Page 39 of Picking Daisies on Sundays

Oh mylord. I pressed my hips hard against the bathroom door like it was going to keep me from falling. I observed how his long fingers flexed around the buttons, undoing one at a time, staring at each one with precision. One, two, three buttons undone.

Wow, the ceiling looked really nice, did they repaint it recently?

“Would kissing me be that bad?” his voice sounded husky with his face tilted down.

I rushed through an awkward laugh, still staring upwards. “That is not what I signed up for.”

“That’s not what someone else told me.” My head jolted.

He laughed at my reaction. “Calm down, calm down. One of the bridesmaids told me what you and Gabe talked about the other night over the phone.”

What Gabe and I talked about? What did Gabe and I—OH MY GOD. When Gabe had me leave my purse and he brought upthe thing with my tonguestory… My face fell as embarrassment filled my gut. “You’re joking,” I stated mortifyingly.

He registered my embarrassment and softened his voice. “Delaine told me when she was drunk the other night with Sarah; said she was really impressed by the details of ourintimacy,” he air quoted. “It made my week,” he laughed.

The next noise that came out of my mouth resembled a dying cat. I shielded my face. “I’m going to kill Gabe,” I announced, but it sounded more likehmgoingtokillGabebecause my hands were pressed against my face. “I’m absolutely mortified and I’m going to need you to leave the premises so I can die in peace.”

“Hey.” His voice got louder.

I shifted a finger away from my eye to find out why, and was greeted by him standing up, with his shirt half-unbuttoned, coming closer to me. I quickly covered my eyes again. I shouldn’t see this.

“You never have any reason to be embarrassed with me. Best friends, remember? Now let me see your face.”

Light reentered my vision as he nudged one of my fingers out of the way, slowly peeling each one off my face.

A new hospital monitor tune kicked on in my brain:we are friends, we are friends, we are friends.

“Hi,” I whispered once all my fingers were pushed off my eyelids. Still absolutely humiliated, I tried my best to push mine and Gabe’s sexual conversation about Levi from my head as he looked back at me partially shirtless.

“Hi,” he whispered back. His eyes were doing that seducing, charming thing where they were narrowed in on my face and his lips were parted. If I tore my gaze down even a few inches, I’d see the muscles in his chest that hid beneath the cotton of his shirt.

“Hi,” I repeated.

“Now, what’s the tongue thing?”

I made a sound that resembled both a broken sewing machine and a grunt at the same time. I shoved his shoulder backward, “Yousuck.”

He laughed at the push, sitting back on the toilet seat to finish unbuttoning his shirt. A blush was tattooed to my cheekbones.

After finishing, he stood back up, letting the shirt slide off his shoulders and down his arms. Without moving my head, I directed my eyes back to the ceiling. The last thing I needed was an image of him fully shirtless existing in my brain forever.

“For your information, it’s an inside joke, that I will never tell you now.” The sound of his laugh bounced off the tile walls as he turned the sink on, running the shirt under the water.

“Oh, come on! I want to be part of the inside joke.”

“Not happening.”

“What do I have to do? You want me to get on my knees and beg? I’ll do it.” My face flamed—keep your eyes on the ceiling, keep your eyes on the ceiling, you will not look at this man shirtless as he says the wordsbegandknees. He continued, “I’ll—”

“I’m taking it to the grave with me, Vi!”

My words cut through the air leaving us both silent. As I looked at him for the first time, I realized what I had just said.

He was looking at me like he had seen a ghost, and that’s exactly what it felt like—a ghost. Anytime we got a glimpse of who we used to be together, it was like the ghost of our past entered the room and reminded us that there were four years of time separating us for a reason.

We weren’t Vi and Daisy anymore, we’d never be.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.