“Wow. She’s right,” Angelina chimed in. “You’ve never really been level-headed when it comes to Miller. Didn’t you immediately go back to your ex after the two of you slept together for the first time?”
“I remember that,” Rose said, tugging the elastic from her hair and smoothing her hands over the locks. “You said something about craving a relationship and intimacy—not just great sex.”
“Who knows? Maybe? I don’t remember that far back, but what does that have to do with anything?” I scoffed, pushing the glass of wine farther away. Rose rolled her eyes and snatched my glass, dumping the rest into hers and taking a sip.
“I need to figure out why I’m having this mini meltdown, not have my past brought into the equation.”
Tomorrow was going to suck. Even if I drank a gallon of water and took four ibuprofens, I’d still wake up with my head pounding worse than the drum line of a marching band.
“Just establishing a pattern.” Rose shrugged before heading to the kitchen and returning with a pint of Italian ice. “Listen, nothing is wrong with not wanting to do casual. I couldn’t do it.”
“Especially with someone as stupid hot as Miller.”
“What?” I asked, my eyes daring to Marietta as she snatched a spoon from Rose. “My brain is officially the consistency of oatmeal. Someone pass me a spoon or fully explain yourself.”
“Here’s the thing, babe. It’s painfully obvious that Miller is crazy about you,” Marietta said.
“It is,” Rose added, glancing at Marietta, who nodded. “Case in point, the bar. You drunk texted him, and he showed up a halfhour later looking to pummel the guy talking to you and then whisk you away into the sunset.”
“I don’t think that’s exactly what happened,” I huffed, tucking a rogue curl that had escaped the braid behind my ear.
“I think you’re seriously in denial.”
“But he’s never said anything!” I whined, tossing the pizza crust onto an empty plate. “He should have told me.”
“Oh, Emma,” Angelina said. “Maybe not with words, but he’s shown it with action— with how he treats you. You have to see that, right? No guy would do that for someone they just like. It’s his love language.”
I tilted my head and closed my eyes, thinking back to Miller. How he would bring me food after a long day. How he would whisper possessive words into my ears as he played my body like the finest Stradivarius.How he looked at me.
“Fudgity frick fuck.”
“There it is,” Rose said.
“We knew you’d figure things out eventually. We’d already planned on an intervention if you two weren’t together by Halloween. And you can’t deny it. That man is so handsome he makes me want to cry. It makes sense that you have real feelings for him. And we all have feelings about your feelings.” Marietta dunked the spoon into the carton, winking as she moaned around the bite.
“Yep. We have a whole chat dedicated to the unrequited love between Miller Hansen and Emma James,” Angelina said, waggling her brows before taking another slice of pizza.
“Whoa, there. Everyone needs to take two steps back. I don’t know whether to be more offended that you three openly chat about me or that you figured out that I might,potentially, haveminusculefeelings about one Miller Virginis Hansen.”
“Oh, great. So, you’re still in the denial phase. I thought you’d be halfway toward smitten by now,” Angelina said, huffing and rolling her eyes.
“Don’t be so harsh on her,” Rose said, patting my shoulder. “If Emma is just figuring out what we’ve known for months, she deserves a chance to let it all sink in.”
“There is nothing to figure out. This is nothing more than a stupid crush spawned from too many orgasms and bad dates. He just had some manly, possessive thing going on because he was over at the same time as my date was. I need to put it out into the universe so y’all can tell me to get my head out of my ass.”
“Ew. Gross, Em,” Angelina said, causing me to sigh and lay my head back on the coffee table.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Unless you’re into that sort of thing. I mean, a little butt play now and again can be quite pleasurable,” Rose said. I sat up and turned around as she winked, unable to hide the laughter.
It made me feel good, lighter as the four of us laughed at Rose’s admission to liking butt stuff. Not that I was opposed to a little of that action if I was comfortable with my partner and in the right mood, but I wouldn’t admit to that particular proclivity right now.
“What am I going to do?” I asked more to myself than the girls since they were lightyears ahead of my thinking. They stopped laughing, reaching out to grasp my shoulders.
“It sounds like he’s finally figured out how much you mean to him, Emma,” Rose said.
“I think I agree.”
