“Pretty much.”
Willow pushed himself off the door with a groan. “Okay, first things first. Congrats on getting with Cheryl.”
Patrick raised his mug in a weary salute. “Cheers.”
“You’re welcome. Now, do you want me to reassure you? Or do you want advice?”
He blinked at the therapist-y question. “Ah, I dunno. Advice, I guess?”
Willow nodded. “You shouldn’t have ultimatum-ed her. I know why you did. She was dragging her feet and you wanted results, but you backed her into a corner. Cheryl doesn’t like feeling trapped.”
Patrick frowned. “That’s not advice, that’s hindsight.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely, and I didn’t give her an ultimatum because I wanted to freak her out. I just didn’t know how I was gonna pretend to be her friend after everything that happened.”
“But you were hoping she’d say she’d be your girlfriend, weren’t you?”
He looked down at his half-drunk coffee. Yes. In the back of his mind, he’d hoped that. The same way he’d hoped flirting with Lola would make her jealous enough to touch him. His heart contracted. “So, I fucked it. That’s your advice?”
“No, mate. The fact she came to the gym? Made the first move? She’s got feelings for you.”
Patrick searched his friend’s face for signs he was telling him what he wanted to hear. “You think?”
“Yeah.”
Relief swept through him like painkillers. He grinned until he felt like his hungover face might crack. “Shit. You seriously think she likes me?”
Willow didn’t return the smile. “I do. But your problem isn’t getting Cheryl to like you. It’s that there’s a better chance of teaching a frog to tap dance than getting her to be your girlfriend.”
His smile vanished. “What?”
“It’s complicated, and some of what I know isn’t mine to tell.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Cheryl and Eden go way back, so, I know things about her I wouldn’t know otherwise. Things that make what you want from her pretty impossible.”
He suddenly felt a million times more hungover. “Is she… has she done something illegal?”
“No. I mean, drugs, but who hasn’t? I really can’t say more, Patty.”
“Fuck that! You made me tell you everything, asked me to go into details, and now you’re holding out?”
“Like I said, it’s not my business.”
Patrick snorted. “That’s convenient. Cheryl and I have been friends for years.”
“Yeah, and that’s safer, isn’t it? Being friends?”
Something about the phrase stirred his memory. Cheryl talking in the weights room. Couples never last, but friends are in your life forever.
“You’re saying Cheryl has commitment issues?”
“Mate, blokes with secret families have less commitment issues than Cheryl.”
“How do you know?”
