Maybe Someday(85)

ing for about six weeks. I know that’s not long in

virgin weeks, but it’s a damn eternity in guy

weeks. We were lying in bed together, and she

told me she was ready to go all the way, but be-

fore she would have sex with me, there was

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something she needed to tell me. She said I had a

right to know, and she wouldn’t feel right con-

tinuing a relationship until I was fully informed. I

remember panicking, thinking she was about to

tell me she was a dude or some shit like that.”

He glances at me and raises an eyebrow. “Be-

cause let’s be honest, Syd. There are some really

hot transvestite-looking dudes out there.”

He laughs and looks straight ahead again.

“That’s when she told me about her illness. Told

me about the statistics . . . the fact that she didn’t want children . . . the reality of how much time

she had left. She said she wanted to lay the truth

out for me because it wouldn’t be fair to anyone

who saw something long-term with her. She said

the likelihood of her making it to the age of forty

or even thirty-five was small. She said she

needed to be with someone who understood that.

Someone who accepted that.”

“You didn’t want that responsibility?” I ask

him.

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He shakes his head slowly. “Sydney, I didn’t

care about the responsibility. I was a seventeen-

year-old guy, in bed with the most beautiful girl I

had ever seen, and all she was asking me to do

was agree to love her. When she mentioned the

words ‘future’ and ‘husband’ and not wanting

kids, it took all I had not to roll my eyes, because

in my head, those were a lifetime away. I would

be with a million girls before then. I didn’t know

how to think that far ahead, so I just did what I

thought any guy would do in that situation. I re-

assured her and told her that her illness didn’t

matter to me and that I loved her. Then I kissed

her, took off her clothes, and took her virginity.”

He hangs his head in what looks like shame.

“After she left the next morning, I was bragging

to Ridge about finally getting to bang a virgin.

Probably went into way too much detail. I also

mentioned the conversation we had beforehand

and told him all about her illness. I was brutally

honest with him to a fault sometimes. I told him

that her whole situation kind of freaked me out

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and that I was going to give it two weeks before I

broke up with her so I wouldn’t look like such a

douche. That’s when he beat the living shit out of

me.”

My eyes widen. “Good for Ridge,” I say.

Warren nods. “Yeah. Apparently, he liked her

a whole lot more than he let on, but he just kept

his mouth shut and allowed me to make an ass of

myself for the whole six weeks I dated her. I

should have caught on about how he felt, but

Ridge is a lot more selfless than I am. He would

have never done anything to betray what we had,

but after that night, he lost a whole lot of respect

for me. And that hurt, Sydney. He’s like my

brother. I felt like I had disappointed the one per-

son I looked up to the most.”

“So you broke up with Maggie, and Ridge

started dating her?”

“Yes and no. We had a long conversation

about it that afternoon, because Ridge is big on

sharing his thoughts and shit. We agreed we had

to honor the bro code, and it wouldn’t really be

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good for us if he picked up and started dating a

girl I had just screwed. But he liked her. He liked

her a lot, and even though I knew it was hard for

him, he waited until the term ended before he

asked her out.”

“The term?”

Warren nods. “Yeah. Don’t ask where we

came up with it, but we agreed twelve months

was a decent length of time before the bro code

became null. We figured enough time would

have passed, and if he wanted to ask her out after

a year, it wouldn’t be so weird. By that time, she

might have dated other people and wouldn’t be

going straight from my bed into Ridge’s. As

much as I could have tried to be cool about it, it

would have been too weird. Even for us.”

“Did Maggie know how he felt about her?

During the twelve months?”

Warren shakes his head. “No. Maggie never

even knew he liked her like he did. He liked her

so much he didn’t go on a single date for the en-

tire twelve months I made him wait. He had the

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date circled on a calendar. I saw it once in his

room. He never mentioned her, never asked

about her. But I’ll be damned if the day that year

was up, he wasn’t knocking on her front door.