Page 95 of From You to Me

I still wasn’t sure about this; I didn’t want to go down that drowning ship again.

“Please,” he added.

Surprise flooded my veins because Jay never saidplease. I thought about it for a long moment before I sighed internally and couldn’t help but concede. “Fine. No talking about the past, no arguing, no digging up old wounds. A fresh start it is. Let’s be friends.”

And my heart stopped at the smile he gave me. His exquisite lips tugged into a curve, lighting up his entire face. His smile made his eyes glow, and my heart had vertigo.

“Fine, and is that my T-shirt?” He gestured to my attire.

Heat bloomed all over my body when I realized what I was wearing. One of his old T-shirts that I’d stolen from him. “Hmm, not really. It’s just something I found in my closet.”

“Yeah, right.” He grinned; he knew exactly that washed black T-shirt belonged to him.

“I’m assuming that you want Kung Pao.” He cocked a brow while we settled on the couch. Which was a lot better than my last one. I was scared to know how much it cost because every time I sat on it, it felt like I was sinking into a delicate nimbus.

“Yes.” I laughed, trying to push Strawberry away from me. She was sprawled entirely on me. Apparently, she decided that I was her bed these days.

“Come, girl. Don’t bother Mommy.” Jay carried her weight off me and settled her in his lap. Fuck, how were we going to be friends when he said things like that?

“So do you have work tomorrow?” he questioned while we dug into our food. The lines on his face formed shadows from the light flashing from the mindless TV playing in the background.

I focused my eyes on the carton I was holding, trying to spoon some rice under the dim lighting. “Unfortunately, yes,” I mumbled. “But hopefully not for long. I’ve applied for some writing jobs, and now that I’m out of debt, I can do with smaller pay. And it would be something I love to do anyway other than running behind housewives.”

He frowned. “Are they hard to work with?”

“Not as hard as my previous boss.”

His tongue touched his upper lip like he was trying hard not to laugh. “Oh, is it?”

“Yeah.” I shook my head in mock admonishment. “God, he was the worst. He drank only high-grade Swiss water and demanded I make him green smoothies that smelled like grass.”

“How dare he?” He smiled.

“And get this.” I leaned closer, beckoning him. “He won’t even add oil or butter to his eggs.”

He gasped. “Fuck, I can’t believe you’d have to work for that jerk.”

“I know, right.” I exhaled, and a serious second passed between us before we burst out laughing.

I liked this. Were we flirting? Kinda, yes. But did I miss this? Also yes. Could we try to draw the line and be friends? I didn’t know the answer to that.

But I wanted to try.

CHAPTER 22

“You wear less pink. In fact, nothing in this apartment is pink except for that one coffee mug.”

It’d been a week since Jay showed up at my apartment asking to be friends, and we were, somewhat friends. Somehow, everything we did seemed like we were more than just friends, but we’d kept our hands off each other and kept things platonic.

So it was safe to say that we were now friends. Strictly just friends.

“Yeah, it’s still my favorite color, but I avoid it. It reminds me of you,” I admitted honestly.

He nodded like he understood and went back to his guitar.

And I went back to my writing.

Was it like a replay of our past? Yes. But did I care? No.

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