Unexpected (6 page)

I nod. “Yeah. It
was more out of convenience than a serious commitment, to be
honest. But he acted like it was a big step for us.” I roll my
eyes. “Apparently he was faking his affection for me to continue
their charade under my nose. We were going to meet with the
landlord to sign a new lease later this week.” I sigh and press my
face back into his shirt. His scent fills my nostrils, a mixture of
sweat and his shower gel. I relax, holding him closer, glad to have
something solid to hold on to.

“
Now
what?”

“
Now... I
don't know yet.” I really don't.

He tilts my chin
up, his thumb wiping the tears off my face. “You okay now?”

Nodding, I
say, “Yeah.” Somehow,
it feels like a weight has been lifted
off my chest, even though there’s still so much to work out.

“Alina? Can we be friends?”

I laugh. “What do you mean?”

“I mean just that. Can we be friends?”

“Aren't we already?”

“Kind of. But I want to be serious friends,
not just 'thrown together in the midst of a crazy situation and
then never see each other again' friends. Let's be friends. I think
we'd make great friends.”

“Can two people who almost had sex in a
shower and drunkenly made out be friends?”

“It works on television.”

I laugh again. “Sure. I'd like to be friends
with you.”

The corners of his lips curve up into a
smile. “Awesome. Now, where do we stand on dinner?”

Chapter Six

–
Ryan
–

After saying
goodbye to her mother, Alina and I get in our cars and drive back
to my apartment. I stop at the taco place on the way and bring back
a dozen tacos. When we get inside, Alina takes one look at them and
says, “Good Lord, Mr. Hungry. How many are you planning on
eating?”

“
However many
you don't eat,” I answer with a grin.

She rolls her eyes.
“Typical.” She places two on her plate. “Don't think this means you
get to have the other ten. I might have one more.”

“
I'll save it
for you.” We take our food to the living room and sit on the couch.
I turn on the TV. “Anything you want to watch? I have basic cable,
but I'm sure we could find something.”

She shrugs.
“Doesn't really matter to me.”

I scroll
until I find a
Nash Bridges
rerun. I
raise an eyebrow at her and she nods, so I leave it and start
eating. At the first commercial break, I hit the mute button and
turn to her. “So...if we're going to be friends, we need to know a
little more about each other.”

“
Like
what?”

“
Well, I know
your name is Alina Lyons. And you used to work at a diner. And you
were friends with Victoria since senior year in high school. But I
don't really know anything else.”

“
So, are we
going to play twenty questions?” she asks, a smirk playing across
her lips.

I make a funny face at her and smile.
“
No. Let's just go over some of the
basics.”

She wipes her mouth
with a napkin and sets down her plate on the coffee table. “Okay,
I'll bite. What kind of basics?”

“
Okay,
so
Nash
Bridges
—better or worse
than
Miami
Vice
?”

She giggles.
“Well, they both have Don Johnson, so that alone makes them tied. I
am partial to
Nash Bridges
, though.
I used to watch it with my dad and brother growing up.”

Interesting.
A girl near my age who actually knows about sitcoms from the
eighties and nineties. I can't remember the last time I was able to
talk to someone outside my family who's familiar with shows that
didn't premiere in their teenage years. Most of my peers were more
interested in the latest X-Men movie
or who was voted off
last night on
American Idol
.
Not that I didn't care about “teenager” things, I just had a
broader spectrum of taste. “Well played...but,” I say, pausing to
hold up a finger, “you forgot to mention Yasmine
Bleeth.”

“
I didn't
forget. I'm surprised that part matters to you when she doesn't run
in slow motion in a red bathing suit on
Nash Bridges
.”

Not to
mention a girl who's cheeky to boot by referencing
Baywatch
. “She doesn't
have to. That's the beauty of it.” I wink and she laughs, shaking
her head and covering her face. “You know what, Alina?”

“
What?” she
asks, peeking through her fingers.

