"You do?" He brightens.
I nod.
"If you can't trust me. If you don't want to give this another shot—"
"Shut up and kiss me."
Epilogue
PATRICK
On my computer screen, Dare frowns, dead serious.
He's been dead serious for ten minutes now. And I sympathize, I do. But I promised Imogen we'd use the webcam in a different way, and this isn't the kind of waiting I enjoy.
"It's not that bad," I say.
He shakes his headyou couldn't be more wrong. "She saw me naked."
"Was there shrinkage?"
"If I wanted to hear stupid shit, I'd call Holden."
"Was there?"
"Worse."
"Worse?"
He nods. "I was…" He looks around the room, double-checking the coast is clear. "At half-mast."
"So?"
"So? My best friend saw me preparing to fuck myself. And I have to look her in the eye in"—he checks the time on the screen—"twenty minutes."
"You're just friends?"
He scoffs.
"Really?"
"Well…"
Exactly.
He shakes his head, declaring his previous thought ridiculous. "Of course we're just friends. I mean, really, Val? Yeah, she's gorgeous now, but she's…"
"Like a sister?"
"Does is sound that weak when I say it?"
"Yeah," I say.
"Yeah, I want to fuck her. But it's weird. Wrong."
"Why?"
"'Cause she's Val."