Page 7 of Make Me Want it Too

I tighten my arms around her, patting her back and then rubbing it in gentle circles. I don’t know if this is better or worse. I’m holding her, and I love how she’s melted against me, taking my comfort. But she’s shaking and it’s fucking breaking me in half.

After what feels like nowhere near long enough, the tears stop, her breathing quiets, and she pulls away from me.

“Sorry, that was a lot. I’m so embarrassed.”

“No, no, no. Don’t worry about it at all. You can cry on me any time.”

She glances down to where my white T-shirt is wet with little black smudges on my chest and her face goes pale.

“Oh my gosh.” She balls up some toilet paper and starts wiping at the makeup on my chest, her cheeks getting redder by the second.

“Macy, it’s fine.” I tilt her chin up to look at me. “I have more shirts.”

“You aren’t mad?”

“What is there to be mad about?”

“It might not come out.”

Is she serious? She’s serious. Fuck. “Macy, I don’t care about the shirt. I care about you. Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She rings the wadded up toilet paper in her hands, still staring at my chest.

“Tell me,” I say, quieter.

She looks up at me with those big, brown eyes, her shoulders falling. “I feel like a terrible friend. I’m happy for them, I really am. It’s just?—”

Swallowing, she turns away.

I touch her shoulder again. “Keep going, it’s okay.”

“It’s just, they’ve been dating less than a month. Spencer and I have been together over six years and I just… I thought I would be the one announcing my engagement first. That’s all.”

I clench my teeth together—it keeps me from saying something stupid and unhelpful, like how Spencer is a fucking idiot. Instead, I say, “It’s totally understandable to feel that way.”

She wipes away a rogue tear, her lashes wet and clumped together. But this time when she gives me a small smile, her brown eyes twinkle. Just a little, just enough that I know it’s a real one.

Or maybe it’s just the tears in her eyes. I don’t know. I’m going to choose to believe the other option.

“Are you ready to go back out there?”

Macy nods and blows her nose again. “How much of a mess do I look?”

Again, I know saying she looks radiant would not be helpful.

But she does.

“Come on.” I motion for her to follow me to the bathroom where I shut the door behind us. “Here, just take a minute.”

She goes to the mirror and leans over, inspecting her face and wiping the smudges around her eyes.

While she’s turned away, I yank my shirt off over my head and run some water over it in the sink. As I’m trying to scrub the black streaks away, I glance up. Macy’s eyes catch mine in the mirror before quickly darting away, her cheeks turning a deeper pink.

Fuck.

She goes to the door as I pull my shirt on, pausing with her hand on the knob, but not looking back.

“Thank you, for this.” Then she rushes out.

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