Nothing else.
* * *
The rest of the morning, Jonah and I cleaned up the living room and finally finished the dishes and put them all away. By the time we were done, the house was practically spotless, and we were both pretty hungry from the combined effort of acrobatic sex and scrubbing at caked on cheese. Jonah suggested we order in and watch a movie, and I didn’t hate that idea.
As he went looking through take-out menus, I got a call from Becca, which I took upstairs in the bedroom.
“Hey,” she said when I picked up. “You lied to me.”
I frowned. “I did?”
At this point, I had told Becca quite a few lies, having not wanted her to know about Jonah and me, so I wasn’t sure which lie she was referring to.
“You said you were going out with Calvin last night after dinner, and that you might just crash on his couch, but I saw Calvin at a coffee shop this morning and he said you didn’t go out with him at all.”
Dammit.
“Kat,” she said. “What’s going on? You never lie to me. Or so I thought.”
As much fun as it had been sneaking around with Jonah, not telling another living soul what we were up to, I could hear just how hurt Becca was and I realized in that moment that I really didn’t want to lie to her anymore. Besides, things were starting to get a little more… complicated with this whole office fling thing and I thought it would be nice to have a friend to talk to about all of it.
“Alright,” I said. “So, here’s the truth. But you’re gonna want to sit down because a lot has happened this last month.”
Becca told me she was settled in on the couch, and I began my story. Ten minutes later, I had caught her up all the way to the events of that morning, and when I finally finished, I expected her to lose her mind but instead there was only silence on the other end of the line.
“Beccs? You there?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” she said. “I mean, really Kat, this might be the biggest betrayal of our entire friendship. Forget the time you kissed that guy I had a crush on at the club.Thisis the worst thing you’ve ever done to me.” Her words were dramatic, but her tone was a joking one, so I started to relax a little.
I laughed. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but you know, I was worried you would…” I trailed off.
“Get too invested in it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that was probably a fair assumption, because I’ve only known about this for a few minutes and I’m already picking out the color scheme for your guys' wedding. It’s dark blue and cream by the way. You’re having a winter wedding.”
“Becca.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “I was only kidding. I’m not going to read anything into this. You tell me how you feel about Jonah and where this whole thing is going, and I will stick to your word, no questions asked.”
“That’s the thing,” I said. “I’m not exactly sure we are on the same page, he and I. I’m not really sure what page I am even on. He is downstairs ordering food for us and putting on a movie, and it’s beginning to dawn on me that we’ve got quite a romantic little weekend planned for ourselves. Like something an old married couple does!”
“And that’s not what you want?”
“I would be fine with it, if I knew this was as far as we were ever going to take things. I can do a weekend together, I can curl up and watch a movie with someone, as long as we both know that come Monday morning, I’ll be packing my things and heading back to my own house and my own bed.”
“You don’t think Jonah knows that?”
I sighed. It wasn’t Jonah I was worried about as much as my own heart, which seemed to be taking over the reins from my head, and I was terrified of where that could lead me. “I don’t know. At this point, it’s all just conjecture.”
“Hey Kat!” Jonah called from the top of the stairs. “I ordered pizza, hopefully that sounds good. I got a veggie one and one with pepperoni and sausage!”
“Okay thanks!” I called back. “I’ll be right there.”
The words rang out in my head and an image of gooey, cheesy pizza with pieces of greasy sausage and bright red pepperoni on it appeared in my head, and the next thing I knew I was running to the bathroom and leaning over the toilet seat. I had brought my phone with me but placed it on the sink just in time before throwing up.
“Kat?” I heard Becca say on the phone. “Are you there? Are you okay?”