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Her eyebrows flick, and she leans toward me. “You have to introduce me next time he’s around!”
“I…”
“Gotta go! No rest for the wheeled wicked!”
I watch her jet off, her blond hair billowing behind her as her long slim legs send her forward—with perfect balance, I will add—toward the downtown.
I look back at my phone.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I reply to Terence. And I definitely wouldn’t. Especially since I need to plant some seeds with him about what these uninvited feelings are doing to the state of my stomach, never mind my heart.
* * *
Fold napkin. Unfold napkin. Refold napkin.
“You want me to bring you something while you wait?” the waitress asks.
I want to say courage, but I opt against it.
“Just a glass of water?”
“You got it.”
Why did I show up fifteen minutes early? I’m just torturing myself watching the door when Terence won’t walk through until two minutes before our meeting time, because that’s what he does.
Which means that I have another eleven minutes to stew about exactly what I’m going to do when he shows up.
Things with Terence have always been so natural, so easy. That’s the beauty of the thing. What am I putting at risk by daring to broach the subject of us being anything but what we’ve been for the last eighteen years?
That’s it. Time for a consult. I’m pulling out the big guns now… I’m writing to Cass.
Here’s something everyone knows about my sister. She’s a no-nonsense, give-it-to-you-straight kind of girl. You don’t ask her for advice unless you’re ready to have your ego stomped over three times in the space of a minute. She does it with the biggest heart, figuring that truth with love that hurts is better than gutless lies that massage the ego.
“Cass,” I text. “Emergency. Do I open up when it might turn the best friendship into a giant ball of awkwardness?”
The other awesome thing about Cass is she’s cerebrally attached to her phone. Even if it’s in the next room, she senses the message arrive. She’s the most consistent texter I know.
“Alli. If you’re asking the question, then it’s already awkward.”
How does she do that?
A second message swiftly follows. “If he’s such a great friend, then opening up will make that friendship stronger. If he flees, then you’ve been deluding yourself about the greatness of this friendship. Sorry if that stings. Sorry, not sorry.”
“Exactly what I needed to hear.”
Cass is right. This may be hard to say, and spitting the words out of my lips will likely be even harder, but it is awkward already. At least, it is for me.
Now to plan how this is going to go…
“Alli-bear…”
Just like that, my whole brain goes blank.
“Ter-Ter, you made it.”
He cocks his head. “I’m two minutes early.”
“Of course you are.”
