Page 29 of Forever & Always You
“Thanks.”
He rejoins me on the couch, but this time his hand doesn’t accidentally find its way to my leg, and I feel a little zap of disappointment. “Do you mind if I watch this with you? And then I was thinking maybe we could get takeout for dinner, because I don’t cook much.”
I scoff and say, “You’re such a bachelor.”
“Oh, please. Like you’re any better.”
I roll my eyes, because he’s right—I’m not much of a cook, either. I live on microwave meals and fast food, because buying groceries for one ends in so much waste. But mostly I’m just lazy. Mom never cooked, so she had nothing to teach me, and now I’m a lost cause. “Takeout is fine. You pick.”
“Chinese?”
“Only if there’s egg rolls.”
“There will be egg rolls.”
“Then Chinese it is.”
“Perfect.”
We watch the rest ofCaptain Marveltogether, but I fall backinto my earlier pattern of being so entirely distracted by Austin’s existence that I’m barely functioning. He doesn’t so much as brush up against me for the remainder of the movie and that has me questioning my sanity. Maybe my ego is just too big. Why the hell would Austin ever like me? We reallywerejust friends as kids, and if he didn’t like me more than that back then, then there’s no way he could ever like me now after everything I put him through.
My head spins, because I don’t even know why Iwanthim to like me, or why my stomach churns with dissatisfaction at the thought of beingonlyfriends when I should be grateful to achieve even that. Iwanthim to be my friend again, of course I do. But maybe I also want to explore if there could ever be something more.
And that’s a real headfuck, because suddenly I see a lot more in Austin than I ever did when I was younger. A different perspective, a new appreciation, a long overdue acknowledgement.
Touch my leg again, goddamn it.
But he never does.
When the movie ends, we immediately call in our order for delivery after fighting over which dishes are best, and ultimately end up ordering a little of everything. Egg rolls, roast duck, kung pao chicken, wonton soup, honey walnut shrimp, fried rice .?.?. When the mountain of food arrives and we set it down on the kitchen island, we look at one another over the top of the pile and burst into laughter.
“We definitely overshot this,” Austin says, scratching his head. “We’ll be eating leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow. Maybe even Monday, too. How the hell have we ended up with four portions of rice?”
“Don’t look at me,” I say, shrugging as I continue pulling containers out of the bags. “You’re the one who placed the order.But fear not—I have a good appetite. Just you wait and see how much of this I can demolish.”
Austin seems thoroughly amused. “Oh, I’d love to see you try.”
“A plate would be a good place to start.”
“I didn’t think you’d be that civilized.”
I snap my fingers at him and point to the cabinets behind him, but I clearly have no clue where the plates even are, because he crosses the kitchen in the opposite direction to go retrieve some. He brings over some silverware, too, and we throw a mixture of everything onto our plates and sit down at the table.
Half an egg roll in my mouth, I ask, “What do you usually do on the weekend? Other than lock yourself in your office and drop off kibble to the dog shelter.”
Austin watches me across the table, pretentiously moving food around his plate with a pair of freaking chopsticks. “Beers with a couple of buddies sometimes. I’m running the Chicago marathon in October, so Sunday mornings I run. I’m trying to get into golf, too.”
“Golf?”
He cocks his head in response to my critical tone. “What’s wrong with golf?”
“You’re twenty-four,” I remind him. “You never hit the clubs? How about dating?”
“Gabby,” Austin says, laughing out loud. He pushes his plate forward and crosses his arms on the table, fixing me with a challenging look. “Enough of the questions. What doyoudo on weekends?”
I intentionally smolder my eyes at him before replying, “Watch Marvel movies.”
God, all we do is laugh. It’s so easy to see why we were friends.
