Page 28 of One Bet

“Alex…” I probably should’ve had something in mind before I tried to speak. As it was, all I had was his name, said in a kind of helpless moan.

“Ever since that night when you showed up at my place and asked for my help when you kissed me…I love you, Avery, I always have. It’s you. Always you.”

There was no space in my head, no room for me to process any more information.

“I have to go, Alex.” I turned to leave.

“Please, Avery…” He laid his hand on my shoulder and leaned in to kiss me. I waited for something…anything…a tingle, a vibration, a tremor. And I wanted there to be something because this was Alex, and a relationship with him would be easy and based on more than attraction, but I didn’t feel so much as a waiver. He pulled back. “We make sense, Avery, together, you and I make sense. Who better to be with than my best friend? We already tell each other everything.”

Clearly not everything. “If we don’t work out, we lose everything.”

He took my face between his hands. “But if we do work out, we have everything. You’re already the person I can’t wait to talk to. The one I tell all my stupid shit and I don’t even mind when you tell me it’s stupid shit.”

I was paralyzed, but Alex kept going.

“I’ve waited all these years for the time to be right, for us to be in the same place at the same time. I waited for perfection, but seeing you, you are the perfection and nothing else matters.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say so I didn’t try, but suddenly Susie being married to Jameson didn’t seem like such a big deal.

“I’ll tell Susie and you can tell Keaton and we can start our life together. You and me, here or in Chicago.” Oh yeah. Alex lived halfway across the country now. It was why, for the last ten years, we’d only talked on the phone. And God, I wished we could go back to that right now, that I didn’t have to look into his puppy dog brown eyes and see the hope shining there, didn’t have to hear the soft gasp when he realized I didn’t feel the same way.

Or watch him turn to walk away. How did I not know?

Maybe I did. Maybe I just didn’t want to admit it because then losing my best friend was my own fault.

One Decade Ago

Alex followed me through the store, his face so red I was afraid he might explode as we walked among the racks of lingerie and half-dressed mannequins. I never shopped retail, so the price tags were quite the culture shock for me, but Alex wasn’t buying and he wasn’t wearing, so his red-faced discomfort didn’t make much sense to me. We always shopped together.

“What about this one?” I held the bra and panty set up for him to give me his yea or nay. So far, we were fifteen nays deep, and I was no closer to finding that something special to wear for Keaton than I was to knowing what the hell was wrong with Alex. Times like this, I almost regretted not having friends who were girls.

Alex grumbled another no, and I stared at his glum face. “Just pick something and wear it, Avery. He isn’t going to care.”

Uh-oh. Something was wrong with Alex. In all the time we’d ever spent together, he was never short-tempered with me. “Are you okay?”

He sighed. “I just don’t want to spend all afternoon in a lingerie shop with you preparing for your big night with Football Boy.” He lowered his voice. “He isn’t going to give a shit what you wear when he’s just gonna…”

He shook his head and looked away from me.

And maybe he was right, but I wanted tonight to be perfect. I wanted our first time, my first time, to be amazing and wonderful. That meant undergarments that either matched my eyes, made my skin look deeper and darker, or accentuated the curve of my ass while simultaneously downplaying the cellulite dimples I wouldn’t be able to hide while I was mostly naked, and I needed to do it on a budget.

I pawed through another rack while Alex leaned against the wall, arms crossed, scowl in place. “What is it about this guy anyway?”

“He’s just…” What was it? “I like him.”

“Doesn’t mean you have to fuck him.”

“Alex!” I spun in a tight circle to make sure no one had heard his crass characterization of my plans for the night before I glared at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

He sighed. “I just don’t think he should be pressuring you to sleep with him. You hardly know him.”

Pressuring me? Quite the opposite. He’d slept with me three nights now and hadn’t done more than hold me even though I’d seen and “accidentally” felt how hard he was. Tonight, I was going to surprise him with soft music and lingerie. A yes, he could see.

But right now, I had to figure out Alex and what to do to fix whatever was wrong with him. I hated that he was so upset. “We could see a movie if you want to. My treat.” Between school, Keaton, and my new job at the diner, we hadn’t had much time to spend together. And it had only been a week, but even with being so busy, it felt like a year.

He stared at me. “I gotta go.”

But he didn’t move, and I didn’t want him to.