Please don’t ask to who… please don’t ask to who…
“Delivery? Who are you delivering to?”
Damnit. I shouldn’t have said that. But I know even over the phone, she’ll call me out if I try to lie.
“Maddox.”
There’s silence, but somehow I can hear her smile. “You don’t say…”
“It’s not like that.”
“I never said it was.”
“He’s having a party for the kids at his foundation today and he ordered cookies and cupcakes. I was behind because of how busy I’ve been and I’m overly exhausted from this past week. So since they weren’t done in time for him to pick them up, I offered to deliver them. That’s it.”
“Doth protest quite loudly,” Shelby says. “Funny that I didn’t ask anything and yet you felt the need to information dump.”
“I was getting ahead of your follow-up question.”
“Bold of you to assume I was going to have one,” she says. “But since we’re on the topic of Maddox, how is your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say with a little too much fight.
“Ah… doth protesting again…”
“Why are you saying ‘doth’ so much?”
“It’s a fun word. Try it sometime,” she says. “Now, back to the good stuff. Has the youngin’ asked you out again?”
I let my head fall into the window. “He hasn’t.”
“Are you disappointed in that?”
“What? No. Why would you ask that?”
“I don’t know, maybe because you let out a sigh before you answered?”
“I did not sigh.”
“Fine. I must be hearing things. No one sighed and he’s not your boyfriend. Got it. All the words you’re saying are one hundred percent the truth”
I might’ve sighed, but I’m not going to admit it. Because Maddox is the kind of guy who makes you sigh. I never would’ve thought to describe someone like that, but for Maddox, it fits.
I mean, what’s therenotto sigh about? Between his good looks, his demeanor, and the fact that he’s a good person, the man is a real life heartthrob. And that’s not even tapping into the memory of our night together. How safe I felt in his arms after pouring my heart out through a song. How I can still taste the tequila that lingered on his tongue. I can feel his hands holding onto me as he pinned me against the door. How my body came alive when he entered me for the first time.
And yes, I might’ve sighed a little because he hasn’t asked me out again. I’m not even sure I can say yes. I mean, I can’t. I know this. But does he even want to? Sure, there have been moments where I thought he wanted to kiss me. Little things he said. Is he really respecting my boundaries or did I push him too hard in the friend zone and now the opportunity might never come when I’m ready for it? If I’m ever ready for it?
So yeah… sigh.
“You know,” Shelby says, breaking through my thoughts that were about to head into PG-13 territory. “Youcoulddate him if you wanted to.”
That gets a laugh out of me. “You know I can’t,” I say, wondering why we’re having this conversation again. We have itweekly during our calls with Hannah when she always tries to convince me to give Maddox a chance. “I’ve told both you and Hannah a dozen times I can’t.”
“Not really.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you’ve said why you shouldn’t. You’ve never told me why youactuallycan’t.”
