Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone #3)(62)
I swallowed hard, trying to play off how out of breath I was. “What kind of problems?”
“You know what kind of problems.”
I blushed, sitting back down next to him, feeling somewhat triumphant. I don’t think sober me would have had the wherewithal to look so pleased with herself for almost giving my neighbor a boner, but drunk me was thrilled.
“Hey,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Thank you for tonight. You gave me the perfect day today. It was perfect. Jaxon Waters sang happy birthday to me. How did you know what I’d like?”
He studied me quietly for a moment. “Because I know you. I know what’s important to you,” he said, holding my eyes. “Content for your channel so you can keep raising money for ALS research. Good food. Once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
I smiled at him gently.
“I’m so lucky I know you,” I said quietly.
He paused for a moment. “I feel the same way. Like my life was a stuffy room, and you’re the breeze that came in when the window opened.”
We peered at each other…then he slid a warm hand over the one I had on the sofa between us. It zinged through me like lightning.
He was touching me!
Adrian almost never touched me—and when he did, it wasn’t like this.
I dropped my eyes to our hands and when I looked back up, his gaze had moved to my lips.
Oh my God…
Oh my God, he wanted to kiss me!
I immediately thought about how much he’d had to drink. Not a lot, right? Because I couldn’t even wrap my brain around the idea that he wanted me, in any way, unless there was something screwing with his decision making. But he did look like he was thinking about it.
How much had I had to drink? Was I misreading this?
My heart was pounding. His thumb started to move back and forth across the top of my hand like a reminder that it was there on purpose. I felt an invisible tug toward him, like there was a rope between us that both of us were pulling in.
I stared at him for one more moment. Then I sat up, leaned in, and kissed him.
Aaaand he didn’t kiss me back.
I think I would have registered this much faster if I hadn’t been buzzed. Sober me would have realized it wasn’t going well. But since I was drunk, I let it go on about three seconds longer than I should have. Just pressing my lips to an unresponsive mouth.
He pushed me gently off him. “Vanessa, no…”
Instant humiliation washed over me. “I’m sorry I don’t know what—”
He shook his head. “It’s—”
I waved him off. “You know what? It’s fine. I wouldn’t kiss me either,” I said, getting up quickly.
He stood and took a step toward me and put a hand out. “That’s not it—”
I couldn’t even look at him. I was so embarrassed. What the hell was I thinking? “You should go. I’ll just see you tomorrow.”
“Vanessa, I think we should talk about this—”
I laughed dryly. “I really don’t want to. I made a mistake. I was just caught up in the moment and I’m drunk—it didn’t mean anything, honestly. I wish I didn’t do it. I’m sorry,” I said, looking him in the eye.
Something flashed on his face.
“Please,” I said. “Just have Becky bring Grace home. Thank you for today and let’s just forget about this.”
“Vanessa—”
“Adrian, go!”
He waited a moment, just looking at me before he set his jaw, walked past me, and left. I closed the door behind him and slid down to the floor, instantly sober—and wishing I weren’t.
CHAPTER 19
10 THINGS GUARANTEED TO
MAKE YOU SAY WTF
ADRIAN
My phone had been deafeningly silent since last night. Nothing from Vanessa. Becky and I had some work stuff to go over so we did that until midnight while I gave Vanessa some time to sober up. Then I had her drop off Grace since Vanessa clearly didn’t want to see me.
It wouldn’t have been right for me to kiss her. I suspected she wasn’t sober enough to know what she was doing. She was too drunk to walk, for God’s sake.
It didn’t mean anything. I wish I didn’t do it.
Was she just upset? Or did she really feel that way?
Maybe both.
Maybe she was upset with me for rejecting her and she meant it. Maybe she was just drunk and did something spontaneous and the whole thing never meant anything at all.
The thought that kissing me was just some foggy-headed, alcohol-induced mistake made me feel physically ill. And now I worried more than anything that instead of me fucking things up and changing our friendship by telling her how I felt, she’d accidentally done it by kissing me for no other reason than she’d had too much to drink.
My stomach was in knots. I couldn’t sleep last night. I wanted to talk to her, but I didn’t even know what to say after what she’d said to me. In the morning before I left for the office, I texted her.
Me: Can we talk later?
She didn’t reply for almost ten minutes. This was eight years in Vanessa time. She always replied immediately. This wasn’t a good sign.
Vanessa: I guess.