“Yeah, told you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly.” I took a sip of wine and reached for a piece of cheese.
“Okay.” She picked her glass back up. “Start from the beginning, please.”
As we sipped wine and tackled the charcuterie board as if neither of us had ever eaten, I started with our late-night hangout in Beck’s room and ended with the toe-curling kiss.
“I just… it felt so natural. We just sort of looked at each other and…” I shrugged.
“Was it good?”
“Beyond good. I don’t even remember why we stopped. When I think back to what could have happened… honestly, Jules… I am so confused right now.”
“Okay, what happened afterwards?”
I was a little fuzzy on the details. Thinking back, I was fairly certain my brain wasn’t functioning normally at that point. “We just sort of agreed that anything more was a bad idea and went into our separate rooms.”
“That’s it? You guys didn’t talk about it?”
“Not really. It was actually worse the next morning. Beck acted totally natural. Didn’t say a word. And I felt like an idiot, not knowing what to say. So we sort of… ignored it. Went down to breakfast but then finally broke the ice. By then we’d gone into festival mode, though.”
I told her about my little jealousy incident and our discussion on the way home. Recalling everything made it seem more real. Last night, after he dropped me off, I figured I’d be too exhausted to do anything other than pass right out. Instead, I lay on my bed, checking my phone to see if he texted. And basically obsessed over every word from the car talk.
“Holy. Shit.”
“Exactly. Now you know why we’re drinking wine on a Monday afternoon. I really need to dry out this week.”
“Same. Delaney and I… actually, never mind. Doesn’t matter. We need to figure this out.”
I love that she saidwe. I’d made friends in France, but there was nothing like old friendships with people who you’d known most of your life. It was good for the soul.
“So,” she said, as if trying to figure out a math problem. “You pretty much put the brakes on it as Beck is going to prove that he’s not the king of one-night stands and can take anything seriously for more than five minutes. Does that sum it up?”
“Kinda. But I’m second-guessing myself.”
“What are you second-guessing?”
“Can I get you ladies more wine?” an attendant asked. I hadn’t even seen him coming.
“You know what,” Jules responded for us. “We’ll take a bottle of whatever this is,” she said, lifting up her glass.
“Sure thing.”
“A bottle?” I asked. “We both have cars.”
Jules chuckled, picked up her phone and apparently sent off a text.
“What are you doing?”
“Asking Boo if he can pick us up later.”
“He’s still in town?”
“Yep. He got pulled into a squash tournament and actually beat the club pro.”
“Interesting. As for the second-guessing, I said no because I was scared. But what if I’m more scared of what happens if I say yes?”
