Page 88 of The Path to Loving Him
“I think we need to keep this as honest as possible, so if we’re doing something that bothers the other person . . . like if onefriend feels like the other friend is stepping on their toes when it comes to their special baseball team, then the friend needs to say something and not bottle it up.”
“Honesty can work, as long as one friend doesn’t try to steal the other friend’s office.”
“Pretty sure that was already established,” she says with a roll of her eyes.
“Hey, if you saw the other closet of an office, you’d understand.”
“Maybe sometimes friends can share office space . . . you know, on occasion.”
“That can be arranged as long as friends remove all personal effects and try not to mark their territory with their perfume. It smells like you in there.”
“Well, it smelled like your cologne when I went in there, so . . . maybe you stop smelling nice.”
“Maybe friends forget about nice smells altogether. No perfumes, no colognes, no deodorants.”
Her nose curls up. “Veto, I say yes to deodorant.”
“Fine, but no perfumes and colognes.”
“Deal.” She cutely holds out her hand and says, “Should we shake on it?”
“No. Friends should not be touching friends.”
Her expression falls. “Okay, but before we go into this full-on friends with no benefits thing, could we possibly just . . . hug it out real quick? One last I’m sorry and we’re on the same page now type hug?”
How can I say no to that when she looks up at me with those unusual yet stunning eyes, practically begging?
“Yeah, we can do that,” I say, opening my arms. She steps right into my chest, her arms circling me as I do the same.
She squeezes me and says, “Sorry about everything, Ryland.”
“Yeah, me too,” I say, allowing this peaceful moment to exist for a second longer.
Letting my mind commit the feel of her to memory since it won’t be happening again.
I soak in her scent.
I log the feel of her arms around me.
And I memorize the height difference where she’s just short enough for me to rest my chin on the top of her head.
And after a second too long, I’m about to let go of her just as Hattie walks out of the kitchen with Mac.
“Why are they hugging?” Mac asks, her question immediately breaking me and Gabby apart, making us look infinitely more guilty than what we actually are.
“I don’t know, why are you hugging?” Hattie asks as she sets a box of cookies down on the counter.
“We’re friends,” Gabby says. “And we had an argument today, so we apologized and hugged.”
Mac looks at me. “You had an argument? Did you yell?”
“Uh, no. We didn’t yell. We just didn’t agree on something. We finally were able to say sorry, so we hugged it out, just like you and I hug it out when we sometimes get in an argument,” I answer.
She picks up her cookie on the counter and takes a bite, not saying another word.
To be a fucking kid again.
Hattie smirks and starts ringing up Gabby.
