“Where would I be? We don’t have practice, and Lily’s working.”
That’s right; Sundays are our rare days off, and Lily likes to pick up a shift at the coffee shop just down the road on Sunday afternoons because that’s what works best with her school schedule. Then they like to have a date night Sunday evening, without fail.
It’s kind of cute when you think about it. For the first time ever, I’m a little jealous when I think about what it would be like to have a regular girl and weekly date nights.
Fuck.
But not just any girl. No, there’s only one girl on my mind, and I’ve sworn we’re just friends until I’m blue in the face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I answer, stubbornly.
He scrubs his hand down his face and throws his legs off the side of the bed, quickly standing and throwing on pajama pants. Then he walks past me and towards the kitchen. “Then why do you look like someone just pissed in your Cheerios?”
I follow after him. He goes to the cabinets and grabs two glass cups before setting them down on the island and going to the fridge. “You want juice, or Lily made this new protein shake for me that’s pretty good.”
I sit on the barstool at the island and say, “Protein shake, please.”
He quickly grabs it and pours it into the two cups in front of us, sliding one over to me.
“Now, what's really up?”
I take a sip, just trying to pull my thoughts together, something I find myself doing a lot of lately. “I don’t know. I screwed up.”
“With Millie?”
“Yeah.”
He tilts his head and watches me. “How so?”
This is the part I’m unsure about. I don’t want to break Millie’s confidence in me, and it’s her story to tell, but I need to talk this out with someone. Especially before tonight because I need my head on straight so I don’t screw this up again.
She said she forgives me, but I still have a sinking feeling in my gut that a bit of the trust that we were building is gone, and I’m not sure if I can earn it back.
“She told me something—pretty personal—and I—”
“You what?”
I swallow, my saliva thick with regret. “I kind of threw it back in her face.” His eyebrows raise sharply, and I quickly add, “Not intentionally or with any kind of malice. It just—it just came out, and now I don’t think she trusts me.”
He grabs his cup and starts walking towards the living room that’s just off the kitchen. I swivel around in the chair. “You aren’t going to say anything?” I ask in disbelief. I mean, I really expected him to have some solid advice for me.
“I’m thinking.”
Oh! I hop off the chair and follow after him. “That bad?”
“I don’t know. How mad was she at you?” he asks as he sits down on the sofa. I take the chair next to the sofa.
“Mad enough to leave the party with Beau.”
That has his head snapping up to mine. “Damn, bro. Have you talked to her since?”
“Yeah, and she agreed to hang out tonight.” Probably only because I enticed her with an item on her bucket list, but what matters is she still agreed.
“That’s a good sign.”
“I know, but I can’t shake this feeling.”
