The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,33

enough to his face that I could feel his breath on my lips, this was never something that had happened before. I caught my stare moving between his eyes and mouth, and I saw his gaze dart back and forth, too. It felt for a lingering second of time like our faces were being pulled closer together and that at any moment, he was going to lean forward and kiss me. It was awkward and exhilarating, and I felt my heart start to race inside my chest.

Then his phone started to ring, and it snapped us from the revelry that we were losing ourselves in within each other’s eyes. We both quickly sat up and then got straight up out of bed. It was as if we had suddenly realized what was about to happen and were both too caught off guard about it to know what to do, so instead, we just ran from it.

Arlo looked at his phone and declined the call. I noticed that it was already late morning, so people at work were probably waiting on him and wondering where he was. I was amazed that I actually felt pretty good. Apparently, whatever Cai had given me, didn’t have the lingering hangover feeling like other vices did. I was still mad at him for slipping me drugs, but at least I didn’t need to live in the aftermath of that feeling today. I was grateful to have slept and gotten it out of my system. I was most thankful for Arlo and wondered what would have ended up happening if he hadn’t shown up. I swore that sometimes it feels like he can hear my thoughts.

“If I hadn’t shown up to get you,” Arlo said as I looked over to see him pull his pants on.

Oh my God, I’d never seen him without pants on before, and the quick glimpse of what I just saw caused a burning feeling of yearning that swelled within my chest and made me tremble everywhere. Even in that split second with his boxers on, I could still see that he was every bit as spectacularly endowed as I would have imagined.

“Cai would have taken you back to his place and had sex with you,” he continued.

“Even if I didn’t want him to?” I asked, repulsed at the thought that Cai would do something like that. Surely, he would know that he still had to see me the next day at work.

“You would have wanted to,” Arlo said. He looked mad, not at me but at Cai. “Those drugs were already making you want to by the time I got there. You would have probably enjoyed it and then remembered nothing of it the next day. That’s what they do—drugs, sex, parties…it’s kind of their calling card.”

“Thank you,” I said as I stood in the middle of his bedroom and watched him pull his shirt over his head. “Thanks for always being there to protect me.”

Arlo walked over to me and paused a few inches away from me. He looked conflicted. He leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “It’s what friends do,” he said.

Friends.

There was something about the way he had said that word that sounded unconvincing, like he was trying to persuade me that we were still just friends and nothing more. Or maybe he was trying to assure himself.

“I’ll take you back to your apartment,” he said as he grabbed his keys and handed me one of his hoodies to wear since it was cold outside, and I don’t think I had a jacket with me last night. “You can take the day off to rest if you want.”

“No, we have so much to do. There’s no time for me to take the day off.”

“You’ve been through a lot, and there isn’t really much going on at the office today, just the usual. It’s up to you, but if you want to take a day to rest, then it’s fine. Either way, I’ll take you back to your apartment so you can shower and stuff.”

“Okay,” I said.

I didn’t know why, but I was hoping Arlo would take me with him into work today. I felt like there was just something about the way that we woke up together that meant something. I had this ridiculous fantasy in my mind that he wanted me to stay with him and be beside him at work all day, following the way he had rescued me from the night