Chapter 5
Willow
I’m such a dumbbutt. Why did I ever agree to share another meal with Brody? I will not be the silly little puppy who follows her master around after she’s been kicked to the side.
Ugh.
I need to not be available, so on a whim, I text Wendell.
Me: Please say you’ll take me out tonight.
Wendell: Who’s all going and where do you wanna go?
Me: Just me and you.
Wendell is typing.
Wendell is deleting.
Wendell is typing.
Wendell: Are you sure that’s a good idea?
Me: It’s the best idea I’ve ever had. Please say yes.
Wendell: How can I say no to that?
Me: You can’t.
It wasn’t upon second thought that I rethought my plans for the night.
Sadly, no. The rethinking didn’t thoroughly process until much later.
It was only upon reentering my brother’s apartment to find Brody in front of the TV screen watching hockey highlights while two plates of my favorite meal sat on the kitchen table with snuffed out candles between them that the rethinking rethought itself.
Much too late.
“Thanks,” I call out halfheartedly as I stare at the food.
When he doesn’t answer, I move into the living room and thank him again, but his eyes are glued to the screen and his mouth is clamped shut.
“Hey, Brody.” My shameful feet carry me closer to him until I’m right in front of him and he has to duck his head to the side to see the screen. “I said, thanks for the food.”
“Yup.”
The blood that’s been simmering in me all night evolves into a rolling boil. I need to stay detached from this man because I know how his rejection cut me in half the first time and I don’t need more of that. Even still, the whole friend-date night I couldn’t stop thinking of him.
And now he’s just going to ignore me? Nuh uh.
“I guess you’re back to being an asshole to me then?”
His eyes still trained on the TV, I brace myself for a fight. “It’s what I do best.”
“Ya. I guess it is.”
He scoffs. Rubs his thighs with both hands. “I get it now. It’s all good.”
“Get what?”
“Never mind. Can you get out of the way? I’m trying to watch these highlights.”
“Um that’d be a big fat no. What do you get?” I lunge for the remote and flick off the TV, leaving only a lamp to cast a low light onto his glowering face.
“This was some sick kind of payback.” He gets up and walks to the kitchen, grabs the dish, and moves to the garbage.
“What are you talking about—hey, don’t throw that out. I’m going to eat that.”
“Really? Could have fooled me considering you didn’t show up for our dinner. But it’s all good.” The plate clanks to the counter, the fork dropping noisily at its side. “It’s payback. I rejected you eight years ago and now you’re rejecting me. Well played, Willow.”
Rage shakes through my body so urgently I clench my hands into fists. “Fuck that, Brody. This wasn’t payback. This was protection.” I’m saying too much, but I don’t care.
“That’s protection?” He gestures toward my tight dress. “Against what? Cold-blooded males?” He’s not done yet. “Who were you with?” There’s a short pause before he revises that. “Never mind. You don’t owe me any explanation. You don’t owe me anything. I’m going to bed.”
I don’t owe him anything, so I don’t know why I blurt it out, but I do. “Wendell took me out.”
His head snaps up to me and fire blazes in his eyes.
“You were on a date with Wendell? That cheapass took you out for dinner? You’re the not one he’s supposed to be spending his money on.
” Like a predator, he talks slow, deliberate steps toward me.
With each inch of space that I lose, I lose a commensurate amount of brain cells.
I’m lucky I remember how to even use the word commensurate.
My head nods in agreement.
“You’re telling me,” he’s an inch away from me, “that you were on a date with my teammate while I was here working my ass off to make your favorite meal?”
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“No.” He shakes his head giving me a sardonic smile. “You’re right. You didn’t. That was all me. Just me shooting my shot at a net that doesn’t exist. Thanks for that.”
There’s a lump in my throat and my eyes drop to the floor. He can’t possibly mean that he was trying to give us a second chance.
“Listen, Brody.” I don’t have a plan for what to say, but he needs to know that I’m not some lovesick puppy. “I don’t know what this was, but just because you decide on a whim to try something with me doesn’t mean I’m ready for that.”
“On a whim?”
“Ya. I mean, sure I made your favorite breakfast and maybe that was a little bit of torture—”
“You think the pancakes tortured me?”
Uneasiness pools in my stomach. “Enough for you to break your rigid routine and eat them.” It comes out as more of a question.
“Ya. I fucking ate the pancakes.” An unamused smile takes over his face. “Because I can’t eat what I really want.”
The breath leaves my body and my fingers bunch up the fabric below my hips. “W-what?”
“This wasn’t a whim, Willow. You’ve been torturing me for years.” Both of his hands rake through his hair, giving an extra tug at the top. “I don’t know when I stopped running from that kiss and started chasing it, but I never found anything like it because there’s only one you.”
Like my heart is on some kind of external string and it’s been yanked against my ribcage, I teeter forward and take a deep breath.
“What the hell, Brody? What are you even talking about? You made it clear that you weren’t attracted to me and you’ve waffled between being civil and being an asshole for eight years.
Now I’m just supposed to, what, forgive you?
Share a romantic dinner with you? Jump your bones? Climb into bed with you?”
Seriously.
100% hot.
100% bothered.
“Ya.” His eyes are as earnest as I’ve ever seen them. “You are. Because if you’ve ever felt half of what I’ve felt, you know it’s not going away. Forgive me. I was a coward back then. I pushed you away because I wasn’t ready for you. But I’m here now, ready to man up. I want you.”
“N-no.” I try to push him away but on my retreating step I falter. He catches me.
And then he says the words I never expected to hear from him. “Give me a second chance, Willow.”