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“Brother’s best friend,” she says, giving me a double eyebrow lift. “That’s my favorite trope.”
“Right,” I say, spinning my chair back around to put an end to this conversation.
Oddly enough, that’s my favorite, too.
Graham
“OH MY GOSH,” LUCY SAYS after her first bite of ají de gallina. We both took lunch breaks once the delivery arrived, so the food is still nice and warm. “That tastes like heaven in my mouth.”
“It’s good, right?”
We’re sitting in the break room, each with a take-out box full of the chicken dish. It’s creamy with a hint of spice, served over rice with a hard-boiled egg on the side.
“There’s just such an explosion of flavor,” Lucy says.
Come on. I’m trying to be a better man here. But she’s making that difficult. There are too many innuendo-filled things I could say right now. Is she doing this on purpose?
I literally had to stop myself earlier when she asked me if I was going to whip something up in the break room.
I’m being tested. This is a test of my strength. The question is, is thinking it just as bad as saying it? I’m starting to think so. I need to flush it all out of my brain—all the stupid lines full of insinuation that I’ve used so often in the past, making it feel like second nature. A bad habit. What if, at some point, I can’t hold it anymore and I just start spewing them out, like word vomit?
I need to steer clear of Lucy. Especially after yesterday. I know this, and yet part of me—a big part—doesn’t want to stay away. I feel a sense of comfort around her. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s from my past, from a time when life didn’t seem so hard. Sure, I had family issues back then—the same ones I have today, in fact. My dad is still the same lying and cheating jerk he was back then. But even knowing that, it was an easier time. And Lucy reminds me of that.
Old me would have kissed her in the closet. I would have had her pushed up against the shelves, my hand up the back of her scrub top, when Evie walked in. My hesitance is what ended up saving us. That and some interesting acting skills from Lucy.
I’m taking it as a win. It’s progress ... except for one thing: I wanted to. Pretty badly. I wanted to wrap a hand around the back of her neck and draw her to me. I wanted to dip my head and take her bottom lip into my mouth. It was the nearness of her, her hands on my chest, the way she smelled, that look in her eyes. It’s been a long time since I’ve been that close to a woman.
But we didn’t, and I did hesitate, and so I’m going to focus on that as a good thing. Even if things were awkward the rest of the night. Lucy would hardly look at me, even when we were in patient rooms together. When she gave me stats, it was stiff and robotic, with very little eye contact. I wanted to talk to her, to say it was no big deal, to get us back to ... whatever was happening between us. I think it might be friendship.
It’s been so long since I’ve had a real friend, and I don’t think I’ve ever had one that’s a woman.
Could I forge a friendship with Lucy? Last night excluded, we did seem to have a good thing going. The start of something, maybe. Or it could have been a fluke. Maybe, if offered, Lucy wouldn’t want my friendship. She’s probably heard things about me; I’m sure Kyle has told her some stories.
Why does the thought that she may not want to have a platonic relationship with me make me want to try even more?
Great. Something to tell Gloria.
“Are you going to eat?” She looks at me, holding a forkful of food.
“Yeah,” I say, shaking myself out of my thoughts, picking up my fork, and loading it with some of the creamy, shredded chicken.
“Good call on this place,” she says. “This is the best thing I’ve tasted in a long time.”
I want off this train. Right now.
“What made you want to try something different tonight?” I ask in an attempt to stop her from saying this stuff.
She sets her fork down and leans back in her chair. “If I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh.”
“Okay,” I agree.
“It’s this stupid challenge thing my friend Morgan made for me.”
“A challenge?”
“Yes. For the next month, she’s given me a challenge to do each day.”
I pull my brows inward. “Why? What’s the reasoning?”
