Page 11 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

The fun atmosphere disappeared, the teasing and poking and stealing food, the frivolous feeling that had been in the air… all of it had vanished. Now Amy just felt awkward, her skin still burning, and she hoped and prayed that Kai couldn’t tell. It didn’t help that he was watching her across the now-vast distance of the center console, his food momentarily forgotten and an unreadable expression on his face. Amy had gotten very good at reading him over the years, but right now she didn’t have a single clue about what was going through his mind.

She cleared her throat.

“I don’t think I actually said thank you,” she said.

That seemed to snap him out of it, and he tilted his head, confused. “For what?”

“For coming to my rescue. I was about ready to either cry or start throwing fists. Or both.”

“Yeah, I could tell when I got there,” he said with a grin, picking up his burger up. “I’m glad I could help protect you from committing some sort of felony.”

“We should hang out more regularly again,” Amy said, instantly hating how pathetic and sad she sounded when she said it. “You know, so there’s less chances for me to get thrown in jail.”

Kai grinned. “Yeah. We do need to hang out more than we have been.” He sounded sad at the thought of it too. At least Amy wasn’t alone in that.

“Though,” he said firmly, brightening his voice. “I don’t regret any of that for a second. It was far too entertaining.”

“It was,” Amy admitted, unable to keep a smile from crawling back onto her face. “I mean the audacity of them all, though. They were all over you. Kirsty was practically drooling over you. It’s like they forgot how they treated you, as if it didn’t matter.”

“I doubt they’ll forget tonight, not for a good while yet.”

“If they ever do forget, there’s photographic evidence to rub in their faces.”

“Does this mean we’ll be going to the next reunion in however many decades?” Kai asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Oh, my God, please, can we?”

“Only if we keep up the joke.”

“I mean, obviously we’re going to keep up the joke. And we’ve got like a decade to plan the most ridiculous thing ever. It’s going to be great.”

“I’ll set up a mood board first thing in the morning, you know, to get inspired.”

“And we have to get burgers after,” Amy insisted.

“It’s a tradition now.”

The conversation petered off and the mood within the confines of the sports car stabilized again, the victorious atmosphere making a return. They lapsed into silence, Kai finishing off his meal with slow and steady precision, the quiet between them now content rather than awkward.

Amy went back to eating too, mostly to try and focus on something else, anything other than the man beside her and all of the talk about kissing, of how close their noses had been to touching. But her brain wasn’t so easily put to rights, her thoughts running a million miles an hour without her permission.

In the dark, it was easier to admit that she had a crush on Kai, that she’d had a crush for a long, long time, and no matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn’t fade away. She had gotten very good at ignoring it over the years, but every now and then it would rear its ugly head and roar, rattling the bars of its cage and trying to escape. Amy never let it. She’d thought about letting it, absolutely she had. But every time she ran the possible outcomes through her head, they all ended in disaster, one way or another. If her gut instinct was to bury the annoying little crush deep, deep down, then she was going to trust her instincts on this one.

And that’s all it was. A crush. Nothing more. She didn’t even like referring to it as feelings because that might mean it was all more serious than she could deal with. And it wasn’t serious at all; it was a crush. Just an annoying little crush that she’d kept to herself for over a decade.

Unfortunately, the comment about making out had flipped a switch in her unprepared brain and sent her spiraling into emotions that should have stayed long buried, locked in their respective cages. Then being that close in the car, in the dim light, reminiscing on old times…

She took a bite of her burger because it was the only thing at hand to distract herself with, even if it wasn’t doing a very good job. Because the other thoughts that were confronting her right now were how happy she had been when Kai said he only dated for fun, and he had no intention of pursuing anything permanent with these women. Kai’s lack of interest in long-term relationships shouldn’t make her happy. It really shouldn’t. It had nothing to do with her whatsoever.

In order to keep that line between “friend” and “something else” nice and crisp and firm, there was a degree of separateness that she needed to keep up. Being glad that he was just dating random people for fun, that couldn’t go on, because that would mean that she was glad that in some universe she still had a chance.

And Kai promoting her business to all of his connections was out of the question for a whole host of reasons. That was a step in that direction, just a little too involved, a little too close. Still just something a friend would do, but it was the first step in a slippery slope towards… something else.

His friendship meant too much to her. It had saved her so many times, from the pep talks he’d give her when her confidence was on the floor to literally staying at his house half the time during high school because it was easier for her to get to her part-time job when her parents weren’t willing to give her a lift… She’d seen people take their friendship to the next level only for it to crash and burn so spectacularly that they couldn’t remain friends afterward. They were gone from each other’s lives like a puff of smoke in the wind, all of the good times tainted with the scorch marks of how it ended.

If she ever actually acted on her feelings for Kai, the ones she had hidden away deep, deep down, and it ended like that… it would break her. Not just break her heart; it would shatter everything in her.

So that was why that line existed, the line between friendship and everything else. That was why she didn’t cross it and didn’t plan to ever cross it. The risk was just too great. And if it meant a few moments here and there of unrequited pining, of awkwardness and reminding herself not to wish for something different… so be it.

She was happy with this, with what they had. It was more than enough.

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