Page 91 of Life’s Too Short

I scoffed.

I heard her set down her purse. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Why didn’t you ever talk to me about him?” I said, not looking at her.

She laughed. “Uh, why would I?”

“He’s obviously someone who’s important to you.” I dropped ice into a tumbler. “We talk. I thought we didn’t keep things from each other.”

“Yeah, I thought that too. But I didn’t see you running to tell me that you loaned money to Brent.”

I twisted to look at her and she stood with her arms crossed.

“He asked me not to,” I said. “It was between me and him, and you had to wait all of forty-eight hours to find out about it. It’s not the same thing as hiding an entire relationship.”

“I didn’t hide Drake.”

“Well, you didn’t exactly volunteer the information.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’d have to live under a rock to not know about Drake. And I’ve never talked about him because he wasn’t worth mentioning.”

“Right.” I went back to my drink, putting the stopper back in the decanter. “I thought you weren’t dating anyone.”

She laughed at my back. “Are you serious? You’re crabby because I went on a date? You want me miserable and alone with you in solidarity? Is that it?”

I set my drink down, turned around, and crossed my arms. “Are you getting back with him?”

She threw her hands up. “And what does it matter? It’s not like you want me.”

I stared at her, incredulous. “You have made it exceedingly clear to me, since day one, that you don’t have any interest in me beyond friendship.” I gestured between us. “This is what you wanted. You wanted friends only, you set that boundary. I respected it. Then you kissed me, declared it a huge mistake, and I’m the bad guy?”

She put a hand to her chest. “I set the boundary?”

“Are you getting back with him?” I asked again.

She laughed. “No. I prefer my men a lot less gay.”

My arms dropped. “He’s gay? Since when?”

She snorted. “Birth?”

I gawked at her. “Well—what the hell was all that shit about online?”

“Adrian, there’s a certain level of theater that goes into what I do. Drake and I hung out so much because he was dating my cameraman, Laird. He wasn’t ready to come out yet. People assumed what they wanted to assume. That dinner today was a collab. He’s announcing their engagement, and he teased it with a video entitled ‘He Proposed!’ with clip of us in a restaurant and him showing me a giant ring. It’s clickbait. Then when you play the whole video, he’s inviting me to the wedding. It gets both of us views and new subscribers. He was doing me a favor.”

I blinked at her. “So you’re not seeing him.”

“No! I’m not seeing anyone. And I probably never will, ever again, if that makes you feel better.” Then her chin started to quiver. “And don’t worry, I won’t ever try to kiss you again. Gross, right?” Her voice cracked on the last word.

I shook my head. “I don’t get you. Did you want me to kiss you back? You wanted me to cheapen our friendship with something that didn’t mean anything to you? You wanted a fling? This isn’t some game for me, Vanessa. Kissing you means something to me.”

She blinked at me through tears. “It…it does?”

“Of course it does. How can you even ask me that?”

She sniffled. “But…but you didn’t kiss me back.”

“You were drunk,” I said. “You were so drunk I had to carry you home. I don’t kiss intoxicated women. Even if I want to. And then you said it was a mistake, that you…” I didn’t finish. I couldn’t.