I’m surprised I didn’t get a speeding ticket on the way over to the cabin. The minute I get in, I toss my bag on the chair, sit on the couch with my laptop, and my fingers can’t catch up to my thoughts as I type.
Nia burst into Bea’s room, jumped on the bed, and shook her awake. Bea shot up, alarmed that maybe there was a fire or a break-in.
“What?” she asked, her body in full alarm panic.
Nia waited while Bea sat up and put on her cochlear implants.
“What happened last night?” Nia lay down on the bed. “Because there’s a hot bartender in the living room with breakfast for you.”
Bea replayed the night before. Had her taking an Uber home alone been a dream? She looked down at herself. Not naked, pajamas on. She’d thought it was going somewhere with Pete, but then that blonde girl showed up. How did he even know where she lived?
“What?” Bea asked again to make sure she’d heard her friend correctly.
“The bartender from last night…when I got home, he was sitting outside the apartment.”
“When did you get home?” Bea rubbed the sleep from my eyes. She had slept hard, so she wasn’t surprised she hadn’t seen the strobing light if he’d rung the doorbell. But the more important question was, why was he here?
“Just now.” Her smile suggested she’d done the walk of shame from wherever she and Trek had ended up the night before. Bea was just thankful it wasn’t at their place. “Now…go.”
Bea glanced down at herself once more. She was wearing boxer shorts and a Weezer T-shirt that was so threadbare Pete would be able to see her nipples. “Um…”
Nia saw the worried expression and sprang up from the bed. She was so hyper and in such a good mood, the sex with Trek must have been great. “I’ll stall while you get yourself together.”
She was out of Bea’s room before Bea could explain what happened last night and tell her to kick Pete out.
That left her having to face him, so she grabbed a sweatshirt off the back of the chair and went into her bathroom. She brushed her teeth, and finger-combed her hair into a messy bun. Why was she even putting in any effort? The guy was a douche, and it was creepy that he had somehow found out where she lived. She didn’t need to impress him.
She opened her bedroom door, and Pete’s laugh rang out, the one that had made her all tingly, and damn it all to hell, that same feeling rushed back between her thighs again. Damn him.
His gaze caught hers when she stepped out from the short hallway where the bedrooms were. He stood as if they were going to go somewhere.
Bea opened her mouth, but Pete raised his hand. “Give me a chance to explain.”
She nodded and sat in the chair farthest away from him.
He raised a white plastic bag with what seemed to be a few Styrofoam containers in it. “I picked up some pancakes for breakfast.”
She didn’t say anything, just crossed her arms and waited.
“Sarah is an ex.”
She raised her eyebrows with an expression as if to say, “Duh.”
“We’ve been over for a while, but she doesn’t want to accept it.” He appeared nervous, as though he cared what Bea thought. “I swear we’re not together.”
Bea nodded. She wouldn’t deny that she had hang-ups about relationships. Getting serious with anyone seemed to come as a struggle. Finding out about her parents’ early years when she was fourteen years old had messed her up, even though her parents were blissfully happy now. She wanted to believe in true love and soulmates, but all she could think was that Pete had baggage. Baggage she didn’t want to carry the weight of. Baggage was what had torn her parents apart when she wasn’t even born yet.
She raised her hands. You don’t owe me an explanation.
He looked at his feet and back up. “I like you, Bea.”
He appeared earnest and genuine.
“Why?” she asked before shaking her head. “Never mind. We only met last night.”
“I know, but you feel it, right?”
This was her moment to say no, she didn’t feel anything. To say that he was just like any other guy she’d met at a bar, but he’d know she was lying. There was something between them. Something she wished she could explain. It would make it a lot easier to kick him out right now.
She shrugged, unable to say it verbally because then it would be out in the universe.
Pete stared at her long and hard, and she knew he saw the truth of it. His lips turned down and his teeth pinned down his bottom lip. She felt him almost silently asking her, “You’re really not going to see what we could be?”
The image of Sarah flying into the parking lot of the diner came to her again. She must be tracking him somehow to know where they were. Bea didn’t want that drama in her life. As attracted as she was to Pete, she couldn’t willingly invite that into her life. Not to mention if Sarah was still so attached to Pete, Bea would probably become just as attached, and then what would happen to her after he broke her heart? What if he changed his mind and decided Sarah was the one he wanted?
“Then can we at least be friends?”
Her gaze flew up to meet his, surprised by his request. How was she going to be friends with him when all she wanted was to have sex with him?
“Get to know me better. Find out that you can trust me.”
Her forehead crinkled. She didn’t understand why this was so important to him, but she did enjoy his company. Friends wasn’t a horrible thing. From what she’d gathered from the conversations they’d had, he seemed like he wanted to see the world and didn’t want to stay in one place for too long. He loved snowboarding and was trying to get to every big ski resort he could.
Nia’s head popped out of the kitchen behind Pete. So, she had been eavesdropping the entire time. Great. Her eyes went wide, and she gestured that Bea should say yes.
What did she have to lose? He’d probably be gone soon, and Bea would never see him again anyway. “Sure.”
He smiled and grabbed the plastic bag, pulling it toward him. “Do you have any syrup?”
