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“Goodnight, Emmett.”
And with that, Aly got up and left me alone in the living room, my dick hard and my jaw tight as I wondered how the fuck I was going to survive a whole goddamned summer of this.
9
ALY
“Wow. Someone’s surprisingly eager to get out,” Evie grinned as she watched me fly through closeout on Tuesday. “You finally getting excited to go home to that hottie?”
“Uh, no. Not exactly.”
I wasn’t so much excited as I was determined to get rid of the weirdness hanging in the air after last night’s movie fiasco. As far as playing it cool went, I’d totally failed and it was embarrassing. While Emmett sat totally unaffected next to me, I’d acted like a complete spaz, and it made me feel the need to normalize things between us.
Upon confessing as much to Evie, she laughed.
“So what’s your plan of attack to get back in the friend zone?” she asked, running the sales reports as I did final checks on the closing side work.
“Honestly, I don’t have one. I just figured hanging around him and having a conversation while acting completely normal would be good enough. I just want to prove to him that I’m fine. That I’m not like, actively wanting him.”
“Which you are. But – ooh! You know what you should do? Call him ‘dude’ as much as possible,” Evie suggested excitedly.
When I flashed a weird look, her excitement waned to a sigh.
“Mike has been calling me that these days and I fucking hate it,” she explained, making me pout. “It just makes me feel so… desexualized. Like he sees me as nothing more than a friend. ‘Cause honestly, has anyone in the history of having sex been like, ‘You have such beautiful breasts, dude,’ or ‘Mmm, dude, you feel amazing inside me?’”
> “Oh my God, Evie.”
I scrunched up my face because I didn’t want to laugh. This was her actual life we were talking about – she just did such a good job of turning it into comedy. It was a defense mechanism. I knew that.
But every time I tried to talk to Evie about her relationship with Mike, she asked for us to table it. And since I had my own off-limits conversation topics, I respected her wish.
“Alright. Calling him ‘dude.’ Definitely doing that,” I nodded, trailing Evie into the office where she dropped the money into the safe. “Are you heading home now?” I asked, grabbing our purses off their hooks.
“Nope. Couple’s therapy.”
“Oh. Right. Has that been helping?” I asked hopefully.
“Totally. Like, so much,” Evie said, flashing me that tight-lipped, crazy-eyed smile that meant yeah right, fat chance. I sighed and let my shoulders slump. “I’m sorry,” I said, defeated as Evie and I made our way out the restaurant.
“And you wonder why I’m dying for you to fuck Emmett,” she snorted as we stood outside to lock up. “My life outside this restaurant sucks. I need to live vicariously through somebody.”
“Well, if you want to live vicariously through me and Emmett being just friends, then by all means, because that’s how things are staying all summer. And till the end of time.”
“Mm-hm,” Evie said, flashing me that same tight-lipped, crazy-eyed smile as we headed for our cars.
There was some action movie blaring on the TV when I got home, so I was surprised to walk in the kitchen and find Emmett reading with intense focus at the counter. He had his laptop out and a backwards cap on his head. That paired with his baseball tee and sweats, and he looked like the quintessential jock I’d known as a teenager.
Really, Aly? I cursed myself for finding him so insanely attractive like this. It was like an admission that I’d had a crush on him in high school, and that made me feel all hot and prickly in my cheeks. Good job. Playing it super cool already, I berated myself just as Ozzy looked up from his toy and barked a hello.
The second he did, Emmett’s head snapped up.
“Hey!” he said, promptly shutting his laptop. I cocked my head slowly.
“That was… sketchy,” I laughed, though I was grateful for the moment because somehow, his being caught off-guard had me feeling more relaxed and confident.
It made me smirk and pin my narrowed eyes on Emmett as I went to the fridge to grab my bottle of water. Something about the way he leaned on top of his closed laptop was just so incredibly suspicious.
“Dude.” I shook my head. “What were you doing?”
