She waits a second, almost afraid to say it. As if speaking her next words have been the only thing holding her back.
“Rule number six: If things get too real for either one of us, we have to tell each other,” she explains finally. "I mean real feelings other than attraction. It could mess up the plan."
“Worried you’ll fall in love with me, Wren?” I tease. A wicked grin spreads across my face when her cheeks heat up.
“It’s you that I’m worried about,” she says back without missing a beat. I grumble and she laughs, pushing my head gently so my elbows buckle, and my head hits the pillow.
I hate how right she is. One sultry look from her and I would completely devour her. If she wasn’t so committed to keeping our friendship purely a friendship, I would have grabbed her waist and pulled her into me by now and let her straddle me. I shake my head to get out all of the fantasies.
“And what about your side of the deal?” I ask, after staring at her for too long, finding my ceiling more interesting.
“You’ll come to the gym with me whenever you have time. Then we’ll figure out a good food plan and I’ll do some of my own research on hockey training in the meantime,” she says.
“Sounds good. It’s Sophia Aoki's birthday party next weekend so we could go to that as our first public outing,” I suggest but as soon as I said the word ‘party,’ she groaned. “What? Don’t tell me that you hate parties.”
“I hate the feeling of being drunk and I hate being around strangers who are,” she admits with a shudder.
“Well, if you want this to work, we’re going to have to go to a few parties,” I challenge.
“Is that all you do, Miles?” she asks, leaning into me from above. I swallow. Hard.
“When I don’t have any important games coming up, yes,” I admit.
“Why?” she questions, genuinely curious.
“Because… it’s fun. You should try it sometime if you even know what fun is."
"Oh, I know what fun is," she bites back.
"Oh, really? What doyoudo in your spare time?”
“Skate. And when I’m not doing that, sleeping,” she says, her voice suddenly sounding miles away.
I don’t know when we got so close and when she started to touch my hair again but we both haven’t made a fuss. She’s had this stress in her face since she got here but it’s finally seemed to smooth out. It seems like she needs this more than me. Her soft hands graze my forehead and then push into my hair.What the hell do you use in your hair?I hear her mumble, almost angrily.
“That doesn’t sound very fun,” I say quietly when I remember we were just talking.
“It isn’t,” she says ruefully. We sit like this for a minute or two before she moves her hand. “I should go home. It’s getting late.”
“Okay,” I get out quickly before I ask her to stay. She picks up her duffle bag, but she doesn’t move. She just stands, chewing on her bottom lip, looking at me. “I hope you feeling better, soon.”
“What?” she says after a while, as if I caught her in a trance.
“You said your mom was breathing down your neck. That you were stressed. I just think you should take a break or something.”
She shakes her head with a laugh. “There’s no rest for the wicked,” she says, her smile twitching. “This helped, though. Thank you, Miles.”
“Anytime.”
CHAPTER 10
WREN
I’ve been trying to justify what happened with me and Miles for the last few days. Or more of what didn’t happen. Who was I to sit there and stroke his hair like his fucking real girlfriend? It was dangerous. Lethal. I had a shit week, skating until my hands and feet were numb and there he was with a warm shower and a shirt that felt too comfortable against my skin. I knew what I was doing when I walked out the shower, basically naked, but I couldn’t stop. A huge part of me didn’t want to. I didn’t leave my clothes on purpose. I was too busy trying to get to his house after I almost broke the treadmill from cranking it up every few seconds. Luckily, I left before I did something I’d regret.
I went back two days ago to help him with his meal plan which was too easy. He was willing to throw out all the junk he had for healthy alternatives. I tried to give him his shirt back, but he refused it. “I don’t want it back,” he said. “It looks better on you anyway.”
I need to figure out a way to control myself before this tension turns into more before we’ve even publicly announced our relationship.
