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He bursts out laughing and I glare at him.
“What?”
“You know it’s not like that with me and Faye. Never has been, never will be.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to,” he says, clutching at his stomach. “You’ve got it bad, man.”
I sit and stretch my legs. “I want to take her out.”
“Out?”
“Yeah.”
“Like… on a…”
“On a date. For real. I don’t want to do this friend thing anymore.” Once the words are out, I feel lighter, and exposed. “I was thinking of taking her to see the swifts.”
“Really?” He looks surprised. “You know about the swifts?”
“You think so little of me?”
He chuffs and tilts his chin. “I bet she’d love that. She likes birds.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
He shakes his head and looks back to the pool where a couple pushes each other off a boulder into the water.
“You’re gonna lock that up, right?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me, son. Will you lock that up? Tell her how you feel?”
I feel my cheeks heat and scrub my hand down my face. “I… It’s not that simple, man.”
“You’ve got to make it clear,” he says. “Unless you’re just messing around.”
“Come on, man,” I say. “You don’t mess around with a girl like Faye.”
“You don’t?”
“Of course not. She’s endgame.” The words are out of my mouth before I can think about them. His shit-eating grin should make me angry or at least irritated.
But it doesn’t. Because what I said is true. Faye is real, and she is absolutely a keeper. I would be an idiot if I don’t try to keep her.
“Fuck, man,” he says, shaking his head and moving across the bridge. “If you haven’t locked that down, you need to. Pronto. Before you leave, at the very least.”
“I leave in a week,” I say.
“Well, then that’s your deadline,” he says.
I sigh and then smile. Because he’s right, and I’m excited.
“You’re finally getting it, aren’t you?” Freddy says as a kid cannonballs into the pool at the base of the waterfall.
“I’m in deep, aren’t I?”
