As soon as Riley left, Chelle put on sweats and pulled her hair up in a ponytail. She had just finished making some popcorn for their movie night when her phone rang. She grabbed it and saw that it was Katie.
A grin spread from ear to ear as soon as she saw her friend's name and photo on the display.
“Hey diamond friend! You having fun in paradise?”
“Yes I am, so much fun! Wow. You sound
so much
better than the last time we talked.” Katie’s voice sounded shocked.
“Yeah, I’m doing better. A lot better.” Now that Riley’s here, Chelle wanted to add, but didn’t.
“And does this newfound ‘betterness’ you speak of have anything to do with my new brother-in-law?” Katie asked.
Damn it. They didn’t call Katie ‘Sherlock’ for nothing. Stall. That was Chelle’s only option.
“What do you mean?” That came out sounding curious and not nervous...she hoped.
“Well...Jason just talked to Eddie, who had a question about a job he’s overseeing, and Eddie mentioned that he had just gotten off the phone with
Riley
who is still out in the Golden State with you! Oh, and...by the way...your big bro is not too happy about that fact.”
Chelle groaned inwardly. She loved her brother, but he drove her CRAZY sometimes. He needed to mind his own frickin' frackin' business!
So Riley and Eddie had talked. Riley hadn’t mentioned anything about it. But...hmmmm...
Maybe that explained his behavior earlier this evening.
She was trying to put the timeline together like a puzzle when Katie interrupted her thoughts.
“You still there?” She asked. Her tone indicated that she knew damn well Chelle was still on the line. She was just making a point.
“I’m here.”
“SO...? What’s going on with you and Riley?” Katie sounded like she had when they were in middle school, gossiping about a boy.
“Nothing, nothing.” Chelle wanted to open up to Katie. To tell her everything that was going on. To ask her for advice.
But now Katie was married to Jason. And that was amazing, Chelle loved Jason to death. But it changed things. Jason was not only Riley’s brother, he was also her brother Eddie’s boss. She didn’t need anything that she said getting back to either of them.
“Really? So then why is Riley still there after he was just supposed to pop in, make sure you were okay, and then head on home?”
Chelle didn’t really have an answer for that. So she was honest.
“I don’t know. I haven’t asked him.”
“What have you guys been doing?”
“Mostly sightseeing and just hanging out.”
“Uh huh, sightseeing.” Katie didn’t sound convinced.
“We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 yesterday and today we went on a day cruise. Then we went over to have dinner at his friend’s house who had just had a baby. And now were gonna watch a movie.” Wow, she said that all in one breath.
“Thanks for the itinerary. So nothing physical has happened between you two?” Katie asked, her tone sounding like Chelle imagined she sounded in the courtroom cross-examining a witness.
“Not really.” Damn! Chelle meant to say no. Why in the name of everything that is good and holy had ‘not really’ come out of her mouth? Why for the love of freaking Pete could she not just keep things simple?
She had minored in psych and, based on some of her studies, she knew that what she had just said was probably a Freudian slip. Subconsciously, she must have wanted to talk to Katie about it, otherwise she would have just denied that anything had happened.
“Look, I’m not going to say anything to Jas, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Katie and Chelle may not have been in contact much over the past decade, but when it came to knowing Chelle inside and out, Katie still had the goods.
“Fine, we kissed.” Chelle blurted out.
“OOOH I knew it! And then what?” Katie asked, wanting to get all the juicy details. Chelle only wished that there were any further details, juicy or otherwise, to be had.
“And then nothing,” she admitted glumly.
“What? How could there be nothing? He just kissed you and then
nothing
happened?!”
“Well...” Chelle admitted, “Actually...I kissed him. Sort of.”
“How do you ‘sort of’ kiss someone?”
“I mean it wasn’t like a kiss kiss, it was more like a peck. And then I just walked away.” Chelle thought it sounded bad now that she said it out loud.
“So he didn’t kiss you back?”
“Well, yeah. He kissed me back...I think? I don’t know. It happened really fast.”
“When did this happen?” Katie was in full information-gathering mode.
“Yesterday.”
“And you haven’t talked about it.” This was more of a statement than a question. Chelle wouldn't have been surprised if Katie had magically summoned a yellow legal pad into her hands, upon which she was now recording the pertinent details.
“Nope, no, not at all, no thank you. Not a conversation I am trying to have. ‘Hey, remember when I kissed you, what did you think about that?’ No sirree.”
“Well,
why
did you kiss him?”
Chelle had generally believed that there was no such thing as stupid question. But Katie had just proved that notion to be incorrect.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Why did you kiss him?” Katie repeated.
Chelle didn’t know if it was built up anxiety from the last few weeks or just built up tension from the last few days, but something inside her snapped.
“Uuuummm...well, I kissed him because I have been in love with him since middle school. I kissed him because I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about Riley Sloan. No one even comes in a close second! I kissed him because I can barely think of anything
other
than kissing him when he is within a four block radius of me. No, scratch that - he doesn’t even have to be in the same country as I am and it’s hard not to think about it. I kissed him because I
had
to.”
Katie was silent for a moment, and then she said, “And all he got out of that was a peck?”
Chelle burst out laughing and Katie joined her.
Katie continued, “Okay
, so I realize I’m playing catch up here, but is it safe to assume that Riley is the ‘unrequited love’ you were referring to at Sophie’s bachelorette party?”
