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Brinley laughed. “My celebration is most likely going to involve food and watching the inside of my eyelids. Not very exciting.”
Annalise walked over to Brinley and wrapped her arms around her, placing a quick kiss on her cheek as she did. “Hm, I don’t know. That sounds pretty damn great to me.”
“You’re crazy,” Brinley said with another laugh.
Crazy about you. “What can I say? When you’re as old as me, boring is exciting.”
“Whatever. At least promise me you’ll find a way to pamper yourself today. Take a bath or something.”
A bath sounded amazing, but when Annalise opened her mouth to say that, Brinley put up a hand to stop her. “Actually, I don’t want to know if you’re going to get a bath. Then all I’ll be able to think about during my test is you naked.”
“You mean you’re not going to think about that anyway?”
Brinley sighed as if this wasn’t a joke. “I’m going to try my damndest not to. It’s going to be fucking hard though, trust me. It’s been way too long since I saw you naked.”
Twelve days, but who was counting? Definitely not me.
Brinley looked down at her phone then took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “It’s time. Let’s go.”
They were both quiet on the twenty-minute drive to the test center. It was obvious Brinley didn’t want to talk and Annalise respected that. She didn’t blame her.
Annalise honestly thought Brinley might get out of her car without even saying anything, but she paused with her hand on the door handle and looked back at Annalise. “One good luck kiss?”
Annalise didn’t waste any time leaning over the middle console and kissing Brinley like it was their first and last kiss all at once. She didn’t start to drive until Brinley disappeared into the big building.
Only five minutes into her drive back to Brinley’s apartment, a text alert sounded on her phone. She checked it right away just in case it was Brinley saying she forgot something.
Much to her surprise, it was Lexie. Even more surprising was what the text said. Hey! Hope you’ve been doing well and that your holidays were good. This is super random, especially since we haven’t seen each other in awhile, but I was wondering if there was any chance you wanted to go on a date with me. No pressure. I know you’re still figuring things out and have other people you’re hooking up with. I’m not expecting us to be exclusive or anything. I just thought it could be fun, and I’d love to see where things go.
The mention of a date caused so many thoughts to swirl through Annalise’s head. Idea after idea came to her as if they had been locked in a safe waiting to be set free. She waited until she was at a red light and sent a text back to Lexie.
Her open day had suddenly become a lot busier.
Chapter 20
Brinley
Ever since Annalise had picked Brinley up from her test, things had been strange. Annalise had asked how the test went and Brinley explained that it was brutal, but she actually felt okay about it, but after that, a heavy silence fell between them. Neither of them had said anything since. Annalise just kept clearing her throat and playing with something inside of her pocket. Brinley wanted to ask her what the deal was, but she decided to wait until they were back at her apartment.
After finding a parking spot, they took the freezing four-block walk to the bar. The cold was nothing compared to the freeze-out she was getting from Annalise.
Seriously, what the hell?
Annalise stopped short of the door and finally turned to look at Brinley, her eyes suddenly laser-focused on her. “Can we talk for a minute before we go in?”
“Um, yeah. Are you sure you don’t want to just talk inside? It’s kind of freezing out here.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. This is just really important.”
“Okay.” Brinley had no idea whether to be scared or excited, but she was way too exhausted to feel much of anything.
Annalise closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the whole time playing with whatever was buried in her pocket.
Okay, this is getting kind of freaky.
“I was asked on a date today.”
A lump formed in Brinley’s throat. Out of all the directions she thought this conversation could take, she definitely didn’t consider this one. “By Lexie? Or someone else?”
