She rolled her eyes. “But I always assumed you were joking. Making constant innuendos because you were teasing me.”
“I was teasing you, but the constant innuendos weren’t a joke. Why wouldn’t you think I was serious?”
“Because you feel the same way about every pretty woman, Beck.”
“No.” I needed her to understand one thing. “I do not feel the same about every pretty woman as I do you, Mae. Not even a little.”
“You want to sleep with every pretty woman who takes an interest in you. Which is, basically, all of them.”
Fuck.
“You can’t deny that.”
Denying it would make me a boldfaced liar. I didn’t have a leg to stand on. Except… “You’re different.”
She clearly wasn’t convinced.
“Hence the problem. I am different because we’re friends. Crossing the line, like we did, is only going to complicate things. And I really don’t want to lose your friendship.”
Now or never, Beck.
“Like I said, friendship is a good place to start, don’t you think? Genie’s already out of the bottle.” I didn’t want to make light of the situation, but I also couldn’t resist any opportunity to make her smile. Mae looked genuinely worried. “Can’t pretend you didn’t like kissing me.”
“Ugh.”
Mission accomplished. Smile city.
“Obviously, I did.”
“And can’t pretend you didn’twantme to kiss you.”
“Equally as obvious.”
“So what are the options at this point? Go back to pretending we’re only friends? That I don’t know you know that the guys made a rule specifically for you because that’s how different you are, Mae? Ooor… say, ‘fuck it,’ cat’s out of the bag.”
“And what?” she pressed. “Go back to my house and jump into bed?”
Although that seemed like a really good plan, I got the sense Mae didn’t agree.
“Feels like you’re being facetious.”
“No,” she said, smiling, her tone even thicker with sarcasm than before. “You don’t say.”
“We could start with another kiss.”
Her gaze dropped to my mouth. I held in a groan.
“You’re impossible.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t know what to say,” I admitted. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to understanding why you’d be skeptical of my intentions. But you have to know you are not just any woman to me, Mae. Not by a long shot.”
“I… can acknowledge that might be true.”
“Might?”
“Is probably true.”
“Thank you.”
