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Olivia snorted. “Liar. Look at you, you’re all red-faced and hyperkinetic. What happened? You can’t open with blue balls and then not tell me what’s up.”
Brooke sighed and slumped down in her chair. “Dylan kissed me.”
“Umm, hello? Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? Why are you fretting like it’s a disaster?”
“Because it is a disaster! I can’t date Dylan.”
“Back up and tell me how it happened.” Olivia sounded amused. “When did he lay it on you? How did you react? How’d you leave things? Most importantly,how was it?Tell me everything.”
Olivia listened as Brooke gave her the bullet points of her almost-kiss with Dylan last night and the surprise kiss this morning on her way out the door. She was frowning by the time Brooke finished.
“So basically he gave you the kiss of your dreams and you just noped out of there? Am I getting this right?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Brooke insisted. “I was already late for class. I had to go. And he knew I was running late when he decided to kiss me. I don’t know what he was thinking. Did he decide to do it then because he knew I wouldn’t be able to stay and deal with it?”
Olivia sipped her iced coffee thoughtfully. “Was it an ‘I just wanted to see what it would be like for shits and giggles’ kind of deal? Or testing the waters for a full-scale escalation?”
“I don’t know! That’s the problem.” Brooke collapsed forward and banged her head on the table. “Uggggh. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“What’s the tragedy here? You’re hot for him, he’s clearly hot for you. If something happens to happen, so be it.”
Brooke sat up again. “I can’t sleep with Dylan. It’ll ruin our friendship.”
Olivia tilted her head. “Will it? Or will it make it more awesome?”
“It’ll ruin it,” Brooke answered emphatically. “When things don’t work out, we’ll have nothing left.”
“But how do you know it won’t work out? Maybe it’ll work out amazing.”
“Because it never works out. Sure, it’ll be fun at first, but after the newness wears off I always get bored and start to feel stifled. I couldn’t bear it if I started to feel that way about Dylan.”
Olivia leaned back and regarded Brooke. “Listen. When Adam and I first got together, I had the same fears. I kept second-guessing my own feelings and his, convinced we were headed for disaster. I thought I was being rational, but what I was really doing was trying to talk myself out of being happy, because I didn’t think I deserved it.”
“It’s not that I don’t think I deservesomeone.I’m just not convinced Dylan’s the right choice. That’s the problem. No one ever seems to be the right choice.” Brooke hesitated. “If things don’t work out with him, I can’t just pull the chute and bail out of the relationship like I usually do. I mean, Ican, but if I do, it will mean the end of our friendship. I can’t risk it.”
“You have to take a risk on something sometime, or you’ll never get anything.” Olivia’s voice was gentle.
Brooke looked down at her hands, which were knotted together. “You should have heard him last night, talking about how much our friendship meant to him. I don’t think he’s very happy in New York. It sounds like I’m basically his only real friend. Wouldn’t it be selfish to throw away our whole friendship just to get laid a few times?”
“I can’t answer that for you.”
“Even if I don’t do my usual thing where I get bored, I just don’t see how we can make it work, practically speaking.” Brooke gazed across the coffee shop. “In addition to our lifestyles beingtotallyincompatible—I mean, good grief, can you picturemedating an underwear model? In addition tothat, we live on opposite coasts three time zones apart. We’d never see each other. How is that even supposed to work?”
Olivia’s shoulders lifted lightly. “So talk to him about it. Find out where his head’s at. You’re compatible enough to stay friends all these years; you should be able to be honest with each other about what you want. For all you know, he’s not looking for anything long-term either. Maybe he just wants a friends-with-benefits situation. A vacation fling.”
“Maybe.” Brooke was still so thrown by the idea that Dylan thought about her like that at all, she didn’t trust herself to accurately read into his intentions anymore.
“It’s possible, isn’t it? Did he actually say anything about wanting to start up something long-term?”
“No…” He hadn’t said much of anything. He’d just kissed her and pushed her out the door before she could react.
“Maybe it’s the lure of the unknown that’s got you both all hot and bothered.” Olivia swirled the ice in her drink thoughtfully. “You’ve been lusting after this guy—what?—your whole life, pretty much? And it sounds like he’s been doing some lusting after you too. So maybe you just need to get it out of your systems—with a clear understanding that it’s only temporary—and then you can part as friends when he goes back to New York on Sunday.”
Brooke stared at her. “You think that would work?”
“Sure. Why not?”
She made it sound so simple. Brooke couldn’t deny the appeal of Olivia’s suggestion. Despite all the voices in Brooke’s head, telling her what a terrible idea it was to get involved with Dylan, she wanted it. She wanted him.
