Page 52 of Faking it For Summer

“What Juniper doesn’t know is that we already have, right?” Mia says, gripping the towel tightly to her body.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, Juni just said, ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ but I feel like we already crossed that line, don’t you?”

She stands there, looking beautiful and sexy, and I feel like I’m seeing her as a woman that I can’t resist.

“I wouldn’t say that exactly.” I shrug and take a step forward. “Do you think we crossed a line?”

“Luke, don’t play dumb with me. We’re best friends for a reason, and I can read your mind.”

“What am I thinking?”

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking. We both remember what happened early this morning.”

I can’t stop the smirk that crosses my face as I gaze down at her parted lips. “I might remember some of it. So, what do we do? How do we approach this, moving forward?” I run my fingers through my hair as I wait for her answer. “Do you think we crossed lines that?—”

“Luke, we were drunk. We were tired. We got a little carried away. You haven’t been with a woman in a while, from what I can remember, and you know I haven’t been with a man, and I guess we were in close proximity …” Her voice trails off. “These things happen.”

I take another step closer to observe her better. She’s taking this way too casually. I’m kind of annoyed by how unbothered she seems. She’s just going to play it off as us being drunk?

“So, you’re okay that we were practically naked and?—”

“Luke,” she cuts me off, “we don’t need to talk about it. We can just move on from here.”

She touches me on the arm, and I want to pull her into me. Not only is it irritating, but it’s also making me wonder if she regrets it. Or if I just wasn’t good enough for her.

“You don’t want to talk about it?” I ask her, pushing it. “You always want to talk about everything.” Which is an understatement.

Mia talks as much as anyone I’ve ever met in my life. She analyzes almost everything that anyone ever said or did to her. Yet she doesn’t want to discuss this? Why not?

“No, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t always want to talk about everything, and I don’t want to talk about this either. It happened, and we can just …” She plays with her hair, curling some strands between her fingers. “We can just pretend it never happened.”

“We nearly had sex, Mi-Mi, but we’re going to pretend that didn’t almost happen?”

She looks away again before hurrying to her duffel bag.

“We just got caught up in the emotions of the night.” She opens the duffel bag and mumbles under her breath, “These things happen.”

“Not between us.”

We’d never been in that position before in our lives. I had never touched her intimately. She had never touched me intimately. This was a path we’d never gone down before, and I am kind of astonished that I am the one who wants to talk about it and not her.

“So, we’re not going to discuss what happened then?”

“I don’t really think we need to, Luke.” She sighs as she looks up at me. “Don’t you think this summer is complicated enough as it is?” She rifles through her clothes.

She looks cute, standing there, half-naked, bent over.

Get your mind out of the gutter, Luke.

“Fine. If that’s what you want. What did Juniper bring you? Anything that might work for me to wear?”

“Not unless you want to wear a skirt.” Her eyes finally meet mine again. “Or a bikini.”

“What would Talia say if she saw me in your bikini?” I tease her. “Maybe she’d be impressed if I said it was couture.”

“She’s such a bitch. And, yes, I would say it to her face.”