Ethan

A few days after the lodge trip...

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UNKNOWN NUMBER: So much for Rachel Dawson being “an old neighbor [you] can’t stand” huh?

Unknown number: I knew you two were fucking and you were using me as a way to fill your time until she got back.

Unknown number: I still miss you...Let me know if you ever want to make up. (I’ll drop everything if you just say the word.)

I deleted Lisa’s latest string of desperate text messages and considered finally texting her the “Fuck off” she deserved, but she wasn’t worth my energy.

Didn’t I see her with a new boyfriend?

Restless, I slipped out of bed and walked down the hall to Rachel’s room. I knocked on her door, and like the nights before, there was no answer. Since we came back from the trip, she’d gone out of her way to avoid me, and we had yet to cross paths again.

I knocked on her door one last time before slowly opening it. Her bed was empty, and her cell phone and purse were long gone.

Confused, I sent her a text message.

Me: Hey. You up?

She didn’t text me back.

I headed to Greg’s room, stopping when I saw him plopping onto the living room couch. “Have you seen Rachel tonight?”

“Maybe.” He crossed his arms. “Before we can discuss that, there’s something important we need to discuss. We need some new rules around here.”

I braced myself for bullshit.

“If you and Rachel are going to date under my roof—and yes, this is my roof just as much as it’s your roof, there will be no sex on the living-room couch.”

“You had sex on the living room couch last week.”

“Oh, yeah...” He laughed. “Speaking of which, if a sex-tape comes out this semester and our house happens to be in the background, and you think that the guy in question looks like me...It’s not me. It’s someone else.”

“Are you really this dense, or are you pretending today?”

“Well, I am pursuing a minor in Theater Arts, so maybe I’m pretending.”

“I hope so.” I shook my head. “Where did Rachel go?”

“There’s one last rule,” he said. “You must put a sock on your bedroom door whenever the two of you want alone time, so me and my company won’t walk in, and you need to ask Rachel to hook me up with her newest friend. End of discussion.” He looked at me as if he’d just closed the deal of a lifetime. “Anyway, Rachel’s probably at the same place she was last night.”

“Which is?”

He shrugged. “Like I know. The only thing she said was that she wanted to get away from ‘all the mother-daughter week bullshit’ on campus. She also stole your bag of quarters and told me not to tell you.”

I gave him a blank stare.

“What? She didn’t share the quarters with me, so I’m under no obligation to keep her secret.”

I laughed and grabbed my car keys, realizing where Rachel was. “I’ll be back.” I headed outside and slipped into my car, heading straight for Super Suds.

When I arrived, the shades for all the windows were drawn shut, and there were no cars outside. I opened the door and made my way through the maze of washers and dryers, stopping once I spotted Rachel in the corner.

Dressed in a set of flannel grey pajamas with several pink rollers in her hair, she smiled as she sketched in her notepad.

“Is this where you plan on sleeping tonight?” I asked, sitting across from her.

“No.” She looked up at me. “I’m pulling an all-nighter and getting my laundry done at the same time.”

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“Uber. Since my roommate said I can’t use his car.”

“Is this where you were last night?”

“Maybe.” She set down her pencil. “Is doing my laundry at night going to be a problem?”

“It is if you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not.” She blushed. “I’m studying for a test and doing my laundry.”

“Rachel, it’s one o’clock in the morning. You don’t have any upcoming exams.”

“I just wanted to get out of the house for a few nights, you know? For a change of scenery...and celibacy.”

“So, you think I’ve been stopping by your room in the middle of the night?” I smiled. “For sex?”

“Have you?”

“I’ve stopped by and noticed you weren’t there,” I said.

“And you weren’t hoping for sex?”

“I definitely was.” I pulled one of the rollers from her hair, forcing curls to fall to her shoulders. “Seeing as though sex with you is the best I’ve ever had, I think it would be normal to want it again.”

Her cheeks reddened again. “It was just okay for me.”

“Once you hit five orgasms in a night, it becomes more than just okay.” I trailed my finger against her lips. “Tell me the truth. Why are you avoiding me?”

“I don’t want sex to affect our relationship—the fake one or the enemy one,” she said finally. “I don’t want it to change anything.”

“You know, I’m starting to think that our friendship was never fake.” I looked into her eyes. “I’m also starting to think that we’ve never really been enemies.”

“I started Semester at Sea because I wanted to get the hell away from you after high school, and I vividly remember fighting all the time before that. We even fought in the first series of letters we sent. We’ve always been enemies, Ethan. Always.”

“So, the times you came through my bedroom window at night and slept in my bed under a ‘temporary truce’ don’t count for anything?”

“Not when part of the truce was to act like it never happened.”

“We both know it did.”

“So? Anytime I climbed through your window to talk about something, I was only using you because I didn’t have anyone else.”

“I didn’t have anyone else either, Rachel.”

“You had plenty of friends.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I thought I did.”

Silence.

I pulled another roller from her hair, keeping my eyes on hers. “True enemies don’t look out for each other, and they damn sure don’t care about each other’s personal lives.”

“Exactly. We never have. So, what’s your point?”

“I can’t think of a single milestone or important moment in your life when I wasn’t right there with you.”

“I know. You were there to ruin all of them.”

“No.” I laughed. “I mean, I was there when you needed me, and you were there when I needed you. And it was never by default, Rachel. It was always by choice.”

She shook her head. “What are you trying to say, Ethan? We should fuck again because we have a history?”

“We should fuck again because sex with you is incredible,” I said, watching her blush. “That said, I think we should take the ‘temporary’ tag off our friendship for the long term. And because I know you—” I paused, letting her say the seven words she always said whenever I mentioned that.

“You don’t know me at all, Ethan.”

“Exactly.” I smiled. “Anyway, I can promise you that sex won’t ruin anything between us. Since every other guy has failed at it, you should give me a chance to be the one thing you’ve wanted since I’ve known you.”

“You want to try being my best friend?”

“I’m already your best friend,” I said, looking into her eyes. “I’m talking about being your boyfriend.”

Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. She was still blushing, but she wasn’t saying anything.

“Is that a yes?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think you know what being a boyfriend requires.”

“I’m sure you have a list,” I said. “Would you like me to take a look at it?”

“I don’t have a list, Ethan.” Her eyes gave that lie away. “But if I did have a list—hypothetically speaking, my number one says that real boyfriends don’t cheat.”

“I’ve never cheated.”

“Number two says that real boyfriends insist on making sure that there are romantic outings every week.”

“You have another list about the requirements for real dates as well, don’t you?”

“Absolutely not.” Her cheeks reddened again. “Number three would say that there’s no sex, but lots of intimate moments.”

“I’d be fine with that if I wasn’t already addicted to our sex.” I pulled a few more rollers from her hair. “But I’m looking forward to these intimate moments.”

“I haven’t said yes yet.”

“Only because you want to hold out and make this shit dramatic.” I smiled. “That’s what all your favorite heroines do, correct?”

She smiled, not answering.

“I can deal with that.” I moved her sketch pad to the side and stood up. “I’ll give you a few hours to give me a yes.”

“I think it’s going to take me more than a few hours to think about this.”

“I doubt it.”

“In that case, I’ll have an answer for you in a few weeks.”

I laughed and kissed her, gently biting her bottom lip. Then I gripped her waist and lifted her up, setting her on top of a dryer.

Unbuttoning her pajama top, I whispered against her mouth, “I think you’ll have the answer I’m looking for the second I’m done with you tonight.”