Page 17 of Memories of You

He smiled, shaking his head in mock exasperation. “You’rereading my mind.”

Her smile spread into a delighted grin, and the trill of herlaughter eased his guilt. “It’s what I’m good at, remember? We always knew whateach other was thinking.”

He nodded and returned to sit beside her on the bed. Shescooted over so that her back was against the headboard, and he shifted so thathe was facing her.

“Are we okay?”

Once again, he wanted to laugh. “Under the circumstances, Ithink I should be the one asking you that.”

“We’re fine,” she said, reaching for his hand. “We’rereally, really fine.”

“Listen,” he began, then cleared his throat. “I, um, I justwant to be clear. The truth is I would happily have a repeat performance oflast night, but I know you don’t want that.”

He paused to watch her face, but her expression was entirelyunreadable. The only clue as to what was going on inside her head was the wayher eyes widened just slightly. But he didn’t know how to read that, so he justpressed on. “I won’t ask. I won’t push. I don’t want...”

“What?”

“I don’t want to toss away what I think we got back byletting sex get in the way. I know this was a one-off. I know it, and I’m coolwith that. I suppose I should probably regret sleeping with you at all,” hesaid. “But I don’t. We found each other again, and we both had a good time, butit was a one-off. No friends with benefits, right? But I still really want tokeep the friend part, and I want to make sure that we’re on the same page.”

Her face lit with her smile. “You really are the lastgentleman standing,” she said as she took his hand. “And I really do have greattaste in friends.”

He studied her face. “So we’re good? You don’t feel weirdabout the whole thing?”

“I don’t. I really don’t. And I’m so grateful for everythingthat you’re saying. Last night, it felt... It felt like a great reunion, and itfelt like taking care of old business. And all of that is good. Because it alsofelt like a start.”

“And you don’t want to keep on…?”

“I—” She shook her head, then cleared her throat. “I toldyou. I’m not interested in a friends-with-benefits thing. Flings aren’t mystyle.” She leaned forward and took his hands. “But if I was that girl, I wouldtotally be into it with you, at least so long as it didn’t screw up ourfriendship. Because I can’t tell you how glad I am to have you back.”

“Friends forever,” he said, then extended his elbow in thebizarre version of a handshake they’d come up with in fifth grade. A laughbubbled out of her, and she bumped her elbow with his.

“Forever,” she said.

He nodded, and though he was glad about the outcome, hecouldn’t deny the little voice in his head that told him he was closing thedoor on something extraordinarily special.

Chapter Eight

“So how’d it go?”

Renly’s been gone for about an hour; he left after giving mestrict orders to lock the place up and not open the door to strangers. I’vebeen buzzing through my apartment since, burning off energy by cleaning. He’sgone to get his bike and run some errands, but he’s coming back in a few hoursto escort me to the office and check it out before my afternoon meeting withDarrin. I’m not worried—not really—but I’d feel pretty stupid if some scarystalker was hiding under my desk.

Marge is coming in, too, which is a plus. She does all theclient billing, and often works on Saturdays. So it’ll be good to have someoneelse in the office, if only because it looks more professional than just me andDarrin huddled behind a computer.

Right now, though, Lilah’s here, and her question is forcingme to take a break and process everything that’s going through my head.

“It went great,” I say, which is the absolute literal truth.“We caught up. It was awesome hanging out with him again. We still really,really click.” As I say the last, I feel my cheeks start to burn and I quicklylook down.

Lilah, of course, misses nothing. “Oh my God,” she says.“You slept with him.”

“No, I—”

“Do not even,” she says. “Now tell me everything.”

I sigh, silently conceding the truth. “I have no idea how it happened,” I admit. “Wewere catching up, and we’d been drinking whiskey, and we were both reallychill, and then ...” I trail off with a shrug, and Lilah squeals and starts toclap.

“I’m so happy for you. This is like the best thing ever.Dating your best friend.”

I shake my head. “No. It was a one-time thing.”