Page 48 of Friend Zone to End Zone

Or was she only saying it because she knew she should?

“What?” I asked in a low voice, my hands running across her lower back. “What is it?”

“We’re best friends,” she said.

But even as she reminded me that best friends shouldn’t be holding each other like this, it sounded more like she was trying to remind herself.

She lifted her forehead from my chest and tilted her head back. And when our gazes met, my whole body burned because she did not look like she only saw me as a platonic best friend.

Instead, her eyes told me what her words never had.

She wanted me to do something.

She was just waiting for me to make the first move.

My chest tightened, making it hard to draw in a decent breath.

It was now or never.

One more second and I might miss my chance.

We might come down from this foggy-headed state where best friends had to follow certain rules, and I might remember why I shouldn’t be doing this.

So, before I could come back down from the clouds, I slipped a hand to the nape of Arianna’s neck, cradled her head in my fingers, and pulled her lips to mine.

I tried to keep my lips soft and careful.

Tried to go slow to make sure this was really okay with her and I wasn’t just reading the signals wrong.

But the moment our lips met, it was like everything I’d kept bottled up inside of me suddenly exploded under the pressure of being an upstanding guy—and with one single taste of her strawberry-kiwi-flavored lips, everything inside me caught on fire.

She gasped, like she hadn’t really expected me to kiss her, but then her lips met mine in a long, slow kiss and I knew she wanted this. She was just as curious as me.

And when her fingers curled into my hair, my stomach muscles clenched so tight I thought they may never unwind.

This moment was everything.

She was everything.

Electricity surged through my veins as our lips moved together. I let my hands slide to her waist and turned her just slightly until her back was pressed against the wall.

I was trailing hot kisses along her neck when suddenly, her whole body stiffened and she said, “Wait.” Her hands braced against my chest. “Stop.”

“Stop?” I asked, my breath coming in short bursts.

“Yes,” she said, her voice sounding breathy as well. “I— We—“ She took another gulp of air. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

And with those five little words, it felt like I was falling off a cliff.

“We shouldn’t have…?” I furrowed my brow, knowing I must look so dumbstruck. “But I thought…?”

She shook her head, and when her eyes met mine, there was a deep pity in them that I had never seen before.

Pity and regret that I had misinterpreted everything these past few minutes to think that I had a chance with her.

I had humiliated myself on national television several times when I’d fumbled the ball or made a play that lost us the game. But that was a cakewalk compared to how this moment felt.

If the earth suddenly opened up and offered me a bottomless pit to jump into, I would gladly throw myself in if it meant I wouldn’t have to see that look on Arianna’s face.

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