She sighs and looksover at me, in a “you know how Mason is”type of way. “He’s been asking to buy me a car for weeks and I keep telling himno. I mean, we don’t even officially live together since my stuff is still inthe guest room, so I can’t let him buy me a damn car. Then, yesterday, hedecidesheneeds a new truck andinstead of trading this one in, he gave me the keys.”
“That’s cute,” Isay.
She rolls her eyes.“It’s his sneaky way of making sure I’m driving something safer even though Iwon’t let him buy me a car.”
“That’s stillpretty cute,” I tell her.
Her lips tiltupward. “Yeah … it is.”
I’m smiling at howcute they are together, and it temporarily takes away the pain in my chest. Butas we pull onto the highway and leave the airport behind, the sad feelings comeright back to me. Embarrassing heartache can only be pushed aside for a few moments,I guess.
“So, I have to tellyou what happened just because I can’t keep it to myself,” I begin.
Livi cocks aneyebrow, keeping her gaze on the road. “I’m intrigued.”
I breathe in deeplyand let it out in a sigh. “It’s so stupid. I’m so stupid. And I want to justforget all about it and go on with my life, okay? But I want to tell youquickly just so I can get it all out of my system. Also, under no circumstancescan Mason hear about this. Promise?”
She looks over atme. “If something bad happened, he will want to kick some Arizona ass, Alexa.”
I shake my head.“Don’t worry. Nothing bad happened. I’m just embarrassed.”
We stop at a redlight and she gives me a pointed look, like she’s considering if it’s worth lyingto her boyfriend for me. “Fine,” she says after a moment. “What you say in thistruck will stay between us.”
“Thanks.”
I play with claspon my watch band as I think of the best way to tell her everything. Then, Ijust start from the beginning. I tell her about the Texas nametag, and the coffeecreamer fiasco and how Gabe first talked to me because of our shared Texasnametags. Then I tell her about our talk, and how cute he is, and the dinner wehad at the hotel restaurant.
She listenspolitely, barely saying anything while I talk. I can tell she’s holding backthough, and that she’s dying for more info. But that was all the easy stuff.Now it gets harder.
“So …” I sayslowly. “By then I’d had three drinks and I was feeling … I don’t know, stupidI guess.”
Livi looks over atme. “What happened?”
“He walked me to myhotel room like a total gentleman, and he was about to leave and I—I—”
“Oh my God, I’mdying here,” Livi says. “What happened?”
I bite the insideof my lip so hard I can taste blood. Heat rises to my cheeks. I am soembarrassed to admit this to myself, much less to my best friend. “I pulled himinto my room and made out with him.”
“Nice!” Livi saysexcitedly. “Tell me again how hot he was?”
I roll my eyes anddescribe him again. She’s grinning like she doesn’t think this is a big deal atall. But that’s because she doesn’t know the whole story.
I take a deepbreath and tell her the rest.
“And then I justleft,” I say, after recounting the whole night. “I just snuck out and left.”
“But why?” Livisays. “He was great! You should have stayed.”
“No.” I shake myhead. “I was just a one night stand to him. He didn’t care about me.”
“I don’t think youcan be totally sure of that,” she says, shaking her head. “He might be intoyou.”
“He was intohooking up with me. That’s all.” I look out the window. “I just feel like suchan idiot. I mean, I thought I could do this fun no-strings-attached thing, butI couldn’t. I ended up liking him like I’m some kind of stupid kid.”
“There’s nothingwrong with liking someone,” Livi says. She reaches over and squeezes my hand.“I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”
I know she’s justbeing nice, so I don’t argue. Soon, we’re back in town, and Livi drives to myapartment. When she parks next to my car, she turns to me. “Okay, I have anidea.”
