Page 89 of Still Love You

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Silas

Now I'm regretting having that conversation with Willow back in my truck. We needed to have it, but I should've done it later, not right before the party. She's been acting strange ever since, hiding away in the kitchen like she's afraid to be seen with me.

I was just trying to get her to be honest with herself and admit her feelings for me instead of pretending they don't exist, but instead she took my comments to mean that I want to date other people. That's not at all what I meant, but when I told her that, she didn't believe me. She acted hurt that I even brought it up. But I couldn't keep having her pretend I'm her boyfriend only when it's convenient for her. I need her to commit to it. Otherwise, she'll never take our relationship seriously and I won't even have a chance of getting her back.

When Willow said she doesn't like labels, it's not because she thinks they're meaningless. It's just the opposite. To her, labels are a commitment. If she calls me her boyfriend, she'll be more committed to our relationship than if she just calls me her friend. In fact, I'm the only guy she's ever called her boyfriend. Willow's dated other guys, but according to her friends, she's never given any of those guys the 'boyfriend' label.

Five minutes have passed and Willow still hasn't returned to the patio. I go in the kitchen and find her standing by the counter, downing a margarita. Willow gets drunk on a few beers. She said she's already had two margaritas so she shouldn't be drinking any more.

"Willow, why don't you slow down there?" I take the cup from her. "Is this your third one?"

"I'm not sure." She leans against the counter. "I've lost count." She reaches over to the blender, picking up the empty pitcher. "Could you go find Leah? She'll make us some more."

I take the pitcher from her. "I think you're done. Why don't you have some water?"

She grabs the front of my shirt and stumbles forward, falling on me. "Would you go find Leah? Please?"

"Willow, you're drunk. You need to lay off the margaritas."

"Leah's the one with short dark hair and the orange bikini. She's really nice and she wants to go out with you." Willow lays her head on my chest. "Are you gonna go out with her?"

"No, I'm not going out with her. I don't even know her. Let's go home. You need to sleep this off."

She pushes away from me. "Not yet. We haven't even gone swimming." She slips the straps off her dress.

"Willow, what are you doing?"

"Going swimming." She shimmies out of her dress.

"We're not going—" I stop when I see her in her bikini. Where the hell did she get that body? She's always had a good body, but two years ago she didn't look like this.

When we had sex in my truck that night, it was so dark I couldn't see her. I had my hands all over her body and I could tell she'd filled out in certain places, mainly her breasts, but seeing her now...holy shit, she's hot. 

"Aren't you going to change?" she asks.

"No. Because we're not going swimming. We're going home." I don't want any other guy seeing her like this. Her breasts are spilling out of her bikini top and the bottoms barely cover her ass. And then she has that navel ring.

I feel a twitch in my jeans as blood rushes to my crotch.

"I'm going swimming." She turns and walks off.

"No. Willow!" I race up behind her and pick her up, turning her the other direction. "We're going home." I set her down.

"But I want to swim. I'm hot."

"Yeah, you're definitely hot," I mumble, picking her dress off the floor. "Put this on."

She's rising up and down on her toes. She's at the hyper phase of her drunkenness. She always starts out hyper then gets really relaxed and eventually falls asleep. I've only seen her drunk a few times, but it followed this same pattern each time.

"See ya later!" She runs off before I can catch her.

I follow her outside and see all the guys' heads turn to check her out. Even some of the girls are checking her out.

"Willow." One of Trent's football buddies goes up to her, eyeing her breasts. "You look hot."

"Back off," I say, standing behind her.

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