Chapter 26
Julia
Drew: I need to see you again. Maybe we can make a date happen soon?
“Julia! You have to see this! Come here!” Ace calls from the bedroom of my apartment, having officially moved in with me for the time being while the fire cleanup in his place is underway. I still can’t believe he almost torched his entire place—this entire building—trying to get rid of a bug.
“One second!” I yell back, fingers poised on my phone to type a text back to Drew.
I haven’t exactly detailed the fact that Ace is staying with me to him, and I’m not quite sure I’m going to.
There’s not really a good way to explain to a guy you like that another guy is sleeping in your bed every night, even if he is your best friend with whom you’ve done it hundreds of times.
Especially, given the history of how Drew feels about Ace’s intentions.
Ever since Ace joined all my classes, an extra layer of tension has spread between the three of us.
I also haven’t had as much time to hang out with classes taking up my time too, and I know Drew’s starting to wonder if I’m even interested anymore.
I don’t know if tonight will work…or the next couple days…but maybe next week?
I wince, deleting the text entirely. That sounds rude and like I’m trying to brush him off in the worst way, and I’m not. I’m enjoying the time I’ve been spending with Drew a lot. I just…think the bed might be a little tight with three of us.
Not that I’m even close to sleeping with Drew. I’m not. We’ve barely even kissed for real, and physically, I just don’t know if I’m completely ready to go all the way with someone. I know I’m technically an adult at eighteen—almost nineteen—but sometimes I still feel so young.
I blow out a breath and refocus, trying to think of a better message.
Me: I know. I miss seeing you too! It’s just been so busy getting back into the swing of classes. Maybe next weekend?
“Julia!” Ace yells again, and under the gun, I push send without overthinking it this time. I toss my phone to the surface of my kitchen island and power walk toward my bedroom, a tiny bit of apprehension about him accidentally setting my place on fire too making me move faster.
The door is pulled but not shut, so I shove through it and toward the bathroom and my walk-in closet, where the light shines out across my perfect comforter Ace made sure I got.
“Where are you?” I ask, choosing between the door to the bathroom and the closet with both interest and hesitancy when his voice calls out from the bathroom.
“In here!”
“You’d better not be pooping,” I mutter under my breath as I push the door open and step inside.
Thankfully, he’s not by the toilet at all, but he is a familiar shade of greenish-brown, all the way down to the hair of his eyebrows, a low-slung pair of basketball shorts tucked into his underwear at the tops of his thighs.
I gasp, and he smiles even bigger.
“Oh my God, Ace. What are you doing?”
“I found your self-tanner!” he exclaims proudly, spinning around so I can get all the angles. “And I know using it without asking was a boundary crossed, but I’ve already found it online and ordered you two more bottles even though I didn’t even use half of this one.”
“Why is it in your eyebrows?”
Said eyebrows pull together. “Do you not do that?”
“I don’t even put it on my face!” I shriek with a laugh. “How long have you had it on?”
“I don’t know,” he mutters. “Thirty minutes?”
“Oh my God! That’s express tan!” I yell. “The max is an hour. We have to get it off your face now!”
My Apple Watch pings with a notification of a text message from Drew, but I clear it without reading it and lunge for the shower to get the water running.
I grab a washcloth from under my sink and my face exfoliator, and I put them on the counter while Ace spins in a circle, clueless over what to do.
“In the shower, you’re going to rinse off all the tanner thoroughly. Then, I want you to use this on your face and scrub it. Just trust me, you’re going to wish it were Halloween if you don’t.”
“What if I need help?” he asks, waggling his brows at me, and I shake my head.
“No. You’ve got to strip down, and I’m drawing a line. Now get in there and hose down, quick.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he agrees, hooking his fingers into the sides of his shorts and starting to shove them down.
“And, Ace,” I call from the door, pausing his motion just before I see all his goods.
“Yes?”
“You’d better scrub my shower to within an inch of your life when you’re done with your body, do you hear me? If I come in here and find self-tanner staining even a speck of tile, I’m putting you out on the street.”
He shoots a freaking finger gun at me. “I got you, girl.”
I head out of the bathroom, through the bedroom and back toward the kitchen to grab my phone, but before I’m even through the living room, Ace is calling my name again.
I sigh, turn around, and head back to help him through the door.
My best friend is doing what my best friend does—adding the spice to life with self-tanner.
He’s so unpredictable it makes me smile.
Drew’s message can wait a little while longer.
“I’m sorry,” Ace apologizes again from his side of the pillow wall I put between us before we tucked in to go to sleep tonight. The bedroom’s been quiet for thirty minutes, and I thought he’d fallen asleep, but I guess I’m wide awake too, so I can’t throw stones.
“For what?” I ask.
“For the tanner. And the kitchen towel I stained. And…for the best-friend kiss at the lake. I assume that’s why you have the pillow fort between us tonight.”
I sigh. “It’s fine, Ace. All of it is fine. And the pillow fort is just because… Well, because I know we’ve done it before, but don’t you think it’s a little weird of us to sleep and cuddle? We’re not dating, we’re friends.”
He rolls over to face me, smashing down the pillow between us to get a better view of me, so I roll over too. His eyes shine with innocence in the moonlight. “I don’t think anything we do is weird, Lia. I just think it’s us. Is Drew giving you crap about it?”
I shake my head. “He…doesn’t know you’re staying here.”
“He doesn’t? Why not?”
“I don’t know. Because we’re not officially a couple, so I don’t really owe it to him to tell him, and I don’t know… He’s jealous. Thinks you like me, like me.”
“And so what if I do?”
“Ace,” I whisper.
“No,” he says, grabbing the pillow and tossing it on the floor behind himself to clear the space between us.
“I mean it. What’s he care if I like you or not?
Shouldn’t he just be focused on his own shit?
Treating you right, showing up when you need him, making himself memorable.
He doesn’t need to be worrying about me if he’s not worrying about himself, right? ”
“Oh, come on,” I reason. “You can’t tell me if all your little girlfriends knew we were in bed together right now, they wouldn’t be jealous.”
“I don’t have any little girlfriends.”
I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean. Your fan club.”
He shrugs. “Conveniently for me, I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks.”
“Yeah,” I agree with a laugh. “You usually don’t.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I just mean…you’re not serious about dating and relationships like I am. And that’s okay, it’s you. But it means you’re not going to understand where I’m coming from.”
“I can be serious, Julia.”
I shake my head, the overwhelming urge to tell him to prove it to me clamming me up tighter than a vise. “Let’s just drop it, okay? I’m tired.”
I roll over and face the window again, tucking my hands under my cheek and willing myself to be realistic. This is Ace. My best friend. My best bud. My comfort.
Five long seconds pass in silence before he wraps an arm around me from behind and pulls me tight into his front, and I let out a million pounds of air I didn’t even know I was holding in.
It’s peace. It’s familiarity and friendship and, maybe, I don’t know, a little more than that. I relax.
Within a minute, I’m asleep, Drew, once again, forgotten.