28. Leah
28
Leah
I lay on my bed, stare up at the ceiling, and sigh dramatically like I’m a very smitten sixteen-year-old girl. “I can still smell him, Andrea.”
“Wait, can we skip back to the almost kiss?” The speaker of my phone booms with her request.
But I’m stuck on Cooper’s scent. Man, I love Cooper’s scent. No other man on the planet has ever smelled like Cooper Bailey. “He’s like breathing in bergamot. Do you have any idea how enticing bergamot is?”
“Ah, no,” she deadpans. “I have no idea what bergamot is.”
I shut my eyes and pull in one long breath. I fist at the comforter beneath me. “It’s hypnotizing. It should be outlawed. It?—”
“Leah!” Andrea’s loud gripe pierces my ear and breaks my entire bergamot hypnosis. “The almost kiss? Finish what you started!”
“What else do you want me to say? He almost kissed me. That’s it.”
“That’s it? That’s far from it. He almost kissed you because…” Andrea draws the last word out, waiting for an answer. How do I tell her that I basically told him never mind ? My feelings are ping-ponging from one extreme to the next. That isn’t okay—right? That kind of behavior needs a whoa . A slow down . A maybe think about this, Leah, and don’t do anything crazy. He is my lawyer, after all. He’s my once-nemesis, newly forgiven friend, and legal advisor. I feel like that recipe should not include kissing. Despite my growing crush.
“Almost…” Andrea says. “So, there was a hurricane? Or maybe lightning hit the shop last night, right in between the two of you. Or an earthquake! One that only happened on the east side of town. It cracked the floor of the shop open and split the two of you apart.” She sighs like this is some sad true story she’s watching on the Lifetime channel. “Cooper is on the other side of the world now, working his way back to you.”
“Andrea!” I lift up on one elbow and peer down at my phone. “Will you stop?”
“So, no lightning? No earthquake? I’m sorry, I’m confused, then.” She huffs out a grumbled laugh. “Leah, I like Cooper. I know what he did to you in high school was awful. I also know that he never intended to be awful. He’s a good guy. He was a kid who had no concept of the consequences his actions might create.”
“I know that too,” I say—because I do. I believe it. “ Now .”
“In a world of not-so-great guys, he’s a good one,” she says, and I picture her stomping her foot. “So, the reason that he only almost kissed you better be good.”
I pick up my phone, and lay back down once more. “PJ showed up at the shop, screaming and pounding on the door. ”
Andrea sucks in a gasp. “No! That Pompous Jerk ruined your kiss with Cooper?”
He did. And oh mama, did I ever want that kiss.
But PJ came. He stopped what might have been. Then Cooper gave me the chance to stand up for myself. I needed that chance, especially with PJ. But Cooper defended me too. Called me his girl . That’s when I knew we’d fallen into the twilight zone.
Because I am not Cooper Bailey’s girl.
I’m his friend. Even that’s new.
And Andrea needs to understand that.
A breathy sigh falls from my chest—one that Andrea can hear over the phone.
“What’s that? Wait. I know that sound. That sound means there’s more to the story and I’m not going to like it. Which means PJ didn’t get punched in the throat and knocked on his can.”
I swallow.
“Leah,” she whines.
“PJ metaphorically got punched in the throat. It was great. You would have been proud of me.”
“But?” She waits.
“I’m trying to be smart, Andrea.”
“What does that mean?”
“I told Cooper we should only be friends. He’s my lawyer. Believe me, it’s for the best.”
“Argh.” Andrea’s loud, ghastly groan sounds through the speakerphone. “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say in your entire life!”
“You’ve known me two and a half years.”
But she isn’t finished. “And I’ve heard you say some pretty dumb things—like ‘I love PJ,’ and ‘Isn’t PJ gifted?’ and ‘PJ is the best.’” My friend gripes and groans, ending with an overly heavy sigh.
“All done?” I ask.
“Come on, Leah. Are you serious?”
“Don’t you want to know what PJ wanted? Why he came over?”
“Yes, I do. In one minute.” She takes a three-second pause. “First, I need a clearer picture. Tell me again why you and Cooper and kissing won’t work?”
“I told you. He’s my lawyer. Besides, I’ve disliked the man most of my life. We’re finally in a good place.”
“So?” she says.
“So what if we kissed, what if we started something, and then it all went wrong?”
“So what if it does?” Andrea says. “You’ve hated him most of your life. It’s not like things would be all that different than before.”
She’s right. It wouldn’t be all that different. And yet—I don’t want to go back to hating Cooper Bailey. Ever .
“And!” she bellows into the receiver, “what if things were to go right? Think about that!”