Don't Make This Easy, I Want You to Mean It

“You ruined my coffee,” Alex chuckled, picking up the cups from the ground as I let us both into my apartment.
“Judging from how cold my legs are, I ruined your coffee before I even dropped Jack off at home,” I told him, throwing my keys on the side. The shower was running already, which surprised me, as I figured Marissa would have been eavesdropping on me and Alex instead of taking the shower she’d called dibs on. “I’ll run us downtown after I change if you still want a decent cup of coffee.”
“Get changed, but I’ll drive us into the city and we’ll make a day of it.” Alex flashed me another grin and I chuckled.
“A whole day of coffee? What a way to spoil a girl.”
“Shut up,” he laughed, though not taking my joke to heart. “I know I’m hardly worth the time, but let’s just go out for the day. I dunno, have dinner, wander around the city. All that crap.”
“What, pancakes and small talk?” Alex shook his head, though didn’t make to say anything more. Was Alex trying to take me on a date? First he stuck around, now this? My heart pounded at the thought. What did Alex want with me? I was the easiest girl to leave on a morning. Hell, I did the job for you. And he wanted to take me out? “So, not pancakes and small talk. Lunch and coffee. A date.” I watched a small blush creeping onto Alex’s cheeks and did my best not to show any amusement. So, it was a date.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On if you want it to be a date.” I grinned, nodding my head. “Great. Go get changed. Not that I’m not loving your dishevelled princess look, but I don’t think Baltimore is up for it.” I kissed him quickly, leaving him alone and quickly running into the bathroom.
“Marissa, it’s just me! I just need to wash my face and then I’m going into Baltimore with Alex. Do you need anything?” I called over the sound of the shower, grabbing my wash cloth and quickly washing my face.
“No, but I’m so hoping he has better personal boundaries than you and doesn’t walk in on me in the shower!” I snorted at her fake annoyance. She knew I couldn’t see anything, and I knew she didn’t really mind. Honestly, she was the sister I never had and I absolutely adored this girl.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll give Jack my keys and tell him exactly where to go!”
“Jasey!” She scolded as I ran out of the room, laughing at her once again. I caught Alex looking at me questioningly and shook my head.
“Marissa is in the shower and she hates me. Back in five!” I ran quickly to my room, grabbing the first outfit I saw and running a brush through my hair before joining Alex in the main room. “Okay, just so you know, Baltimore is not going to see my awful face. I will be doing my make up in your car.” I told him, grabbing my purse and keys, finally ready to leave.
“You look gorgeous, shut up.” I scrunched my nose up at him, shaking my head, but didn’t offer any further argument to my point.
Within the hour, Alex and I were settled in a café along the harbour, sitting outside despite the weather. It was a nice spot. The sky was clear and the wind was minimal, making the area at least a little bearable by the dim sunlight, and warm despite winter quickly closing in on us. I sighed as I leaned back in my chair, watching people walking by.
“What about her?” I asked, pointing to a redhead walking by in a hurry. Alex and I had been at this since we’d placed our orders five minutes before, trying to puzzle out everyone’s backstory. There was nothing in it but idle small talk and stretching out our imaginations.
“Hmm. Sunday morning rushing. That’s walk of shame hair. I’m calling student, stupid night of partying, one night stand last night and deadline this week.” I nodded at his words, waiting for him to pick someone out for me, while still continuing to search the crowd. A boy with dark blonde hair started walking toward the door of the café we were in, looking at me quickly before turning on his heel and making to move away.
“Chase, you absolute cutie pie! Where are you running off to?” I laughed. I didn’t like it when people I called friends (no matter how loosely I used the phrase) tried to pretend they hadn’t seen me, which is more than just what he had tried to do. Of course, because he was trying to run away, I had to ruin his day with my overt sarcasm.
