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That makes me chuckle. “He calls that my hero complex.”
Dani cracks a knowing grin. “Are you aware you get this wistful smile on your lips when you talk about him?”
After doing a quick mental catalog of the muscles in my face I realize she’s right. I’m smiling.
“Maybe you’re not so ACE after all?” she says softly.
“Told you it’s not black and white.” I duck my head self-consciously.
“Is this your first crush?”
“I’m not even sure that’s what it is.” I run a frustrated hand through my hair. “Liam and I… I can’t tell you why I relate to him without invading his privacy, but I do feel a connection to him. I don’t know what type of connection, though. Like, is it just a friend thing or something more?”
“Maybe it’s both. Maybe because you’re friends you could see it becoming something more. Like you have to be friends first.”
He said something similar, about me being comfortable with him, and while it’s true I’m comfortable with him, I could say that about a lot of people.
“If that’s the case, why haven’t I had a crush on any of my other friends?”
Dani presses her lips between her teeth and shrugs. “Were you ever attracted to any of them?”
“They’re attractive people.”
“That’s not what I asked. Were you attracted to them?”
“No.”
“Are you attracted to Liam?”
“How would I know that? I’ve never been attracted to anyone before.”
Dani pins me with a look that says ‘don’t be difficult,’ so with a heavy sigh I close my eyes and try to pull up an image of Liam.
The first thing that comes to mind is a pair of hazel eyes that skew brown if there’s a crease between his eyebrows, green when there isn’t, like when he was between my legs, peering up at me from beneath long lashes. Blond hair that looks shiny in the sun, soft when he flicks his head to get it out of his eyes, so that he can look at mine when he speaks. Full, pink lips that pull into a tentative smile more and more often. A long, lean torso. Smooth skin covering a rigid…
My eyes fly open when I realize my breaths are no longer slow and steady.
“That’s a yes.” Dani fans her face dramatically.
“I uh…” My face feels way too hot for a study session. Not in the panicky way I sometimes get when I try to analyze what I am, but in a ‘busted’ sort of way.
“Does he know?”
“Know what?”
Dani rolls her eyes. “That you have a crush on him?”
“I didn’t know until just now.”
“You mean, you haven’t noticed yourself getting anxious or excited around him. Sweaty palms, butterflies in the stomach, that sort of thing?”
“Maybe once or twice. Only in the last day or so.”
“So, are you gonna tell him?” Her greenish eyes are big and round as she waits for my answer.
“Why do you look so excited? A few minutes ago, you thought I needed a new roommate, and now, you want me to tell him I like him?”
“I may not get it personally, but you’re into him and you’re my friend, so…” She lifts a shoulder like that’s a perfectly clear explanation, and the irony is, I actually get it.
