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We were both smiling. I had the thought then that she was my favorite person on the planet.
Ever.
It was unhinged. I should have been running away screaming just from the thoughts my own brain was producing in that moment.
“Well, you see, how that works is, I haven’t had sex with anyone yet.”
“Godfuckingdammit, Ro! This isn’t funny!”
I could have mouthed the words with her as she said, “Sure it is, boss.”
I never wanted to let her leave my sight. I wanted to keep her in my pocket for the rest of my life.
Nothing romantic, of course. These were just strong friendship feelings with a dash of healthy, powerful lust thrown in.
Romance was just chemistry plus hormones and once you knew it, it lost half of its power.
I told myself those things, hoping if I said it enough I would feel it. Feel it like I was supposed to if I wanted my life to stay sane and normal and free of that ridiculous, useless L word.
Luckily she helped rouse me out of my ridiculous thoughts.
“I don’t want my first time to be with someone like you,” she said, tone serious and free of irony, for once.
Not gonna lie, it stung when it shouldn’t have. Fucking ouch.
“I’m saving myself.”
My bruised ego was immediately paused. This was too fascinating for me not to explore. “Are you waiting for marriage?”
If she said yes, I thought I might propose on the spot.
Her cute little nose wrinkled. “Not for marriage, no. I just thought I’d be in love, the first time. I was waiting for that. For love. For something meaningful.”
“Well, hear me out.” I paused as I searched for a way to sugar coat it, and when I didn’t find one said, voice conciliatory but assured, “Love isn’t real.”
She glared.
I went on, “But what is real is chemistry. And chemistry like ours, that’s extremely hard to come by. You may not even like me all that much—”
“I like you,” she interrupted, voice begrudging. “Sometimes. Okay. I like you at least half of the time.”
We smiled at each other.
“No, that’s not true,” she conceded. “I don’t dislike you at all.”
She paused, and I could taste the jab before she even delivered it. “You’re my favorite pain in the ass.”
I was hard. So fucking hard.
Even her bizarre, peculiar, twisted sense of humor turned me on. Especially that.
“Hear me out,” I tried again, and we were both smirking as we waited to see what kind of crazy shit would come out of my mouth. “We’re friends.”
She looked at me like that was debatable, but she didn’t mean it.
“Who said friends can’t mess around?” I continued unabashed. “So how about I get you off a few times and then you can decide? I’m quite good. Ask anyone.”
She snorted, the ungrateful little brat, and stormed away.
