There. I’d said it. I’d said, out loud, to Devin’s face that I thought dating him was a good thing.
… it maybe wasn’t the definitive statement it’d felt like a second ago. Now that I replayed it, it sounded like the normal kind of thing friends would say to each other.
Devin laughed, and everything was okay again. “Thanks,” he murmured, snuggling closer to me, shivering a little in the breeze blowing past. “Anyone who’s ever broken up with you was making a mistake, too,” he added. “You’re too good for all of them.”
I’m not even good enough for you, I thought, but I didn’t say it. Devin was opening up to me, and I didn’t want to risk making him stop.
“Not sure about that,” I said instead, which seemed like the kind of thing to say in circumstances like this.
Devin slipped his fingers into my hand, curling them around the tips of my own fingers.
And there was no one around to see it.
If I’d been better at reading people I might have expected the kiss on the cheek that came next, the softest brush of lips that I barely registered until I felt the warm breath that came with it.
I didn’t say anything—I couldn’t—and neither did Devin.
He just sat beside me, the two of us listening to the birds singing in the sunset, his hand loose in mine.
14
Devin
I’d somehow managedto work myself into a position where I was settled happily in front of the campfire, licking toasted marshmallow off my fingers, with my feet in Morgan’s lap. Where he wasmassaging my ankle.
I never intended to move again.
“Lookat the two of them,” Alex said. “Morgan treats Devin like a goddamn princess.”
“Do you maybe mean a prince?” Morgan asked.
“I could pull off a tiara,” I said. “I could be a princess.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow, but didn’t stop massaging my ankle. “I’d support you if you decided you wanted to be a princess,” he said after a moment.
“Cuuuute,” Marta enthused, passing a toasted marshmallow to Julie. “So supportive. What a good boyfriend.”
I had to force myself not to laugh. Everyone but Brad knew we were faking it now, and now that they were all in on it, they were making the most of playing it up.
I didn’t hate it.
“Best boyfriend,” I said as Morgan held another marshmallow out toward the fire.
“This one’s pretty okay, too,” Alex said, nudging Chris gently.
“Pretty okay,” Chris scoffed, but nothing could have stopped him smiling at that. “Can’t believe you’d say that about a man who’s planning to propose to you tonight.”
Everything stopped dead.
Julie and Marta’s giggling between themselves, Morgan’s ankle massage and marshmallow toasting, even the game Brad was playing on his phone. All of it forgotten.
Everyone looked at Chris, who was already rubbing the back of his neck.
“I imagined that going very differently,” he said, cautiously turning his gaze to Alex. “Umm. No pressure? I won’t be mortified if you say no, I know we haven’t talked about it, it’s just… I know it’s you. I knew it was you the moment we met. And I can wait however long you want me to, but… I’m ready now.”
Alex blinked, opened his mouth, blinked again, closed his mouth, and swallowed visibly.
The marshmallow he’d been toasting dropped into the fire, flared for a second, and then crumbled into ash.
