Page 14 of More Than Just Friends

‘Calm down, woman!’ I joked. ‘If you squeeze me any tighter, you’ll break me!’

‘Unlikely!’ Her eyes raked over me from head to toe. ‘Look at my Noah Bear, all grown up!’

‘God, you haven’t called me that in ages!’ I laughed and Ali flashed her adorable smile. Noah Bear was the nickname she had for me when we were at primary school. ‘And you sound like one of my annoying aunties who used to squeeze my cheeks and tell me how much I’d grown when I was a kid.’

‘But it’s true! You have grown! Look at those muscles.’ Her gaze flicked to my biceps. ‘When did you start working out?’

‘I’ve always worked out,’ I said.

‘You have?’ She frowned.

‘And she calls herself my best friend.’ I rolled my eyes.

To be fair, I had stepped up my gym regime this past year. In the beginning I started lifting weights, running and training to release my frustration. But the more I did it, the more I liked how it made me feel. And I’ll admit, the fact that women started to look at me differently was a nice side effect.

‘Well, maybe if you didn’t continually hide away from me and refuse to meet up then I might remember what you looked like.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ I said.

‘And he calls himself my best friend,’ she rolled her eyes then burst out laughing. ‘I’m glad that you applied so we can go through this experience together. It’s so good to see you.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘You look really well, Ali.’

Really well was the understatement of the millennium, but I couldn’t exactly tell her that she looked breathtaking. That’d be weird.

‘Thanks.’ She smiled. ‘So do you.’

Our eyes locked and we just stood there smiling.

‘Your date is one minute away,’ Stavros announced.

I’d been so focused on Ali that I hadn’t even noticed him standing beside us.

‘Oh, right,’ I replied. I wasn’t even sure which one of us he was talking to.

‘You mean, Noah’s not my date?’ Ali said.

‘No.’ Stavros shook his head. ‘I did not realise that you two knew each other?’

‘Yeah,’ she replied. ‘We’re best friends. I was kind of worried that we’d end up getting matched, but we haven’t so, phew!’

My face fell.

And there it was.

The reminder of exactly where I stood.

For a second, when Ali’s eyes roamed over my body, I’d thought that maybe she was checking me out. But of course, nothing had changed.

I was still firmly in the friend zone.

Which of course was fine. Like I’d said to Colin, I’d never go there. My friendship with Ali was important to me. Even if it was now just telephone-based.

‘You should go,’ I said. ‘We’ll catch up properly later.’

‘Oh, okay,’ she said. ‘Yeah. Hope your date goes well.’

‘You too. I’m gonna pop to the gents’.’