Chelle suddenly remembered. When all of Sophie's bridesmaids had been playing a drinking game where you had to answer questions about your love life, Chelle’s question had been ‘Have you ever had an unrequited love?’ - to which Chelle had immediately responded ‘yes’.
Pssshhhh...
Leave it to Katie not to forget that, even though she had gotten massively wasted that night.
Lawyers!
Chelle figured there was no point in denying it, since she had basically just admitted as much. “Yes, that's right. He’s the unrequited love I was talking about.”
“So any chance of him requiting said love?” Katie’s voice sounded much more hopeful than Chelle felt.
“I don’t think so. In fact, now that you’ve asked me, I’m not sure if he
did
kiss me back. I think that he likes me just fine. You know...as a person. And he might be attracted to me on some level,” she wasn’t going to say that she had seen and felt physical proof that that was in fact the case –
some
things she wanted to keep private, “but I think to him I will always be Eddie’s baby sister.”
“Well, hmm. Maybe you need to show him that baby sister is all grown up.”
“It sounds so lascivious when you say it.” Chelle said.
Katie laughed, “What can I say, it’s a gift.”
Chelle was so happy to be back in touch with her diamond friend. She had missed her so much over the years. And even if there wasn’t a solution to the situation, it felt good to talk about it with Katie.
“So how’s married life? Are you guy’s sick of each other yet?” Chelle asked, knowing full well that Katie and Jason were madly in love and would not be getting tired of each other for as long as they lived.
Katie sighed a happy sigh. She said dreamily, “Married life is amazing! I honestly never knew life could be this good. I have never been happier, and I think Jas feels the same, and that makes me even happier.”
“Oh, I know Jas feels the same. He’s been in love with you forever.”
“Yeah and I think I always loved him too. It just took me longer to realize it. Hey!” Katie’s voice raised in excitement. “Maybe that’s the same with you and Riley, only you are like Jason and I am like Riley! Maybe Riley loves you too, he just has to figure it out! Why
else
would he still be there when he was supposed to fly home three days ago?”
Chelle didn’t want to put the kibosh on Katie’s enthusiasm. Katie did LOVE to try and play Colombo, and normally no one could refute her deductive abilities. Still, Chelle was fairly certain that his continued stay did not mean anything nearly as significant as Katie was trying to say it did.
“No, I wish,” Chelle responded wryly, “If only my life were like a romantic comedy. That would be awesome. But, in reality, I'm pretty sure he’s just sticking around because he wants to see the city, and because he's enjoying the fact that – for the first time in over a decade – he has nowhere that the government has said he has to be.”
She heard the door shut and looked over her shoulder to see Riley. He had just come in and was holding her favorite movie, Good Will Hunting, in his hand.
If Chelle had been on the fence about what she felt about whether or not she was completely in love with him, the fact that he remembered her favorite movie after all these years would have pushed her over to the ‘definitely-yes-madly-in-love’ side.
But she did know that she was in love with him. She didn't need a movie to tell her that. She just didn’t know what she was going to do about it.
--- ~ ---
Even if Riley hadn’t been confused before he had gone out to get the movie, he certainly would be now, after overhearing Chelle’s phone call. He was glad that he had chosen a movie that he had seen several times before. That way, he could use the time that the movie was playing to try and figure out what he was going to do about the conversation Chelle had with Katie.
He had chosen the movie because he remembered how many times he and Eddie would come home to find Chelle watching it. She loved it, to the point that she knew every line by heart.
When he had stood at the video store, looking through the selections, he wasn’t sure what she would be in the mood for. He wanted to pick something he was sure she would enjoy. From
the look on her face when he had finally shut the door loudly enough that it would alert her to his presence, he had definitely made the right choice.
And now, as he watched Matt Damon’s character Will grapple with some of the same issues that he himself was struggling with, he thought the choice was even more apropos. It made him feel better in a certain way. Hell, apparently even geniuses were idiots when it came to women. He was in good company.
He had overheard Chelle say that she loved him. That she had always loved him. That no one else even ran a close second.
Shit.
And this was coming from a girl that had been engaged not even two weeks ago. Hell, she hadn’t even taken off her engagement ring till that night!
So what did that mean? Sure, he had always known that she had a crush on him. But he had always chalked that up to puppy love. Not the real thing. She knew him too well to really love him.
And, yes, he had definitely felt the sparks flying between them since he had shown up a few nights ago. But, again...he had just put that firmly in the category of hormones. They were both good looking, single, consenting adults. It made sense that they would be attracted to each other.
But never in a million years did Riley believe that Chelle genuinely loved him. And he certainly never let himself examine his own feelings for her too closely! Tommy had said he knew that Riley was in love with her. Tommy knew him better than most.
Damn. Was he in love with Rachelle Thomas?
He knew he loved Chelle.
He knew he would do anything for Chelle.
He knew the thought of Chelle being with anyone else made him feel either physically ill or like he had been punched in the gut – or, in the worst cases, a really fun combination of both of those two things.
But, was he
in
love with her?
Shit. He was.
Now the question was - what was he going to do about it?
Did it really change anything? Eddie’s words popped in his head.
“
I know you, man
.”
“
You’re not what she needs
.”
“
She deserves better
.”