He shrugs. “I’m not sure if I should ask Kayla what’s going on. We’re not that close, so she might not tell me. You know how hard it is for me not to get in the middle of other people’s business.”
“Sure do.” I smirk at him. “That’s kinda how we got in this mess in the first place. You just had to meddle in my dating life.”
“Speaking of.” He steers us toward the edge of his bed. I take a seat next to him as he asks, “How was the date?”
“It was pretty fun, but we agreed to be platonic,” I say. “They had a karaoke machine, and I belted my ass off toReputationall night.”
“The superior album,” he agrees. “Why did you agree to be platonic?”
“She said she saw us as just friends.” I shrug. “Which was completely fine. Kinda took the edge off, really. I didn’t have to spend the whole night worrying if I was datable enough.”
“Bummer.” He doesn’t seem that bummed, but then again, neither do I. “You’re both bi gamers. I really thought you’d hit it off.”
“Maybe it would’ve bummed me out when we first made this deal, because I still don’t understand what makes someone friend material versus romance material, but it was for the best.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” he says. “That’s one down, three more to go.”
“Speaking of, when are we going onourdate?”
“Patience, woman.” His smirk lifts the side of his mouth. “You still have two more contenders before you get to me.”
“About that.” I bring my legs up on the bed, scooting back to better face him. “One of my matches canceled, so I’m tapping out at three dates—Anerie, Nathaniel, and you.”
“You don’t have to tap out at three,” he tells me. “If you want to keep exploring your options, we can extend the timeline and I can keep helping you.”
“I don’t need more options,” I tell him. “It’ll be between you and Nathaniel. That makes the most sense anyway, since I’ve spent the most time with both of you.”
Nathaniel is the easy road. My parents already like him, and he’s over complicated romantic relationships. He’s charming, handsome, and worth more of a chance than I’ve given him so far.
But who am I trying to fool, here? He’s not Julian.
I’m this close to caving, if only because all my fears about him dissipate a little bit more each day. Maybe Bella’s right about there being more nuance to Julian’s friendship with Andrew than I originally thought. He stood up for me again tonight, and this was Andrew on his good behavior.
“And then we’ll go on our third first date. It has this over-the-top, ridiculous ring to it that’s just your style.”
“Our style.” He returns my grin.
“Our style,” I agree, because the more time I spend with him, the more his brand of ridiculousness rubs off on me. “Did you ask out your mystery person yet?”
“Yes,” he says, but he has trouble maintaining eye contact. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Well, good.” I give a tight nod as he returns to me. “Which now begs the question, when can I expect our third first date to occur? Sunday?”
“You’ll have to wait a little bit longer than that, I’m afraid.” He kisses my cheek. “It’s in the making.”
“What do you mean ‘it’s in the making’?” I push at his chest. “It’s been a week already. What does this date entail, exactly?”
“Nice try.” He smirks, amusement dancing in his brown eyes. “You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Hmm.” My hand curls at the collar of his shirt as I pull him down to me. “You sure are putting a lot into this date, aren’t you?”
“Oh, you have no idea.” His kiss is slow and languid as his lips close over mine, as if we’ll have all the time in the world for it. But that’s not exactly true, is it? He could decide I’m not the one he wants to be with after he goes on a date with the person he’s supposedly in love with. My heart races at the thought and stops me from breathing as his mouth continues to move against mine.
My brother is wrong. If I don’t get a handle on things, and soon, I’m the one who’s going to end up hurt.
36
Julian
