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“Ma had her clothes, remember?” I strangled out. “She was wrapped in a towel and nothing else.”
Gibsie grinned. “Nothing else?”
“Nothing else,” I repeated, enunciating the word nothing.
“Did you see—”
“Yes,” I snapped and then groaned loudly. “Fuck.”
“And?”
“Perfect.”
“Fuck.”
“Yep.”
“Well, shit, lad,” Gibsie mused, expression thoughtful as he scratched his jaw. “I would never have guessed she’d make the first move.” Turning to look at me, he asked, “What did you do?”
“Froze,” I admitted with a pained exhale. “I completely fucking froze up, lad. And then she panicked and locked herself in the bathroom. It was a bleeding disaster. Took me ages to coax her out, and even then, she wouldn’t speak more than three words to me on the drive back to her place.”
“That”—Gibsie shook his head—“is a disaster.”
“Of the highest order,” I agreed glumly. “I tried to talk it out with her, but she wasn’t having it, lad. She didn’t want to hear a word I had to say.”
“What did you try and tell her?”
“The truth?” I offered wearily. “That I’m leaving in a couple of months and can’t commit to her.”
“You’re a little stupid for a genius, aren’t ya?” Gibsie mused.
I turned to glare at him. “Excuse me?”
“You drive her home multiple times, you take her out to the pub, to the cinema, you bring her home to your house—twice—and then she kisses you, and you reject her,” he shot back. “What did you expect her to do? Sit there and listen to it?”
“I did not fucking reject her,” I spat out. “I would never reject her!”
“Oh, okay,” Gibsie snickered. “Sure, you didn’t.”
“And you’re the one who told me to be her friend,” I accused.
“Well, I was wrong,” he chimed. “You can’t do it. It’ll never work. Give up now.”
“Yes, it will,” I hissed. “It has to.”
“Why does it have to work?” he asked.
“Because I need her—” I shook my head and expelled another frustrated breath. “Because I want to keep her in my life.”
“You want to keep her, period,” Gibsie countered. “Because you are ass over tit in love with that girl.”
“Stop it,” I warned.
“Fine.” He threw his hands up. “I’ll say no more about it.”
We sat in silence for a long time while Gibsie smoked another cigarette before I finally broke it by saying, “Do you know that she’s insanely good at PlayStation? Like fucking gamer good?”
Gibsie looked at me with surprise. “No shit?”
