Page 9 of Drunk Dialing My Enemy

I open the burrito and take a bite. Wow. The cheesy, salty, crunchy mix of scrambled egg and bacon hit my tongue and my headache seems to disappear.

After a few more bites, I look at Darren. He seems content just to watch me eat, having nothing of his own.

“How long have you been awake?” I ask him.

“Since five.”

“God, why?”

He shrugs a broad shoulder.

“Couldn’t sleep last night. I was thinking about all the things you said.”

I bite my lip, wondering what kind of humiliating things I probably said last night when I wasn’t in my right mind.

“You said you used to be in love with me. And that you’re a virgin and you’re going to meet your husband someday and have a million babies.”

I groan.

“Is that true?” he asks.

“Darren, I don’t think it’s physically possible for a woman to give birth to a million babies. Maybe a dozen or so, but not a million.”

“I meant about how you used to be in love with me. Was that the truth?”

I don’t know how to tell the man that not only did I used to be in love with him, but sometimes I think I still am. I don’t know if I can identify the moment where I stopped loving him, if there ever was any stopping point. I loved him, we kissed, and then he ignored my existence until he went to college.

I never stopped thinking about him. But with him out of town and out of sight, it was easier to ignore that old ache in my chest that I’d come to associate with my best friend’s older brother.

And then he came back and ruined everything by taking over my building, forcing me to acknowledge his existence once again.

Darren walks to the bed, sitting on it and leaning over me. I nibble on my burrito, wide eyes on him as he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear.

“Firecracker, I need to know. I need to know if what you said last night is the truth. Because if it is, it changes everything.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that we have unfinished business,” he says.

“You hate me.”

“I’ve never hated you.”

I lift my chin.

“We kissed on my birthday. Afterwards, we made plans to go on a date the next day. You said you’d pick me up at six. But you never showed. So I went to your house and Dot wanted to know why I was there, and told me you went out of town with some friends for the weekend. You were never going to take me out on that date, were you? You just said you would, just to mess with my head. Just like you pranked me with that kiss.”

“It wasn’t a prank,” he growls. “I would never do that to you, Katie. I was just scared, okay? I kissed you and then the weight of that choice hit me after the fact.”

“The weight of that choice?” I ask him. “What weight? I’m your sister’s friend, but -”

“It’s not just about Dot,” he replies. “It’s the fact that it was yourfirstkiss. It was your first, but it wasn’t mine.”

“I know. I heard that you were popular with the girls in high school.”

“That was just gossip. I had a couple of girlfriends. Some casual dates.”

“And lots of kissing.”

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