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She narrows her eyes playfully. “I kind of want to hear you say it again.”
I lean in close to her, reaching forward to grab an egg roll. “Wok For U has better food than any restaurant in Chicago,” I repeat, and a smile transforms her face. “Happy?”
“Very.” Her eyes sparkle.
Jesus, it means everything to see that spark back in her eyes, especially knowing I’m the one who put it there.
I sit back in the chair and eat my egg roll. I want to ask her a bunch of questions, but I’m mindful that she hasn’t asked me once about my life back in Chicago. Maybe that’s the way we should keep it. If we cross the line into some new type of friendship, the line will undoubtedly get blurry.
“I’ll come over tomorrow to work on the pictures, but I’m training with Jamison first thing in the morning. I could bring lunch.”
She shakes her head. “That’s okay. I got this, Rylan. Concentrate on yourself and spend some time with your family.”
I knew she’d say that, and I have no plans to do what she says. “My siblings work, and my nieces and nephews have school. I can spare a few hours to help you. Do you really think I almost got pummeled by Skinny Rick to not get credit for the slideshow?”
“Well, don’t feel obligated.” She shoves another piece of chicken in her mouth.
“Why don’t you come to the gym with me? It’ll be like old times.” I try to keep my voice light and airy.
She laughs and almost chokes on her chicken but manages to swallow it. “And make a fool of myself? No thanks.”
“You used to help me all the time.”
She looks at her knee and back at me. “That was before.”
I lightly tap her knee with my foot. “You’re healthy now.”
“Rylan…”
She doesn’t want me to fight her, and I guess it isn’t my job to fight her anymore. Although I loved seeing the Calista I fell in love with several times tonight, the contagious smile and laugh that makes my life brighter, she’s going to do what she wants. She’s as stubborn as they come and that’s saying something coming from me.
I hold up my hands. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”
She says nothing and places the chopsticks in the container, standing. She grabs her laptop, puts in one of the flash drives we got from Declan’s storage unit, and the first picture that comes up is him and Aubrey at prom our senior year. They’re at my parents’ house, in the front where my mom plants flowers every year.
“Prom,” she says, glancing at me behind her.
I shift over to sit on the couch as she sits on the floor. She clicks a few times and I wonder if it’s to see a picture of us or if she just wants to see how many she has to choose from.
“They really have known one another most of their lives,” I say.
“We have them beat by a few years.” She smiles up at me with that cocky, competitive smile of hers.
She puts the pictures on slideshow mode so she can continue to eat. I lean on the couch and watch a montage of our best friends dating, but I really want to see Calista and me instead. I deny myself the urge to kiss her and tell her how much we’re meant for each other, that there’s a solution to what’s keeping us apart.
Instead, we continue watching, as if the fact that this wedding could’ve easily been ours isn’t on either of our minds.
Fourteen
Calista
I wake up on the couch and immediately think that tonight I’ll go back to my apartment because my back feels as if I slept on a slab of concrete. I briefly tried the bed last night but the mattress was so old I couldn’t sleep from the metal coils poking up into my back, not to mention the insane amount of squeaking every time I’d so much as move a muscle on that thing.
Fumbling for my phone to check the time, I see a text from Rylan.
Don’t want to say I told you so… but told you so.
Attached is a screenshot from the Buzz Wheel app. I really wish I knew who was behind this thing.
