Page 65 of All I Ask
I close my eyes and silently wish I could end this conversation. Nina and I share most things, but I don’t know that I should tell her what happened with Derek. Althoughwe kissed in the damn street, so for all I know someone took a video of it. Wouldn’t that be ironic.
“Let’s go downstairs,” I suggest.
“Because?”
I point to Chastity’s door. “Because we should work.”
“Ohh,” she says very unconvincingly. “Right. Work. We should get going.”
“You really need to work on your acting skills.”
She shrugs and heads down the stairs. “You know I’m not equipped with the gift of sarcasm and snark like you and Chastity.”
“You’re a mess.”
She laughs. “Have you seen yourself, sweetheart? I wouldn’t be calling anyone else a mess.”
We get into the store and I flop on the sofa.
“Spill,” Nina says after a minute.
“That about killed you to wait, didn’t it?”
“You know it did. Now, spill.”
I release a heavy sigh and decide to tell her everything. If nothing else, maybe she can help me figure out what any of it means. “Your perfect match from the online site of creepers texted me while I was at the bar waiting, with some bullshit excuse of work—an hourafterhe was supposed to be there—however, Derek was at the bar. He somehow seemed to know I was on a date and wanted to make sure I didn’t get murdered.”
Her grin spreads even wider. “So you ended up on a date with your best-friend-who-you’ve-been-in-love-with-for-your-whole-life! Oh, my God, you’re living an actual rom-com movie right now! This is amazing. Tell me more.”
“I’m not living anything but a pretty pathetic life.”
Nina scoffs. “You’ve loved that man since you were in high school, even if you didn’t know it then, and he’s back, and you’re trying to act like that’s pathetic?”
“What’s pathetic is thinking it was anything more than just us being drunk!”
“More? What more happened, Tea?”
Ugh. Me and my big mouth. “He kissed me.”
“He kissed you!” she screams, and I grab the sides of my head. “Oh my God!”
“Nina! Voices.”
She huffs and waves her hand at me. “I don’t care that I’m yelling because he kissed you! Did you kiss him back?”
I sure as hell did. The feel of his lips on mine was more than I ever had the ability to conjure up, though. I had no idea the way his hand would feel on my back, holding me against his solid chest.
The truth was, I never wanted to open my eyes. I would’ve stayed fused to his mouth if I could, but when he spoke, when he told me to ask him my questions, it broke the spell.
I couldn’t ask. I didn’t want to know.
“It was a mistake.”
“So that’s a yes.”
“Nina.” I sigh. “It was stupid and—”
“And it was a long time coming, my friend. You and Derek Hartz have been in love with each other longer than either of you idiots would admit. This is your time.”
