“No, Birdy. You told anyone who would listen that I was the love of your life and we were going to make love,” I reminded her.
“Christ,” she muttered, rubbing her eyebrows. “Not my finest night. Will delicious cookies make you forget that?”
“Nope. We were going to eat the cookies anyway,” Mikey teased. “Hang on, let me put on some mood music.”
He pulled out his phone and played “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz II Men. Colton and Mikey started slow dancing. Kitty cackled, her face going red.
“Hey, Guy, if you don’t want to make love to her, I could step in,” Mikey said with a wink to Kitty.
“No. No. No one is making love to Kitty,” I said firmly, shielding her from their view. Kitty saw how uncomfortable I was and piled on.
“I don’t know. We could have fun, couldn’t we, Mikey?” she suggested, peering around me. I shut it right down.
“Take your cookies and get out. Kitty’s got homework to finish,” I said, shoving a laughing Colton and Mikey out of the kitchen.
“Night, Kitty,” Mikey sang with a flirty wave. I could have killed him.
Over cookies and milk, Kitty and I finished her last few math problems. Then we talked and did dishes. And couldn’t stop talking. And then it was 1 a.m.
“What time is your first class tomorrow?” I asked.
“Not until 10. What about you?”
“Same. And I don’t have practice until the afternoon. Wanna just stay over? I’m tired,” I offered with a yawn.
“No, I can walk home,” she said, packing up her backpack.
I put my hand on her backpack. “No, you can stay here. Spinninanight.” I said it with a little smirk. I knew she’d cave to that. That’s what she and Frank always called it in their West Virginia accents. It was years before I realized it was supposed to be “spending the night.”
“I don’t have a toothbrush or jammies,” she protested, cracking a little at my joke.
“Colton’s mom shops at Costco. We’ve got toothbrushes out our ears. And I’ll give you some sweats again. Come on. Slumber party. It’ll be fun.”
Kitty laughed. “Fine, but I want your rattiest t-shirt and grossest shorts. I like soft things.”
“Deal.”
Kitty dressed in my worn-out clothes and waiting for me in my bed did nothing for my “are we still just friends” question. I was playing with fire. Kitty probably didn’t remember, but the way she looked at me while we were together over the weekend was unmistakable. Something stirred deep inside me when she looked into my eyes and whispered, “You’re the love of my life. We’re meant to be together. Make love to me, Guy.”
It wasn’t like I wasn’t attracted to Kitty or hadn’t ever thought about what it would be like to fuck her. I totally had. For years. But even with our occasional kissing when we were in high school, it felt like we were in “just friends” territory in college. But I wasn’t sure I wanted it to stay that way.
It was confusing. We’d even said I love you in our hungover haze, but as friends. Right?
And there I was, crawling in bed with her again. I loved torturing myself.
I got in the bed, facing her like we did.
“Hey.”
“Hey. You still have chocolate breath,” she said, booping my nose.
“I brushed my teeth! You’re smelling your own chocolate breath,” I objected.
“I’m a good brusher. You’re a boy. You’re probably not as thorough,” she said, all smug.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, reaching out to tickle her. She squealed and slapped my hand, squirming away from me. I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back closer. Her eyes searched mine as her smile softened. Fuck, I wanted to kiss her. My heart tookoff and my stomach fluttered. But I got too nervous. I started blabbing instead.
“Hey, you know those skeletons they found in Pompeii? The ones that were curled into each other?” I asked.