She stared at him as though he was one zoo animal humping another one. She finally asked the question that had been bothering her. “How did you find me?”
“It’s a small town. Jared is a friend.”
Jared? Bea tried to figure out if that name was familiar, then it came to her. “My Uber driver?”
Pete sheepishly smiled and nodded, opening up the container of pancakes. He probably hoped the distraction of the fluffy goodness would override the revelation of Jared’s invasion of privacy.
Bea went to the kitchen to grab the syrup. She didn’t know how she’d push away her sexual feelings toward Pete in order to be just his friend, but that he’d gone to this much trouble to apologize to her meant something in her book.
One year later…
Bea was at the end of the bar, where most of her Friday nights were now spent. Usually, Pete served, and she would sit there with the small group of friends that congregated there every Friday night. But Pete had tonight off, and they were celebrating Nia’s engagement to Trek. Turned out Pete and Bea were both wrong. Trek was head over heels in love with Nia and had popped the question the night before, and Nia had ecstatically accepted.
Bea had watched them fall more and more in love for the past year. Trek had even asked Bea to go with him to pick out the ring. She couldn’t believe that this guy who had been such a womanizer had changed all because of one girl. Of course, her best friend was awesome, and he would’ve been crazy not to see that the day Nia came into his life had been the best day of his, but it went against everything Bea believed. Trek had changed all because of Nia. As hard as she tried, Bea couldn’t wrap her head around the idea.
Tonight, they were celebrating. Trek was already drunk but kept pestering Dimitri for more shots. And Trek didn’t take all the shots on his own. He ordered for everyone. Trek wasn’t only celebrating his new wife-to-be tonight. After Bea had gotten to know him, she had agreed to send his band’s music to her well-known music producer uncle. He had got it into the right hands, and Trek’s band had signed with a label a month ago. They were moving to Los Angeles, and Trek was taking Nia with him. Which left Bea without a roommate, but thankfully Pete was moving in.
She and Pete had remained friends throughout the past year, and although there were a few times Bea had thought it might lead to more, she couldn’t pull the trigger. Pete was an intricate part of her life now, and if something went bad, she didn’t know what would happen. Would she be Sarah, driving erratically into a diner parking lot, baseball bat in hand to do damage to his SUV? Plus, now he was going to be her roommate, so they definitely couldn’t cross the line.
“Let’s go, Bea, drink the shot.” Trek put his arm around her shoulders. “I owe you the world.”
Bea shook her head. She was surprised by how fond she was of Trek now. He treated Nia like a princess, and Bea had witnessed him deny girl after girl since they’d gotten together, telling them all that he was taken. She knew Nia would be in good hands with him.
“I’ve drank enough,” Bea said loudly because she was already buzzed.
“You’re getting drunk with me.”
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re already drunk,” Bea said into his ear.
“Because life is good.” He grabbed Nia. “I got my girl. I got my band. We got FUCKING SIGNED!”
He pulled Nia onto the dance floor, and Bea was thankful she didn’t have to drink another shot. Pete tugged on Bea’s arm, and she fell down next to him in the booth. His eyes were glassy, and he had on his goofy drunk smile.
“Hey, roomie,” he said and put his arm around her. “Let’s toast.” He pushed a shot glass her way and lifted his.
She raised the glass and clinked Pete’s, but she didn’t drink the shot. Instead, she placed it back on the table.
“Oh, no, no.” Pete held it up for her. “You’re going to give us bad juju if you don’t drink.”
“Juju?” Bea questioned, laughing at Pete. She rarely saw him lose control of himself like he had tonight. She kind of liked that she’d be taking care of him tonight instead of the reverse. This year had proved one thing—Pete was a natural caregiver. He’d brought her soup when she was sick, chocolates when she was PMSing, and pancakes when she was hungover. They’d shared a love for horror movies during the month of October, county festivals in the summer, and recently joined a dart league at the bar Pete worked at on Thursday nights.
“Just drink.” He pushed it closer.
She finally took the shot glass and downed the shot, then smiled at Pete. “Happy?”
“Not really. Get drunk with me.” Pete grabbed a pitcher to refill his beer and sloppily poured it into her half-empty glass until it was full again.
Bea knew Trek was now the least of her worries. She’d have to get Pete home as well.
Before she could answer, Pete nudged her with his hip to get out of the booth, took her hand, and led her to the dance floor.
“Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash was playing, and Pete and Trek sang along, their hands in the air as they jumped up and down.
Nia rolled her eyes but laughed. Then the four of them danced and laughed together. Pete spun her out and dragged her back to him. He kept singing the lyrics, his face in Bea’s the majority of the time.
Something happened after that dance. More drinks were brought to the dance floor by Trek’s bandmates. More alcohol was consumed, and they sweated through their clothes, dancing and making complete fools of themselves.
At the end of the night when it was time to go home, Bea and Pete were thrown into an Uber together.
“Jared!” Pete said with a smile once they were secure in the back seat, and he saw who their driver was.
Bea and Pete looked at each other and laughed the entire way back to the apartment. Bea couldn’t remember a time when she’d had so much fun.