Page 6 of One Day

“What’s that face for?” Flynn asks. “You don’t usually go all quiet on me after that many readings. Where are the talking points? My ears are ready and waiting.”

“Sonya asked me to have sex with her.”

The teasing smile resting on her face falls, her eyes darting around my face, waiting for the punchline to follow, but there isn’t one. Sonya was being serious, and like a complete dumbass, I said no. A decision I’m beginning to overthink.

“I’m sorry.” She lets out a laugh of disbelief, her blue eyes bright with delight. “She did what?”

“Yeah, just out of the blue,” I share, scratching behind Fish’s ears to keep myself from looking at Flynn and reading into whatever her face might be saying. “Okay, maybe not completely out of the blue. She suggested it after asking if I ever thought about having sex with her and then said we should start having casual sex.”

“Fuck, I had no idea Sonya was so bold,” she says, like it’s the first time Sonya has completely flipped my world upside down. Most of the time, it’s one of my favorite things about her. She doesn’t have the filter everyone else does. She says whatever is on her mind.

Today, it threw me into the deep end without a life preserver to find my way back.

“Well…” she trails off, scooting forward on the couch. “What did you say?”

“No, obviously,” I tell her, suddenly finding the four botanical prints hanging behind our couch very interesting. Flynn draws my attention back by clearing her throat, her thick brow arched in at me. “It was the only thing I could tell her.”

I expect her to immediately agree with me and tell me I made the right choice, but she doesn’t. “I mean…I don’t think it’s the only thing you could have told her,” she argues. “You could have said yes.”

An unexpected weight comes crashing down on my chest at the serious look on her face. “You’re seriously suggesting I should have said yes?”

She shrugs. “You should do what you want. I just think it could do you some good, and it’s Sonya! If you were going to do it with anyone, it’d be her. You’re basically already dating.”

Why does everyone keep saying that?

“We’re friends.”

She hums. “Friends, sure.”

“I’m serious, Flynn.”

“Oh, I know you are.” She gets up, grabbing her laptop off the cushion. “You know, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to let go of what you think you need to do and start doing what you want to do. You’ve liked her since you met, Walker.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“And I totally and one thousand percent believe you,” she says, moving around the couch towards the hall leading to our bedrooms and bathroom. The motion causes Fish to stand on my chest before jumping down to follow her, because despite what Flynn says about Fish liking me better, Flynn is still very much her person. “Night.”

When I hear the click of her bedroom door, I pull my glasses off and set them on the coffee table. With my elbows on my knees and my face in the palm of my hands, I let out a frustrated groan as I run my hands down the length of my face and around the back of my neck, squeezing the tension nestled in the muscles there.

What the fuck am I supposed to do now?

CHAPTER THREE

SONYA

“Reid, are you up?” I whisper, knocking lightly on his bedroom door at the end of the hall. A few seconds pass, and when he doesn’t answer, I reach for the knob, planning to slip in and set his keys on his side table before slipping back out. I open it as quietly as possible, pausing when I find him sitting up in bed with his nose still buried in the same book from the bar. “Hey,” I say, straightening my stance. “You’re still up.”

So absorbed in his book, he doesn’t even look up. I would be offended if I didn’t know Reid and how easily he slips out of reality into the fictional worlds he holds between the palms of his hands. While most kids were out playing sports or playing in the sandbox, Reid was never happier than with the company of a book.

Which is clear as day now, every empty corner of his room covered in books. I’m not sure he could go more than five minutes without a book near him.

Setting his keys on the nightstand, I lean over and press my lips to his cheek. “Night.”

“Night, Sunny,” he says, finally acknowledging my presence but not sparing me a glance.

I shake my head and step into the hall, pulling the door shut behind me before walking toward the start of the stairs where my room is. The hardwood floor creaks beneath my feet as I pass Bekah’s room, our shared bathroom sandwiched between our bedrooms. I’m reaching for my doorknob when I hear the mattress squeak on the opposite side and know Dylan has made himself at home without even opening the door.

It's not my first time coming home to him in my room. Hell, sometimes I go to sleep alone and wake up the next morning to him beside me. A side effect of living next door to him and two of his teammates.

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