“
I think I'm
going to like being friends with you.”

She presses her
lips together to contain her smile, then looks at me with a
straight face. “Is that so?” When I nod in response, she tilts her
head slightly. “Will you be able to resist the temptation?”

The second
she says that word, I feel all the blood rush south.
Will I?
The more operative question
is
can
I resist the temptation? That
answer is a resounding “no” based on the reaction I have in her
presence. However, for her—for the chance to be her friend—I
will
try. Hard as that may be. “Yes, I
will.”

“
What? It's
that easy?” She appears to be a bit miffed that I gave such a quick
answer. Her mind is probably racing back to where we were
yesterday, wondering if our touches and kisses were all lies.
Worried that her instincts were off, that there's nothing between
us. She would be wrong on both counts. It wasn't a lie, and there
is definitely something.

I'm not willing to
risk it all until I know for sure.

I shake my head.
“That's not it at all. You're a very gorgeous woman, but I'm not
the kind of guy who dumps a girl and then picks up a new one just
because.”

“
Well, that's
probably a good thing. I don't really want to start another
relationship, at least not right now. Not that I'd be good at a
relationship with my life in shambles.”

“
It's not in
shambles. You just...hit a speed bump and then parked in front of a
roadblock. You're assessing the situation, weighing your
options.”

“
That's a
good way of looking at it.” She smiles. “Okay. I know you're right
about what you said before.”

“
Which
part?”

“
I think I'm
going to like being friends with you, too.”

~*~

A few hours
later, I'm jumping in the shower to wash work off me. When I get
out, Alina is sitting cross-
legged
on the floor going through the things she brought
over here. I dry my hair with the towel and say, “Bathroom's
clear.”

She nearly jumps
out of her skin at the sound of my voice, clutching her heart and
turning toward me. “I'm fine right now, thanks.” Her eyes widen as
she takes me in. I'm wearing only sweatpants and no shirt. Her eyes
skim across my bare chest, glancing over my abs. They almost dip
further south, but she turns her head back toward her clothes.

I smirk. “You must
be fun to watch scary movies with.”

She glances back,
making a face. “You caught me off guard.”

I sit down on the
couch behind her. “So, let's talk living arrangements.”

“
Living
arrangements?” She finishes folding a shirt and looks at
me.

“
Well, you're
staying here a second night, and not even in my bed. What are your
plans for tomorrow night?”

She closes her eyes
slowly. “I really don't know. My name is still on that lease until
the end of the month, but staying there's not an option. Neither is
another apartment until I get a job. I guess I can stay with my
parents...but they're too far away from here, and all the jobs are
here in Avon. Apartments, too.”

Her
frustration isn't unfounded—there aren't many options out in Park
Meadows. It's more of a blink and you miss it farming community. As
I look at her, I'm filled with sympathy. I don't know why I
keep
helping her, a woman who is virtually a stranger.
Is it pity or because I believe in
our friendship? “Just stay here again. Stay as long as you need
to.”

Her eyes snap up to
mine. She shakes her head. “No, I can't impose—”

“
Does it look
like you're imposing?” I ask, extending my hand around the room.
“I'm living here by myself. I think I can manage having a friend
stay over for a couple weeks to help them get back on their feet.
You know, as long as you promise not to host a party in the middle
of the night.”

She rolls her eyes,
but smiles. “Thanks.”

“
Do you need
help looking for a job? I think I have the most recent paper
somewhere around here.” I stand up and cross the room to the
kitchen table to see if I left it there or recycled it
already.

She gets up and
follows me. I find it under a stack of junk mail and hand it to
her. “Great, thanks. I'm going out tomorrow to see who's hiring in
the area. I have a few places in mind. When do you work next?”

“
I work the
rest of the week, including Saturday.”

“
Oh.” She
frowns, walking back over to the couch. “I was just wondering if
you could come with me to pick up more things from my apartment. If
I'm going to be staying here for awhile, I'll need more than what I
grabbed earlier.”

