Page 98 of One Week Wingman

Daisy’s blue eyes go wide. “Are you kidding? Only my whole entire life!”

“No,” I shake my head. “Youwere always the perfect one. Pretty and popular and effortlessly stylish. You have a million fans online, and an amazing career, and I’m going to have to quit my bartending job because I can’t look Sebastian in the eye.”

Daisy lays flat on the sofa. “So what you’re saying is that I’ve spent the past fifteen years feeling jealous and insecure for no reason at all?”

“Ditto.”

I raise my shot glass, and she toasts. We exhale.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel like you were in my shadow,” I offer, sincere.

“And I’m sorry for being so popular and effortlessly stylish.” Daisy grins, and I toss a pillow at her. She laughs. “OK, OK, I’m sorry too. Imayrub it in a little when things go my way.”

“Try all the time!”

“I’ll be more humble,” she says.

“Hashtag blessed.” I quip.

Then she pauses. “So Stefano—I mean, Sebastian… That’s really over?”

“It wasn’t ever a thing to begin with,” I sigh, mournful.

Daisy shakes her head. “No way. I saw the way he looked at you—and the way he made out with you at literally every opportunity. He couldn’t keep his hands off you. That was real.”

“Real horny,” I mutter.

“Trust me,” Daisy insists. “No man does all that stuff—gardening with Mom, and apple picking, and hosting an entire freaking high-school reunion—if he isn’t head over heels in love with you.”

“I wish you were right.” I look at the tequila and wince. Something tells me that even if I drank the whole bottle, it wouldn’t make my feelings go away.

“Iamright, dummy.” Daisy throws the pillow back at me. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“Everyone keeps asking me that!” I protest. “But it takes two to tango. Or, you know, have a mature, coequal relationship. And I don’t see Sebastian trying to make any of this right, do you?”

I pretend to scan the horizon. Daisy rolls her eyes again.

“One of you is going to have to break this stalemate,” she informs me. “So is it better to sit up here, alone and miserable on your moral high ground, or swallow your pride, and be with him? You could be over there right now,” she adds. “Making up. Making out. Screwing each other’s dumb, stubborn brains out.”

I feel a pang of pure longing. God, I want him bad.

Not just the making out, and the screwing each other’s brains out, but the rest of it too. Talking. Laughing. The small, ordinary, everyday stuff, that was somehow so much better with Sebastian by my side.

“I really thought it was something special,” I admit quietly, looking over at her. “I’ve never felt a connection like this before.”

“So what’s the catch?” Daisy watches me, yawning. “I’ve never seen you hold back over anything, when you want it, you just do it. Even dropping out,” she adds. “You dropped outbig.”

I give a hollow laugh, just snuggling there for a moment, trying to untangle my knotted thoughts. “What if he doesn’t want me?” I whisper, finally voicing my deepest fear, the one holding me back from making a move. “I don’t mean for sex, or some fun, hijinxs-y fling, but forreal. The two of us, real love. What if he doesn’t want it, enough to try?”

Daisy reaches over and squeezes my hand, sleepy. “There’s only one way to find out.”

I sigh. “Take the risk?”

“Mmhmm.” She yawns again, eyes falling closed. “But you’ve got this. You’re the bravest person I know.”

When I wakethe next morning, that wistful ache in my chest hasn’t subsided. I lay there, thinking about the mess we’re in. Daisy was right, someone needs to break this stalemate, but even if I’m not ready to face my fears with Sebastian just yet, there is something I can try and make right.

I have to.

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