Page 21 of Summer Brew

“The man hasn’t looked at you in years,” Greylin snorts. “He does not think of you as a sister.”

“His avoidance of you is evidence enough,” Meadow chimes in.

Even though the memory of his words slices into me, seeing the way my friends react to his words makes it better. I can’t help but smile at them.

“It didn’t feel great,” I admit.

Mayer’s face does that thing it does when she’s working on a puzzle and is very close to figuring it out. “You should be more upset,” her voice is suspicious.

“I was upset,” I counter. “I basically shut down and got out of there as soon as possible. It made things awkward again when he came over to my place.”

My cheeks heat and I avoid the eyes of the women in the room. If I look at them, they’ll know.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking at me.

“Something else happened,” Mayer prompts.

“When he came over to my place, I walked him through everything. Then he kissed me.”

The silence in the room is so complete that I look up expecting my friends to have disappeared because they don’t even move. But there they are. Looking at me with matching expressions of shock.

“He kissed you?” Meadow’s question is filled with awe.

I nod slowly and then whisper, “Then he said he shouldn’t have done it and moved so fast I thought he sprouted wings.”

“He ran away?” Greylin gasps the question.

“He totally did.”

“You should sound more upset about it,” Mayer’s tone is filled with accusation.

“I really need you to give the full run down of the events. I feel like we have to pull everything out of you,” Meadow complains with a pout.

“Maybe if you let me finish instead of interjecting every few seconds, then I’d be able to get through it,” I protest.

“Then stop saying things that require gasps and a moment to process,” Greylin admonishes me.

I cross my arms across my chest, my mission to grab a second brownie completely forgotten for the moment. “I’m not upset about it because he came back in the middle of the night and knocked on my window. I opened it, he climbed in, then he spent the night. The end.”

My friends are staring at me like I’ve spouted a disco ball, and it is dangling in front of me like I’m an angler fish going to a party.

“He spent the night?” Greylin questions.

“He showed up in the middle of the night?” This practical question comes from Mayer.

“You really think you can say ‘the end’ and that’ll be enough?” Meadow looks just as affronted as her question sounds.

I almost laugh at what each one of them has chosen to focus on, but I can’t quite manage it. Because saying it out loud makes everything more real.

“I thought for sure he was going to pull away and regret it. I braced for him to tell me that we made a mistake when we woke up.” Meadow opens her mouth and I shake my head slightly. “That’s not what happened at all. I woke up to find him watching me like he couldn’t wait for me to wake up just because he wanted to spend time with me.”

Understanding flashes across Greylin and Mayer’s faces while Meadow gasps, “Are you saying he didn’t put his foot in his mouth again?”

“He didn’t,” I can’t hide the glee in my voice.

My best friends freeze for about three seconds before they explode with joy. They cheer and hoot and holler. I can’t help but bask in the celebration. Their happiness is all for me, they give it freely and without a bit of reservation.

Our laughter and their gentle teasing wraps around me. The rise and fall of it, the way it reminds me of so many moments we’ve been there for each other before, and the knowledge that it’ll happen again and again in the future, brings me peace.