“
I'm off
later in the afternoon tomorrow, but I'm supposed to meet with Phil
and Brent for band practice.” They'd be pissed if I bailed on them
twice in one week. “I'm free Thursday evening. Can you survive on
what you have until then?”

Alina nods. “I just
don't want to go there alone again. Not that I can't handle it—I
can—but the idea of dealing with her...or him.” She shakes her
head. “I'm sure they're shacking up as we speak.”

She's putting on a
brave face. She may be strong, but break ups are hard to deal with,
especially right after they happen. I cross the room, sitting down
on the couch and put my arm around her shoulder. She relaxes into
my touch as though we've known each other for years instead of a
month. “Don't let those douchebags control your life. You're an
amazing person and you're much better off without them.”

She smiles,
touching a finger to the center of my chest. “You're the amazing
person.”

The spot she touches tingles when she pulls
away. “
How so?”

“
Your
kindness and words of wisdom.”

I make a face.
“'Don't let those douchebags control your life'?”

“They're wise words!” she says with a laugh.
“Ones that most people need to hear.”

“If you say so.” I give her shoulder a
squeeze. “Are you going to be okay out here again?”

“I'll be fine. Your couch is
comfortable.”

“Maybe for a nap or to crash on after a long
day, but not for an extended amount of time.”

She gives me a look. “I'm
not
going to
make you sleep on the couch. This is
your
place.”

“I wasn't suggesting that.”

When I quirk my eyebrows a couple times, her
jaw drops. She shoves at me and I let go of her shoulder. “You're a
dork.”

“A dork? Wow. I was going for 'sexy beast.' I
guess I wasn't trying hard enough.”

“Well, I wouldn't say you didn't achieve the
latter, Mr. Shirtless,” she says with a laugh. “If you want to just
be friends with me, you're gonna have to put a shirt on
and
not invite me to sleep in your bed.”

When she bites her lip, I can tell she likes
what I do and say. “Or maybe,” I say as I stand up, “you need to
grow immune to my charms.” I glance over at the time on the DVD
player and sigh. “I have to get up early again, so I have to get to
bed.”

“Already?” There’s disappointment written all
over her face.

I shrug. “Consequences of the job. You sure
you'll be fine out here?”

“Of course...um...”

“What is it?”

She squirms a little bit, scrunching her
nose. “Would it be weird...I mean, can I hug you?”

I feel a strange sort of flutter in my heart.
I grin. “You want a hug goodnight?”

She smiles sheepishly, her cheeks turning
pink. “Yeah.”

“How could I ever deny you that?”

“Easily. Just say no.”

“I'd never say no when it comes to giving you
a hug.” I wave her over. “You'll need to get up to get it,
though.”

She crosses the room and I pull her in for a
hug. Her hands are touching the bare skin of my back, and her cheek
is on my chest, and God, it feels so fucking good holding her like
this. I know I should let go of her after a few seconds—the length
of a normal hug—but I can't let go. Not yet. I breathe her in; she
smells like my body wash. I close my eyes, entranced. I realize as
the seconds continue to pass that she's not letting go either. How
long have we been hugging?

I loosen my grip, not because I want to, but
because I have to. She steps out of the embrace, smiling up at me.
“Sleep well,” she says.

“You, too,” I say, touching the side of her
face absently, not really thinking about how intimate the move is
until I pull my hand away. I walk away before I allow myself to do
something I promised myself I wouldn't.

Chapter Seven

–
Alina
–

Wednesday morning,
I wake up when I hear Ryan in the kitchen. Even though I'm still
tired, I get up and drink a glass of milk while he finishes his
breakfast. He invites me to stop by to watch his band practice at
his parents' house later tonight. I tell him I don't want to be a
distraction. He says, “That's why I want you to come. I'll need a
break from the seriousness of my brother.”