, at least for awhile.”
He sighed, but nodded. “You’reright.”
“And later on, you can break up with me in some kind of incredibly dramatic display, in which you lament my lack of emotional availability, which I imagine is how your past romancesended.”
Julian snorted. “Yes, you know me sowell.”
“There’ll be tears, wailing, rending ofclothing.”
“Wow. Mine oryours?”
“Both?”
He nodded. “Definitelyboth.”
“And then you’ll forgive me after a suitable time, and we’ll go back to beingfriends.”
“Even after your emotional unavailability and the rending of clothes?” He whistled. “I’m kind of a saint.” He licked his bottom lip, and only then did I realize that I was still holding both of his hands in mine—that, in fact, I’d threaded our fingers together in a very boyfriendy sort of way. “But I’m glad we’ll still be friends,” he saidsoftly.
“Julian, I promise you, we willalwaysstill befriends.”
I’d avoided making promises to anyone for a really long time. No promises, no expectations, no disappointment. One day I’d tattoo that shit on myself. Butthis? Making a promise to Julian? That was a promise I knew I’dkeep.
