Page 59 of Falling Too Late

“You didn’t think I was capable ofwhat?” I did my best not to shout, but I was so amped up over the awkwardness of the entire conversation that I was getting mad.??Did she think I had been secretly dating someone this whole time?

Did Jon make her think that?

“Of having sex with no feelings.”?She pushed the words out quickly, her cheeks flushing red.

I stared at her, dumbfounded. “Why would you think that?”?

“Come on, Alex, you're a romantic.” She looked at me like I had a clue to what she was saying. “You know, the story of your parents, watching them love each other. Dancing in the kitchen.”??

I rubbed my face with both my hands. I had been a romantic when I was younger, but I had also been lonely. The reality of it was, I only wanted to be romantic with Wren.?

“You know what,” Wren stood, waving her hand, “it doesn’t matter. Just know that you don’t have to sneak around me.” She gave a tight smile. “I’m heading to bed.”??

And with that, she turned around and went inside, leaving me to figure out what the hell had just happened.??

I went inside, locked the doors, and turned off all the lights. At the top of the stairs, I looked at Wren’s closed door. We no longer shared a room, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Before, we would lie in opposite beds talking until one of us fell asleep. Sometimes, we would fall asleep in each other’s bed.??

The move was good for us. I wanted to get her out of those apartments. In all my excitement, I hadn’t realized that I was putting us in two different rooms. I tried to reason with myself. We were adults now. We needed to have our own rooms, butthe gain of a new home had me feeling like I lost something more.??

Wren’s closed door felt like she was closing herself off to me.??

Sighing, I went into my room, closing my own door. I stripped out of my clothes. I used to sleep in shorts and a T-shirt. It only felt right because of our proximity. Now, I had my own room. I could go back to wearing nothing if I wanted.??

I crawled into bed. Wren had made my bed up with the new sheets. I let the sheet drape over my hips, lacing my fingers behind my head, staring up at the ceiling.??

I replayed the conversation over and over in my head.??

Wren was thinking about dating.??

About having sex.??

That thought alone had my cock pulsing to life, tenting the sheet. I tightened my fingers behind my head, refusing to touch myself to thoughts of her.??

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Wren had been living with us for about two years when I started to obsessively think about her. My unsated sexual desires ran rampant at night. I would wake to my hand already fisting my cock at the thoughts of her. The way she smiled, or the sliver of skin that would show between her shirt and shorts. That’s when I started going out at night.??

I had fought with shame, thinking of her in that way even though I knew what she had been through. ?

But she wanted to have sex. She wanted to start dating.??

I wanted to be her choice. I didn’t want anyone else to have her.??

The thought of pursuing her and ruining our friendship was the only thing that was stopping me. What would happen if she didn’t feel the same thing for me? What if she did, and things went south???

Was it worth potentially losing her completely?

CHAPTER 22

ALEX

The heat was stillbad late September. The crew and I were sheeting a roof on a house, the speaker was blasting rock, and we were working as fast as we could to get it done.??

“I can’t wait to punch out and go down to Dave’s and have a drink,” Troy said as he tacked in a sheet. “You will be there tonight, right?”?

Wren and I had been in a weird spot for the last week. After our talk the other night, I couldn’t stop thinking of her in ways I shouldn’t.??

“Alex?”?

Suddenly, I was imagining her in all sorts of different positions. During the day, I had a hold of my thoughts. It was night that had me struggling. Now the floodgates were open and I couldn't stop. It didn’t even occur to me that she would ever be in a relationship with anyone. I had spent so much time taking the heat off her every time someone asked about us or what she was to me.??

---