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“You like him, eh?”
She nodded. “I do. A lot.”
“So, soon I’m not gonna be able to do this anymore, right?” He reached a hand down under her chin, forced her face upwards to meet his, leaned down, and kissed her. She knew a lot of people were watching, but she didn’t care; she ran her hands up his arms, through his hair, and kissed him back.
For a while.
“Maybe you won’t want to anymore if things work out with a certain someone,” she said after he’d finally broken the kiss.
“I’ll never not want to. But I’ll do whatever I gotta do if it means you’re gonna be happy.”
She blushed, pulling his ear down to her mouth. “You do know there’s a ridiculously tiny part of me that’s madly in love with a ridiculously tiny part of you, right?”
He nodded. “Same.”
“Just making sure.”
“So, you really think I should go for it with Rook?”
She nodded vigorously. “You two are seriously hot together. I could watch you guys kiss forever.”
“What if he’s not feelin’ it?”
“He’s feelin’ it, Ty.”
“But what if he’s not?”
“One way to find out, right?”
They danced for a little while longer, when Tyler decided he wanted to go back upstairs because he could no longer see straight. The two of them held hands as she led him off the floor and towards the stairs. She happened to look up at where they’d been standing against the railing earlier and locked eyes with Ryan. She wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching them, but he nodded slowly, then shook his head.
“Shit.” She could sense he was pissed. She snagged Osi, who happened to be passing by at that moment. “Hey,” she called, grabbing him and giving him Ty’s hand. “Get him back upstairs, OK? He’s ripped up.” She kissed Tyler quickly on the cheek. “Happy birthday, you fucking stud. I gotta go.”
She made her way quickly towards the coat check, threw it on, left the club, and prepared for the freezing, 15-minute trek back to the apartment. She’d seen that look in Ryan’s eyes before, and it meant he was prepared to start some shit. Knowing he would follow her out of there, she left, ensuring that he wouldn’t stay and fuck up Tyler’s birthday. She tried to get just enough ahead of him that he didn’t catch up to her so they could hash it out at home instead of outside in the freezing cold.
No such luck.
“Hey, wait up!” he called, jogging to catch up with her. “Um, so what the hell was that tonight? Still just friends?”
Here we go.
The End of the Beginning (34)
He reached a hand up to her throat. Squeezing gently, he moved his other hand between her legs, then whispered into her ear, “You know you’re always gonna end up right back here with me.”
As he leaned in to kiss her, feeling her hands begin working his belt loose, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
This wasn’t what healing looked like for either of them.
If there was even a shred of hope that they could salvage a friendship and both move on with their lives, then there couldn’t be any more excuses; this had to come to an end.
“Hey.” He broke the kiss and sat up, moving to the edge of her bed. “Amara, we can’t do this anymore.”
She crawled behind him, running her hands across his shoulders and down his chest. “Then why are we? Why did you come to my room?”
He slid himself over and away from her grip. “I don’t know how not to. What I do know? Mar, this is toxic and destroying us. It’s definitely destroying me.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I saw you leave the club and I had to follow you. I don’t wanna be away from you, but being near you is killing me.” He turned around to look at her. “What the fuck am I supposed to do, Amara? I saw you kissing Hayes tonight and…”
She scooted to the edge of the bed, sitting next to him. “Ry? Let’s talk about that.”
