Page 42 of Enemies with my Bestie’s Brother
“Whitney, I don’t think that you realize that I would move mountains for you. Ever since that first kiss at Penny’s wedding, you had me wrapped around your little finger. I know that I was an asshole when you first came here, and that I misjudged you. But, that had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me and my past. When I told you that I want to give this a real shot, I meant it. If you want to move to Japan, we can move to Japan.”
I stare at him and process what he’s just told me. He’s just admitted that he’s completely willing to not only give up his business and move away from his family, but go anywhere on this planet just to be with me. To be completely honest, I’m not even sure how I feel about that. It’s so intense, such a strong thing to say, especially when our relationship is so soon, but I can tell that he means it.
At this moment, I know the only place that I am going to be moving to is San Francisco. In the same way that he is willing to cross oceans for me, I’m willing to move here so that he doesn’t have to. Does this mean that I’m giving up everything for a man?
No, of course, it doesn’t. I’m not giving everything up for a man. I’m pursuing my dreams and getting the man at the same time. I turn over and plant a kiss on his lips. He pulls me on top of him and initiates round two.
Chapter Nineteen
Grayson
“So,what’sthebignews?” Whitney asks as she rolls a bright gray paint on the walls of the main bathroom. After finishing the office and the whiskey lounge, I asked her to move on to the main bath before anything else. It seemed to make the most sense, since I’m not ready to sleep on the couch while she does the bedroom, and she still doesn’t have the backsplash she wants for the kitchen. Plus, the new mirror came in today, and I’d rather not have something super fragile just laying around with all the extra workers running all over the place.
“The big news,” I say as I grab her hand and put the roller gently down in the paint tray, “is that Landon and I are ready to launch the new AI branch of our company! We’re having a little party to celebrate tonight. Just a small shindig with our investors, and of course the family will be there.”
“That’s great news! I’m so happy for you, and proud of all the work you two did together!”
She grins and wraps me in a hug. I can smell the mango scent of her shampoo lingering in her hair. It’s intoxicating, and I take in a deep breath to let the scent consume me. She pulls away and scrunches her face at me.
“Did you just smell me?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that I smelled you. I was just admiring the scent of your shampoo.”
She rolls her eyes and is about to pick the paint roller up again when I stop her. She looks at me with question marks in her eyes.
“I didn’t come in here just to announce that our AI branch is ready. I’m not a child that needs praise for my accomplishments. I came in here to ask you to be my date.”
I smile at her, but she doesn’t return it. Instead, I watch the question marks in her eyes turn into a gaze of uncertainty. She casts her eyes down and bites her lip. I don’t think she realizes how attractive her biting her lip is.
“Grayson, I want you to know that I truly would love to accompany you to this party, and I am so flattered that you asked me to be your date. But, I’m still not ready to announce us to the world. It’s a big step, and it means admitting to Penny that we’ve been lying to her the whole time. The guilt has been eating me alive.”
“I know,” I say as I grab her hand. “I know it has, Whitney. I’ve been feeling the weight of the guilt, too. But, that’s why this is the perfect solution. I’m asking you to be my date, and we can be open about things with Penny. It’s not like she has to know that we’ve previously slept together, but it can just be like we’ve slowly been falling for each other over the past few weeks and I finally built up the courage to ask you out.”
I stare at her as she breathes in deep. It’s not like it would technically be a lie, at least not on my part. I have truly been falling for Whitney over the past few weeks. I’m sick of hiding my feelings for Whitney too. I want to be open with them.
“Grayson, I’m just not ready to take that step yet, okay?” she says, her voice raising slightly.
Is she getting angry with me? Because there’s only one person in this room who has the right to be angry, and it’s not her. My fist comes down on the bathroom counter hard before I respond to her.
“I don’t get you, Whitney. You keep going on about how guilty you feel for lying to Penny and how you just want to be honest with her, but you’re the only one still intent on hiding it. I’m ready to be open with it, and you’re the one fighting to keep us in the dark. I think you should take a long, hard look in this mirror and honestly ask yourself if you actually feel guilty for lying to my baby sister, because from where I’m standing, it looks like you don’t.”
“Grayson, that’s horrible. I do feel guilty, and you know that I feel guilty. Just because I’m not ready to scream about our relationship from the rooftops of San Francisco doesn’t mean that I don’t feel guilty for lying to her.”
Whitney’s eyes are narrowed, her lips parted slightly. If I wasn’t so mad at her I would find her anger sexy in this moment. But, I am mad at her, so her anger just makes me enraged.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Whitney. Keep telling yourself that you feel guilty when you’re the only reason that we’re keeping this secret in the first place. You know what I think?”
She opens her mouth to speak, but I continue on without giving her the chance to respond.
“I think that you’re so scared to dive headfirst into something new, so you keep coming up with reasons to avoid the fact that our feelings for each other are growing. You will say anything, create any conflict, to avoid what’s staring us right in the face.”
Whitney’s face turns a deep shade of red, and I know that I’ve hit the nail on the head. First, it was that her reputation would be sullied, even though that was a completely ridiculous excuse. She’s a private business owner that’s sleeping with someone she’s known for longer than she’s worked for them, not stealing someone’s husband. Then, it was that she wasn’t ready because her heart was still healing from her last relationship. Now, it’s that Penny would be upset about us lying. And you know what, she might be, for about five seconds. But afterward, she would be ecstatic that her best friend and her brother found happiness with each other. It’s not like she can be judgmental — she married my best friend. It’s just one lame excuse after another, and I’m sick of pretending like they’re all based in reality.
“I’m leaving. Paint your own bathroom,” she says as she storms out.
“There you go, leaving again when confronted with the fact that you’re wrong!” I shout after her.
The front door slams as I look around the bathroom. The walls are only half painted. Checking my phone, I see that I have enough time to at least finish what Whitney started.