“I’m running away for coffee, because your face hurts my Sunday hangover,” he told me, turning around and flashing a grin at me after shooting a wary look at Alex across the table from me. “Gaskarth.” Alex nodded in response and I rolled my eyes. Boys and their macho stupidity. I would find out the story eventually, I guess, but right now I wasn’t concerned.
“Did you have fun last night?” I asked, feeling Alex’s hand reach across and grab mine. I didn’t look at him, knowing it was basically for Chase’s benefit when I saw his face fall. I wasn’t usually one to flee the party early, hook up or not, so I was interested to see how the rest of the night had gone down without me.
“Tonnes. Although, you two disappeared really early and Marissa wasn’t too far behind you.”
“Okay. I need exact times. When did she go upstairs with Jack? I have ten bucks riding on this.” I glanced over at Alex who was trying not to laugh at me.
“I don’t know, about 12:30?”
“Fuck! Neither of us got it!” I told Alex, who just chuckled in response. “’Hook ups happen at 2am, Holly’,” I mimicked.
“I should’ve taken midnight.”
“Well, maybe if you could have contained yourself for a little longer we could have seen this first hand and made it work.”
“Damn, I’m really sorry. Next time I’ll wait a couple of hours after you drop a bombshell on me to have my way with you.” Alex smirked and I shook my head.
“So much for there’s nothing going on with you and Alex.” I rolled my eyes at Chase’s words, knowing he was being a drama queen and not in the mood to get into it right now. He was just going to miss having a backup fuck now that I no longer needed one.
“What? Can’t two friends make bets on their friends hooking up? Or is it the sex thing? Because I’m pretty sure you and I have never been more than friends, despite all that.” Chase clicked his tongue disapprovingly, before turning away from me. “Bye Chasey baby! See you next week!” I called to his retreating form, though he didn’t react.
“What’s this about friends hooking up?” Alex asked, still looking amused by my outburst and still holding my hand loosely on the table. I instinctively went to bite my lip from the nerves, though stopped myself just short. I didn’t know exactly what Alex and I were, but I was almost positive it was more than friends, much more than Chase and I had ever been.
“Friends do that occasionally.”
“Friends like us?”
“Is that what you think we are?” I snorted quietly. “Oh, Alex, I thought you said you were crazy about me?”
“I did,” he nodded.
“And you know I’m crazy about you?”
“Absolutely. Who isn’t?”
“Then you and I are more than just friends.”
“And what, exactly, do you think that makes us?”
“I thought it was the girls who were supposed to play coy? If you’re not my boyfriend, then god only knows what you think that entails.”
“And just why do you think that?”
“You stuck around this morning. Not only did you stick around, you went for coffee then came to find me when I went home. You think of me as your girlfriend, just admit it.”
“I haven’t had a girlfriend in over a year, and she hates me now.” Alex began to sound a little uncertain and I finally bit my lip, knowing that maybe I had been pushing it a little bit. I wasn’t going to convince him, to wear him down, but I was almost positive that what we were doing was a relationship, and I just had to make him admit it. If I was wrong, all he had to do was tell me so.
“I haven’t had a boyfriend since I was sixteen, but he still isn’t over me.”
“I’m not good at relationships.”
“Last week you weren’t good at sticking around in the morning. I’m not like other girls, Alex, and your reaction to me isn’t like your reactions to other girls either.”
“If I screw this up, will you hate me?”
“You don’t need to worry about me hating you. Hate is five seconds from love. You want to worry when I’m indifferent to you, but I don’t think I’ll ever be indifferent to you.”
“So, when I call Jack to gossip later, I get to call you my girlfriend then?” A grin spread out on his face and I couldn’t help the fluttering in my stomach at just how happy he seemed in this moment.
“You call me whatever you want to Jack, but Monday morning at school, everyone is going to be discussing how some loser called Alex Gaskarth managed to snag a girlfriend like Jasey Rae.”
“You know, I’ve never met a girl whose arrogance can give me a run for my money.”
“And that, dear Alex, is the reason you like me so much.”

Notes