Page 59 of The Other Room

With a deep breath, I rolled my head to face her. “Jo, I was totally and completely in love with you since... well, since my first memories. And then there was that kiss where you dissed me and...”

“Kiss? What kiss? We never kissed!” Wide eyes stared into mine. “I would remember if we kissed.”

Chuckling, I nodded my head. “Oh, there was a kiss. Two in fact.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, my mother has a picture of us pecking when we were about five.”

“Okay, that I can see. But what other kiss?”

“The one at Andrea’s fourteenth birthday party.”

Her face lit up in recognition. “You mean spin-the-bottle? That didn’t count as a kiss! That was a game!”

I snorted. “Not to me! That was the day you shattered my little teeny tiny boy heart.”

Confusion danced across her face. “How? What? I don’t understand.”

“Well, up until that day I held out for the fact that maybe, just maybe, you’d see me as more than a friend. Then when the bottle landed on you, I thought that was finally my chance. I was so excited when I leaned over to kiss you. Like, probably the most excited I’d ever been in my whole life.” I laughed. “But then I kissed you. And instead of the fireworks and sparks I was sure would explode around us, you scrunched up your face, wiped your lips and spit repeatedly into the sand.”

“Oh my God.” She clasped a hand over her mouth. “I did do that.”

“Yep. You did. That memory is burned in my mind for all eternity. And so that day I vowed to force myself to get over you, and a couple months later Nikki waltzed in, so I threw everything I had into my fake infatuation so I would get over my feelings for you.”

“Holy shit,” she breathed.

“Yep.”

She fell silent for a moment, chewing on her lips while worried eyes searched mine. “There was a reason I acted like that,” she whispered.

“Yeah. The reason was I disgusted you!” I laughed. “Maybe I still...”

“No! That wasn’t the reason at all. I was crazy about you and I didn’t want anyone, especially you, to know. So, I pretended to be disgusted to ensure no one caught on to me.”

My mouth fell open as I struggled to find the words. “Wait... you liked me, too?”

She sucked her lip between her teeth and nodded. “Um, yeah. A lot.”

“Holy shit. You mean you shattered my little boy heart for nothing?”

She grimaced and nodded. “Apparently. I’m so sorry. I had no idea you liked me and that my response to our kiss was so heartbreaking. You never showed it! I had no idea, Matt! My God!”

She cupped her hands over her face, and I struggled to breathe. All these years. All these agonizing years and she’d liked me back. If only I’d been braver then. If only she’d been braver. If only we’d been so many things.

But the timing hadn’t been right. And life was all about timing.

“Holy shit, Jo. I had no idea you liked me, either. I really thought you just thought of me as good buddy Matt.”

“Well, I did. But I also felt a whole helluva lot more than that.”

Silence passed between us while my brain went into overdrive analyzing every interaction I’d had with Jo when we were kids. Searching for those signs I’d missed. Signs that could have saved me a whole lot of pain. How had I missed it?

Now I knew she’d liked me then, but that didn’t answer the big question.

The most important one.

Did she still feel the same way?