Page 24 of Always Been You

Indecision flickered in her eyes. She inhaled slowly, and on the exhale stepped back and opened the door. "This better be good. I was just at my favorite part."

As he stepped into her house, he saw that it was dark except for the light coming from the television flickering against the far wall. As he took a seat on the couch, Ethan noticed Patrick Swayze in a leather jacket, frozen on the screen. "What are you watching?"

Her forehead creased. "Seriously?"

He looked back at the screen. "Is it Road House?"

"It's Dirty Dancing." The way she said it made it sound like he'd cursed the holy church.

"Oh. I've never seen it."

Her mouth fell open as she swatted his arm. "You've never seen Dirty Dancing?!"

"No."

The horror on her face was the same as if he'd said he kicked puppies. He knew that this was already starting off on a bad foot. Trying to soften the blow that he'd never seen Dirty Dancing he said, "I did see Ghost."

"So?" She shrugged as if one thing had nothing to do with the other.

This train was quickly going off the rails, and he needed to right it. "I'm sorry to bug you so late, but I needed to talk to you."

She stared at him, and he could feel that she was waiting for him to say something, anything that she could pick apart and dismantle. But, unless he was imagining things, the walls that were typically erected around her weren't quite as high today as they normally were. He wasn't sure if it was because of the night at Lanterns or that she was tired from a day out in the sun, but she seemed softer towards him.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but my grandma and her friends have decided that it's time for me to settle down."

The knowing smirk that pulled at her perfect lips made Ethan want to kiss her until she forgot why she always gave him such a hard time.

"I'm aware."

"They're not going to stop until I start dating someone."

"And this is my problem, how?"

If he weren’t mistaken, he heard a small catch in her breath. He saw her eyes widen and her cheeks flush.

This was a now or never moment. "I want you to be my girlfriend."

She leaned back against her couch cushions and crossed her arms. He tried not to notice the hardened nubs of her nipples pressed against the thin cotton material of her shirt and had to swallow a groan. She wasn’t wearing a bra.

That shouldn’t be shocking.

It was after eleven. She was alone in her home. Still, it drove him toward the cliff of insanity, and he knew that he needed to pump the brakes or he was going to go right over.

That was the perfect analogy of what Jess did to him, she drove him to the cliffs of insanity, and he was ready to jump off.

Jess couldn't believe what she’d just heard. Just this afternoon she'd finally decided that she wanted to find out if there was anything between them and he shows up at her door asking her to be his girlfriend?

She'd read The Secret back when she'd been waiting for a transplant and had desperately tried to speak into existence what it was she wanted. Getting a new heart had taken three years to manifest. She glanced at the clock. Getting Ethan to ask her out had taken less than six hours.

Since she wasn't entirely convinced she wasn't hallucinating from all the sun exposure today, she asked, "You want me to be your girlfriend?"

"Yes. At least, I want everyone to think you're my girlfriend. It's the only way to save my summer from being one setup after another."

"Why me?" She heard the hitch in her voice as she asked the question, but hoped he hadn't picked up on it. The last thing she wanted was for him to know what hearing him say that he wanted her to be his girlfriend had done to her.

"You don't like me."

Okay, well that was not what she'd expected to hear. She picked up Elvis from the floor and started to pet him as she responded, "That's not exactly what most people look for in a girlfriend."

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