Page 62 of Finally Loved

“I don’t know what she sees in you.” She sliced the cake and placed three servings on the table.

“We’re just friends.”

“Ha. You just spent all night with friends and not once have I seen you act the way you do with her with any of them.” She looked pointedly towards Alba’s hip. “And you and I have been friends for a long time, but I don’t think you’ve ever found my hands on your hips.”

“To be fair, it was just one hand.”

“Yes, because the other was holding yours.” Zainab rolled her eyes and sat down. “You cannot be this clueless.”

Alba wasn’t sure she was clueless. Confused, perhaps, but not clueless. She knew Zainab was right. Hadn’t she been thinking the same thing all night long? And, if Zainab was seeing it too, that meant her interpretation wasn’t simply being favorably filtered through her own hopeful feelings. But she still didn’t totally understand it. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t lose Neve.

She scrubbed a hand over her face, not bothering about whether she smudged her makeup. “I don’t know what to tell you. We are just friends.”

“Only because neither of you has bothered to ask the other out yet.”

“It’s… complicated.”

“Why? Because someone dumped her a short while ago? Because she’s going through the experience of figuring out her friends are shit?”

“Well, now that you mention it, yeah, those two things probably are a bit relevant, wouldn’t you say?”

“No. I wouldn’t.”

Alba gaped at her. “Explain?”

Zainab shifted in her seat and watched Alba drop into the one across from her. “The breakup was clearly rough, but she knows it wasn’t the relationship for her. She doesn’t seem to miss her ex, she doesn’t seem all that bothered by the loss of that relationship. She’s clearly not just rebounding.”

“How could you possibly know all that?”

Zainab glared. “Because I’ve spent time with her, asked questions, and because I pay attention, maybe? You might have brought her into our lives, but she’s my friend now too.”

“Fine.” Alba could barely suppress her grin at hearing Zainab describe them as friends. Neve really did just fit with them.

“And the Charlie thing… Well, life is always going to have shit bits. It doesn’t mean you can’t have good bits during them. If everyone sat around waiting only for the good moments, nobody would ever do anything.”

“I’m not going to take advantage of her while she’s going through something difficult.”

“I don’t think it counts if she’s looking at you like shewantsyou to take advantage.”

Alba pursed her lips. Neve didn’t look at her like that. Zainab’s comments had a very clear, sexual undercurrent, but maybe that was what Neve had been getting at when she’d asked Alba about being allo. Maybe it hadn’t simply been a way to rationalize her experience in the face of those who treated her differently because she was ace. She’d seemed surprised Alba had such a clear differentiation between sexual and romantic attraction. To her, when Neve looked at her, it felt like everything. Like she wanted to promise her whole life toAlba. Maybe from the outside, when you were only used to allo relationships, it looked like something else.

Either way, it didn’t look platonic.

Alba waved her hand as she heard the shower shut off. “Whatever. For now, at least, we’re just friends.”

“Sure you are.” She laughed. “Do yourself a favor and at least have the conversation. Or make a move. Pretty easy way to prompt the conversation, I suppose.”

“Never thought you’d be so invested in my love life.”

Zainab watched her, deadpan, before shaking her head. “What can I say, I like her. She deserves to be happy. Besides, against all odds, you’ve somehow gotten her to fall for you too. People who don’t want to be together don’t look at each other the way you two do.”

“Oh, that’s all it is? Just thinking about Neve?” Alba smirked.

“Ugh. Fine. I suppose I want you to be happy too. Even if you’re forcing me to compliment you when it’s my birthday and you should be complimenting me.”

Alba laughed. “I worry about you if you think that’s a compliment.”

“I know what a compliment is, thank you. I get plenty of them. Not from you, obviously, but plenty.”

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