“He’s been on your mind a lot,” Jamie said.
“Well, he’s annoying!”
“Maybe too annoying?” Silas suggested.
“Maybe.”
“Tell us what happened.”
I crossed my arms on the table and leaned in. “Well, he planned this amazing date. I was sure it was just to prove a point, but then…”
I filled my friends in on every sweet, swoony, sexy detail—minus the actual sex, anyway. Silas encouraged me to keep going, but I shook my head.
“You get the picture.”
Silas held up his hands as if framing a photo. “But notclearlyenough. I need more information.”
Jamie swatted his arm, laughing. “Stop.”
“Do you think I’m making a huge mistake, thinking there’s any chance this could go somewhere real?”
“You won’t know if you don’t try,” Jamie said softly.
Silas was more cynical, so I turned to him, braced for a hard truth. He popped a doughnut hole in his mouth and chewed, dragging out the suspense.
“Well?” I prompted, ready to hang on his every word. I wasn’t sure why I thought Silas would have the answer. Maybe I was just desperately hoping someone would.
“Sorry,” he said.
My heart fell. Shit. Of course, he didn’t think it would work.
“We can’t answer that for you,” he continued.
I slumped in my seat. “That’s it? You kept me on the edge of my seat for,we can’t answer that?”
“Well, we can’t,” he said with a laugh. “But I will say that there’s an intensity to the rivalry you and Damon have had these past few years. It started small, then snowballed, until you were constantly thinking about each other.”
“Sure, to plot revenge,” I said.
“Mm-hmm. Still, it’s not totally surprising that there might have been a little more going on under the surface.”
“Youdidtalk about him a lot,” Jamie said. “Like,somuch.”
“It had a fuck him or kill him vibe for sure,” Silas murmured.
Wow. Okay. So, my friends weren’t even that surprised. Did that mean…
“So you’re saying there’s a chance this could be, like, athing?”
Jamie nudged me. “He didn’t have to plan you a mega romantic date. He took that as a challenge for a reason.”
“And he definitely didn’t have to be jealous of all your dates,” Silas said. “But he was.”
I nodded slowly. “It’s scary though, because I don’t think he knew why he was doing those things.”
“It’s a lot to wrap his head around, I’m sure.” Silas frowned. “I wish we could tell you everything would work out perfectly, or warn you away if it wasn’t going to. But we don’t know him half as well as you do.”
I bit my bottom lip. “I just worry I won’t see it until it’s too late. That I’ll let him string me along like Zachary did, tellingme to just wait a little longer, to just give him time and trust him…all the while keeping me as a stupid piece on the side.”
