Page 43 of Anyone But Her

"No! No flowers!"

He laughs. "How about chocolates?"

"No chocolates either."

"A gift basket?"

"No! No flowers, no chocolates, no gift baskets. Those are all things a boyfriend would do and you are not my boyfriend. We're just friends, remember?"

"I don't recall actually defining what we are."

"Then I'll define it for you. We're just friends who talk on the phone. That's it."

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know. You called me. You must've had something you wanted to tell me or you wouldn't have called."

"I called you because I wanted to hear your voice again. And because I want to get to know you."

"Why me? You can't tell me there aren't girls you could date in San Diego."

"None that I want to go out with. I don't think you get how much I like you, Taylor."

"That doesn't make sense. You barely know me."

"I don't have to know everything about you to know how I feel."

"And how do you feel?"

"Like we need to give this a try. Like there could be something between us if we just gave it a chance."

"I don't know, Luke. Even just talking to you is making me feel guilty."

"Then stop thinking of me as your brother's friend and just think of me as a guy who really likes you."

I don't respond. I'm conflicted. I really do want to talk to him but part of me thinks it's wrong.

"So," he continues, "what classes are you taking this semester?"

I rattle off my class schedule, which sounds completely boring but Luke seems interested, asking me questions about each class. Then we switch to the topic of movies and it turns out we have the same taste in movies but that's true for a lot of people so that doesn't exactly make us soulmates.

The conversation continues from one topic to another, with Luke occasionally sneaking in a flirty comment that has me unsure how to respond. But I like his flirting. I want to flirt back but I'm trying to remain in the friend-zone.

"I guess I should let you go," he says, and when I check my phone I see we've talked for over an hour. How did the time go so fast? It seemed more like twenty minutes, not an hour.

"Yeah, I should do my reading."

"Can you talk tomorrow night?"

"If it's after seven."

"Sounds good. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

As I set my phone down there's a knock on my door.

"It's open," I yell at whoever's there.

The door opens and Willow walks in. She lives on my floor. We've been friends since the first week of school.

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