“Great,” I say cheerfully. “Let’s be more than friends. Being friends is overrated anyway.”
She rolls her eyes, but a smile plays at her lips and I seize the opportunity to keep talking. “Bess, I am crazy about you. I wish you hadn’t left earlier. Fuck Bryce.”
“I think that’s the exact opposite of what he’d like me to do,” she says sardonically. The mental image that conjures up in my mind makes me grimace with jealousy. “That’s obviously not what I meant.”
Kicking my feet, I roll Bess’s desk chair across the carpet until my knees knock into hers and I’m sitting right in front of her. “Why did you let me inside instead of kicking me out?”
She stares at her lap. I reach up and take her hands into mine, rubbing my thumb across her palm. “I guess I just wanted to see if you were truly being genuine,” she says, looking up at me through her eyelashes.
I stand, pulling her up with me, my hands sliding around her waist and holding her close. She lets her head rest against my chest and I hold her tight, breathing in her scent.
“I have never been so serious in my life,” I whisper. “I want you to be my girl. If not now, then soon. Please let me in, Bess. Give me a chance.”
She pulls up to look at me, and I give her a smile, hoping she’s about to kiss me again. Her eyes fill with tears, and she looks away.
