Page 45 of Bless My Body

He answers me with a simple, “Hmm.”

“You haven’t been answering any of my texts. I was worried.” I take a seat on the edge of his bed.

“Yeah, sorry,” he replies. “I just wasn’t sure what to say, I guess.”

“Look, I know I may have reacted badly after, you know, the kiss.” It feels awkward even saying

it out loud. “But I just needed time to process everything. I mean, I wasn’t expecting my best friend to

kiss me, you know? You had been thinking about it. You knew you were going to do it. It kinda came

out of nowhere for me.”

“Celine, you know I’ve had a thing for you since the moment I met you,” he counters like that is

supposed to explain why he chose that night to kiss me.

“I didn’t realize you still felt that way. It’s been years.” I feel bad just saying it out loud. Knowing

he’s had feelings for me for years makes my heart hurt. I really thought he wanted to be just friends. I

thought we were on the same page. Clearly, I thought wrong.

“Well, now you know.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.” I can hear the faint sound of the TV coming from the living room, but other

than that, it’s silent. The silence drags on a few moments too long for my liking. “Can we talk about

this thirty-day thing?”

His eyes shoot to mine, and I notice a little crease between his brows. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to talk to you about it all week, but you’ve been ignoring me,” I tease. He

mutters something under his breath that sounds a lot like, “Fuck.”

“So, we have sex for thirty days, and then what? Are you sure we would be able to go back to

being just friends?”

“You’re so sure you would want to stop the sex after thirty days?” There’s the cocky best friend I

know and love. He thinks sex with him will be too good to give up. I bite the inside of my cheek to

keep from laughing.

“Hypothetically speaking, let’s go over both scenarios.”

He runs his hand through his damp hair. I’m assuming he took a shower recently. “Well, if we

decide it’s not working out after thirty days, then we drop the sex and go back to just being friends. I

think that would be easy enough. Our friendship will stay consistent over the thirty days. It’s just the

sex we’re adding in. It seems easy enough to put in and take out that element.”

I nod, letting his words soak in. That makes sense. We’ll still be friends, just with extra benefits