6. Parker
Parker
“I’m stealing your bed,” Blair grumbles from the couch the next morning. Last night she said she would sleep on the couch so she wouldn’t get me or Juliet sick, but she looks even worse today. “That couch is made of rocks.”
I can’t help it as a laugh escapes. “Pretty sure it’s not.”
“I’m stealing your bed and you can try to sleep on the couch if you don’t believe me,” she says, pulling a blanket she found in the linen closet tightly around her. “You have basically five minutes to get your stuff out so I can lie down and go to sleep before I barf again.”
“Noted,” I say.
I don’t know where I’ll sleep tonight or where to put my bag, but I know better than to get in Blair’s way. She gets what she wants, and when she’s sick? She definitely gets everything she wants. I’m not about to stand in her way.
Thankfully, all my stuff is still in my bag.
I grab my glasses off of the dresser, slide them on, and head back to the small living area.
Blair, wrapped in her blanket, shuffles down the hallway and into the room I just vacated.
The door shuts softly behind her. I sit on the couch, grimacing when I realize she might be right: there is absolutely no give. It’s as solid as a rock.
Just my luck.
The door at the end of the hallway opens, and Juliet walks down the hallway, gathering her hair into a messy bun. She stops short when she sees me on the couch.
“Blair took my bed,” I inform her. “She didn’t get much sleep last night.”
She plops onto the couch next to me, closing her eyes. “I didn’t either. I think I woke up every single time she threw up.”
“That’s brutal.”
She murmurs an agreement. “Thankfully, we have a massage scheduled in an hour. Should we get breakfast and then go to the spa?”
“I don’t have to go if it’ll be weird,” I say.
Her eyes snap open, narrowing on me. “I should have known you’d back out right at the first thing.”
“Whoa, no. No way am I backing out.”
“Then you get to have a massage too.”
The idea of a stranger rubbing their hands all over my neck, back, and shoulders makes me want to crawl out of my skin, even though I do have a knot in my neck. I’ll get through it for Jules. I said I’d do all the activities with her, and if she wants to do this, then I’ll do it.
“I might work on lesson plans after, though,” I say.
Yes, it’s an excuse, but in all reality, I’m feeling a bit twitchy not working right now.
Most of my colleagues love having breaks, but not having classes to teach or a thesis to work on—which I could, but I didn’t bring anything for that since I thought Blair would kill me—makes me feel like I’m going to die.
I like being busy. Busy is good. Busy means my thoughts aren’t running a mile a minute.
I hate when I’m quiet around strangers, I always feel so awkward.
But I also don’t want to be the one who says anything.
So a massage? Definitely not my thing. But for Jules?
I’ll do it. For her, I can get over the feeling of wanting to crawl out of my skin.
I don’t know why. It’s completely ridiculous since she doesn’t like me that way and I shouldn’t like her in any way.
She’s my sister’s best friend, but something about her seems to slow my mind down—not like anything is wrong, but in a way that makes me feel calm.
All the confidence I had yesterday when I proposed the idea to do everything melts away. Maybe I should have thought about this more before I spoke. Too late now, though.
Snapping fingers appear in front of my eyes. “Earth to Parker.”
Mentally, I shake myself. “Sorry.” This has been happening a lot, me getting so caught up in my thoughts that I don’t realize things are happening around me. But I’m with Jules; it shouldn’t have happened with her.
“It’s all good. Just as long as you promise to do everything with me, you can still plan your lessons or whatever.”
“I’m all in,” I say, holding out my hand. “We can shake on it.”
Her hand slides into mine, her fingers wrapping around my hand as she squeezes, and warmth slides up my arm as she shakes once. For a beat, neither of us pulls their hand away. I let go after a second, though, because as much as I want to keep her hand in mine, I don’t want to make it weird.
“Good, should we go? We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.
” She grabs her coat from the hook by the door.
“I was looking at everything the resort offers regularly, along with all the activities they’re hosting for the charity event.
We could have even joined in on a ballroom competition—like Dancing with the Stars—but they started rehearsal for that a couple of weeks ago.
” She shrugs like this is no big deal. “I guess I should have read all the info my manager sent me before last night. I could have signed up for the dancing competition. But I wasn’t really planning on doing most of the activities until yesterday. But I think it will be fun.”
My gut clenches. She changed her plans for me, and she doesn’t seem mad about it. I’m not sure what to think about that, so I don’t.
“Well, I’m not much of a dancer,” I say, keeping it light.
How she lives her life—all carefree and not reading details; I guess that’s why she has a manager, someone who can do some of that stuff for her—shouldn’t impact me.
Not everyone has to be as meticulous as I am. Most people aren’t, and that’s okay.
She grins up at me. “Well, we do get to do a polar plunge instead.”
“Uh, what?” If she’s talking about what I think she’s talking about…
“You know, when you wear a swimsuit or your underwear and jump into freezing cold water for a few seconds? That’s the main charity event that I’m supposed to be at.
All the others are optional, but that one?
I have to be there, which means you do too.
I think all the athletes were assigned different events that they have to be at, and that one is mine. ”
My stomach twists. I’m not a huge fan of water in general, but freezing water? This woman has got to be out of her mind if she thinks I’ll get in the frozen pond with her.
“I practically hear your wheels turning, trying to figure a way to get out of it,” she says as we step into the frosty morning air. “But you can’t. Also, there will be dancing. There’s a big ball on Christmas Eve.”
“I’ll go only if you dance with me.” The words tumble out, but the boy with the teenage crush inside of me is growing stronger and stronger, and if I get a chance to dance with Juliet, hold her close in my arms? I’m not going to let that pass.
She gives me a smirk. “Only if you do the polar plunge.”
“You’re the worst, you know that, right?”
She tosses her head back as she laughs. “But you love me.”
I swallow. She’s only joking, but would she have said that if she knew what my feelings actually are?
That, as hard as I’ve tried to forget about her and move on from my boyhood crush, I can’t?
I’m drawn to her, possibly a little bit in love with her.
It’s only going to make the end of this week hurt that much more, because my heart will be broken, and it will be my own fault.