Chapter 30
Ben
ONE MONTH LATER
Parker and I are back to normal.
She’s still living with Lance, of course, so the roommate element isn’t there anymore.
But everything else is just like it was before we started hooking up.
There’s the joking, the laughter, the easy conversation.
The carpooling. Parker picks me up every morning for work in her hippie car, drops me off every evening, and conversation doesn’t lull the entire time.
Just like before.
The Blantons invited me for Christmas, and I was tempted. Especially given Mrs. Blanton’s cancer treatment.
But, in the end, I’d gone home to Michigan. My first Christmas at home since graduating from college.
It had been an important one.
A chance to make a fresh start, not just by letting go of my reliance on Parker and her family, but also a fresh start with my family.
I think I made progress. Over the holidays I made an effort to get on equal footing with my siblings—to establish that just because I didn’t take the path chosen for me didn’t mean I wasn’t a success.
My mom is still struggling a bit with my decision to eschew law school despite “all her sacrifices,” but I made definite progress with my dad and stepmom. Enough so that I’m actually looking forward to when they come out and visit over Presidents’ Day weekend in February.
All things considered, my life is as good as it’s been in a long time, ignoring, of course, the not-so-minor fact that I have very real, very complicated feelings for my best friend.
Feelings that eat at me when I’m all alone late at night, when the dark loneliness is begging me to tell her how I feel.
But then I see her the next day, and she has some cheerful anecdote about how she tried to make Lance breakfast and exploded avocado smoothie all over the ceiling, and I remind myself that if I care about her—and I do, more than anything—the best thing I can give her is her happiness.
And her happiness is Lance.
Which brings me to the news I’m about to spring on her…
Parker’s already in the driver’s seat when I get to her car after work, tapping away on her phone.
“Hey, karaoke tonight?” she asks as I climb into the car.
“Sure,” I say, fastening my seat belt. “Who’s going?”
“You, me, Lance, of course.”
Of course.
“Plus, Lori and that new guy she’s dating. Lori’s sister. Oh, and this girl from work, Eryn.”
I frown. “I thought we hated Eryn.”
Parker holds up a finger. “We used to hate Eryn. Now we think Eryn maybe just needed a friend.”
“Got it. Well, Eryn’s in luck, because it just so happens I’m an excellent friend.”
“Definitely,” Parker agrees. “You are. Except, of course, when you—”