Page 9 of Make It Without You

Ten minutes later we’re pulling into the driveway at James’s place. I look next door, as we’re walking inside, at my house noting the dark interior. No life is being lived in the confines of those four walls.

The inside of his parent’s house is homier than I could have ever imagined. It’s a big house, don’t get me wrong. But seeing that it’s warm and cozy and not stuffy like I would’ve expected is comforting. James and Liam get to pouring drinks and getting snacks for us and then the four of us are heading to the movie room.

“So how’d you like the game?” Liam asks once we’re all settled in.

“For my first football game ever, you two didn’t disappoint. Although I had no idea what was going on.”

“You’re a football newbie?” Liam asks in wonder.

I shrug my shoulders in a non-committal response. “It was never something that came up in my family.”

“What do your parents do?” James asks from next to me.

“They’re both high-profile lawyers. They had to fly back to New York to work on a last-minute case.”

“I’m sorry,” James says sincerely.

I hold his gaze for a few seconds before responding. “It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

And that’s the honest-to-God truth. It hurts that that’s the actual truth. But I can’t do much about it.

“So what movie are we watching?” Kamryn asks, breaking up the emotion. I send her a grateful smile for putting us back on track.

By the timethe movie ends, Kamryn and Liam are passed out next to one another. I started dozing off too, but I managed to stop myself.

“You wanna watch another movie?” James asks me.

I shake my head. “Dance with me?”

A small smile graces James’s face. After putting on some music, he stands up and offers me his hand. Pulling me into him, we start to sway to the music.

It’s official. I like James. The crush I didn’t think could be a crush? It’s real. I like him, like him. And that’s crazy. I don’t know the first thing about relationships. Do I ride this out and hope this crush will pass or wait for James to make a move? Do we just wait until we’re older?

It’s decided that I’ll wait for James to make a move. But if he takes too long I’m taking this into my own hands.

“Your heart is beating super fast,” I say so low that I’m surprised James even heard me.

I hear him swallow it’s that loud. But I’m trying to play it as cool as I can.

“I’m nervous,” James finally responds.

“Nervous about what?” I ask him and pull back to search his face for something. Anything.

“You. You make me more nervous than I’ve ever been. Emily, I know we don’t know each other that well, but…” He’s stalling.

“But what?” I ask him. The suspense is killing me.

“I like you.”

He said it! And now it’s my turn to be speechless.

James ducks down so he can look into my eyes. “Say something.”

“I like you too,” I can feel my face heating up.

“So where does that leave us?”

And that’s the million-dollar question. Most of the time when a guy says that he likes a girl, he does the complete opposite to woo her, and that in turn woos her. Don’t ask me why or how that works, it just does.

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