Page 75 of One Day

Fish’s soft purr fills the room, pulling my attention from the ceiling when she leaps up and lands softly on my chest. Her small white paws knead my shirt before she lies down, resting her chin against my shoulder. I run my hand down her back, and she nuzzles further into my body. A smile curls up on my lips when her eyes shut, content with making herself at home.

“What do you think, girlie? What should I do?” I ask, letting my eyes drift back to the living room ceiling.

Her eyes flicker open, only for a second before she curls back up and ignores me, not even shuffling when the apartment door opens, and the hallway light bleeds into the dark apartment.

“Hey, Flynn,” I say, lifting my head off the pillow just enough to look over the back of the couch before falling back into the cushions.

“Hey,” she says, shutting the door. “Are you sleeping out here?”

I nod my head, lifting my arm up to tuck under my head and cross my ankles as she approaches the couch. Her bag sliding down to the floor before scooping Fish up, and bringing her up to her chest. She presses her lips to her head, sinking down onto the couch.

“My mom made a surprise visit,” I fill her in, sitting up to grab my glasses off the table.

“Your mom’s here?” Her eyes widen slightly, letting Fish drape over her lap. “Is that a good thing? How do we feel about this?”

“It’s a good thing. We talked,” I assure her, running my fingers into my hair. “She understands why I’m staying.”

“That’s great, Walk. I knew she would,” she says, nudging my knee with her foot before her eyes move over my face. It takes only a second for her brows to pull together curiously. “There’s something else you’re not telling me.”

“She met Sonya today.”

Flynn’s face lights up. “Oh, yeah? How did that go?”

“Good, I think,” I say, shuffling in my seat. “I don’t know if I can keep doing this with her. She’s…there is more to us than friends, isn’t there?”

“I don’t think you need me to answer that for you if you’re questioning it,” she says, her feet dropping back to the carpeted floor. “What are you going to do?”

“I should talk to her, right?”

“Walker.” Her smile is gentle as she gets up to her feet with Fish in her arms and smooths her free hand down the front of her shirt. “Since the day you met Sonya, you’ve been completely in love with her. It may have taken a while for you to realize that and admit it to yourself, but the two of you have gotten this far. I know how scary it is to be open and honest about how you feel, but you owe it to yourself to try, don’t you think?”

“I don’t want to lose her.”

“If there is one thing I know about Sonya, it’s that you are never going to lose her,” she says, leaning down to kiss the top of my head. “Denying how you feel is only going to dig you a deeper hole. You have to be honest with her.”

“Yeah.” I chew my bottom lip, scrubbing my hand over my jaw.

If I had just listened to her from the beginning and been honest with myself, everything could have been so different. Things between Sonya and I wouldn’t be so hazy. We wouldn’t be walking around blindly.

“Just think about it.” She pats my chest. “I’m going to get ready for bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night, Flynn.”

She wanders off, and I stare straight ahead. My thoughts swim back to Sonya as the dust settles around me. If I sit in this feeling any longer, I might drive myself insane. We made an agreement to be honest with each other when things changed, and things changed for me a long time ago. I probably should have been honest from the start that things had never strictly been friends for me, but I wasn’t exactly being honest with myself.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I lean forward and reach for my phone off the coffee table. If I put this off, I’m going to fold it over until the feeling is buried deep.

“Hi, Cowboy,” Sonya answers on the second ring. “How did things go?”

“Good,” I say, leaning back. “We worked everything out. She’s going to stay for a few days, so I’ve been kicked to the couch.”

“That’s great. I knew everything would work out.”

“Yeah, you did.” I swallow and rest my head back against the couch.

“You know, if you don’t want to spend the night on the couch, I happen to have a warm spot in my bed with your name on it,” she says. “If you wanted to come over.”

“Is that your way of booty calling me, Sunny?”

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