Page 16 of Can't Take My Eyes Off You

‘No, no, I get it. Maybe we make some rules?’

‘Rules?’ he asks, finally back to his serious self.

‘Yeah,’ I say, standing from the couch and pacing around the room. It’s what I do when I’m mulling things over. Things I already know the answer to but am trying to justify that answer to guarantee the outcome I want. I’m human. ‘You know how sometimes I have terrible ideas, and you go along with them?’

‘Most of those ideas end up low-key brilliant; however, the truck-stop sushi to save on time is suddenly racing back to me.’

I gasp. ‘I forgot about that one. Worst getaway weekend ever.’

‘Worstsushiever,’ he corrects me. ‘Nicest hotel bathroom, though. Thank God that you love me no matter what, right?’

Our eyes meet as we both freeze. I love him no matter what? Damn it.That’swhy this is so hard. I want to love him through this but I know I should walk away. Then again, like he said, we are friends and friends support friends.

‘This might be crazy, but what if… We’re breaking up, I get that, but isn’t there usually some leeway in that?’

‘Leeway?’

‘Yeah.’ He nods enthusiastically, now standing in front of me. ‘You wanted to make rules – let’s do it. Rule number one: friends do tell one another they’re beautiful.’

I roll my eyes. ‘Fine, beautiful boy. Rules number two, three and four: friends do not flirt, friends do not date and friends definitely donotsay the L word.’ I lift a finger with each new rule.

‘L for lettuce, I agree, moving on.’ He tries to blow past it but I hold out a hand to stop him.

‘Love, Will. I’m talking about saying we love one another. We’re spending the next two years broken up, so no lovey-dovey stuff. My heart can’t take it.’

He frowns hard, rubbing the back of his neck frustratedly. ‘Rule number five: the closure clause,’ he says suddenly. ‘May I present my idea?’

‘I can only imagine what this is going to be.’

‘Imagine it, Berx. This is going to be difficult. You may pine for me too. And if you do, we can use the closure clause. I’ve heard when people who’ve dated long-term break up, they often have a few relapses before the break-up takes. After that they walk away.’

‘And if I do the math you did on the phone calls earlier, I’d assume a few is like twenty-five in your mind?’

He steps closer, a crooked smile on his face as he grabs one of my hands. ‘Berkley, I’m serious. We’ve dated for seven years. I hurt you, and ruined our plans for the unforeseen future, but I’m in this and it’s going to be hard for us to just stop seeing one another. If I had to guess I’d say there might be times where we can’t help but call one another and why can’t we be who we were in those moments. I want to be able to wean off of you if I have to do this.’

My heart slows. This is really happening. He really can’t get out of this and everything is going to change.

‘We get three relapses and after that, we stick with the meeting up for coffee when it’s all over to see if anything is left.’

Three relapses? It sounds so sad, yet kind of romantic. Like a romance book.

‘OK?’ I say, unsure if it’s the right answer or not, but not knowing how else to do this.

‘And tonight we get a freebie,’ he throws in, sliding his hands around my waist.

‘There it is, the road to more than three: freebies.’ I laugh. ‘We can’t break the rules on day number one.’

‘Why not? Only we will ever know,’ he says, lowering his voice.

‘I have a sinking suspicion that I will regret this, but alright, I’m in. Those are the rules. Shall we shake to make it official?’

‘No,’ Will says, pulling me against him and planting a kiss on my lips and just like I always do, I melt into him. God, I missed him.

Here we go.PDX Royalsvs. Berkley Kaine. How bad could it possibly be?

6

BERKLEY

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