"When you started using all my advice on me, yeah. You made it pretty obvious. And before that, I had my suspicions. Like when you walked in on me in the bathroom."
I laughed. "That was an accident!"
He gave me his panty dropping smile.
"Rory, it was."
"Well, anyway," he said as he stood up. "It's good we got that out of our systems. Now we really can just be friends." He lightly slapped me on the back as he put his slice of toast in his mouth and walked back to his bedroom.
What?!
***
I wiped under my eyes with the back of my hand and pressed the number for Emily's apartment. The door buzzed open. I grabbed it and slowly made my way up the stairs.
As soon as Emily opened her door, her face fell. "Keira?" She stepped to the side so I could walk in.
"Is that the food?" Emily's husband, Jim, said as he walked into the room. "Oh, hey, Keira. Um, I'm just going to..." he pointed to something and left the room. He must have seen my face.
"What the hell did he do to you?" Emily sat down on the couch.
"He didn't do anything," I said as I took a seat next to her. "Last night was perfect. He's so perfect."
"No one's perfect, Keira."
"He is. He's everything I've been looking for."
"You always do this."
"Do what?"
"Build people up. He's not perfect. He's a player. He's probably slept with a hundred women. That's disgusting. You don't want to be with a guy like that."
I felt sick to my stomach. "I do." I dropped my voice so Jim wouldn't be able to hear me. "It was the best sex I've ever had."
"Well it should have been. He's had enough practice."
"Emily."
"Keira! You knew you could never do a one night stand. Why the hell did you sleep with him?"
"I couldn't help it. He's just so..."
"Womanizing?"
"No. Sexy."
"Okay, so you had a great night. Maybe you should just talk to him about it."
I started to cry again. What the hell is wrong with me? "I did. I told him I never wanted that stupid roommate pact. I even told him I thought he was really handsome."
"And?"
"He said he was glad we got it out of our systems. And that now we could really just be friends."
"Ouch."
"Yeah." I wiped away my tears again. "How am I supposed to live with him now? I'm going to have to listen to him having sex with other women every night. I can't do this!"
"I realize that this is not the right time to do this, but..."
"Don't you dare say it, Emily." I tried to pout but her facial expression made me laugh. She always did this.
"I can't resist." She smiled. "I told you so."
I laughed and tossed a pillow at her. "I really hate you sometimes."
There was a loud buzz, signaling that someone was downstairs waiting to be let in. Jim walked back into the room and pressed the button to let them into the building.
"Stay for lunch," Emily said and stood up. She grabbed three plates and began to set the table. "I'll be right back." She disappeared into the bathroom.
As soon as Emily closed the door, Jim walked over to me. "Why don't you just make him want you again?" he said in a low voice.
"Oh, geez, you were listening to us?" I asked. Jim had witnessed me being a complete mess more times than I wanted to remember. But he had never offered me advice before.
"Super thin walls." He shrugged.
I looked at the bathroom door. "Emily would surely tell me that is terrible advice."
"Yeah, well Emily's not a guy."
True. "So you mean, like, try to seduce him?"
"Try to turn the tables. Make him want you instead of the other way around."
"But that involves pretending like I don't like him."
"Guys like the chase. I don't know what else to tell you."
Emily came out of the bathroom and grabbed some glasses out of the cupboard. "What do you want to drink, Keira?
"Do you even have to ask?"
She laughed. "I'll open a bottle of wine."
Chapter 17
"Hey, guys!" I called as I walked into my apartment.
Rory turned his head toward me, but I didn't look at him. Jackson and Connor were sitting in the living room with him, watching a baseball game. I stumbled slightly as I kicked off my flip flops and walked over to them. One bottle of wine had quickly turned into two. The more I had to drink, the better and better Jim's advice seemed to be. I had hatched a plan in my head that I thought was pretty good. And it started with me ignoring Rory.
"Are the Phillies playing?" I asked.
"Do you follow baseball, Keira?" Jackson asked.
"A little. Mostly I like watching the sexy players." I sat down Indian style between Rory and Connor on the couch. My knee was pressed against Rory's thigh, but I pretended like I didn't notice. "Cole Hamels is a total dreamboat."
"Typical," Connor said.
"Don't be so quick to judge me, Connor. I'm just not that into baseball."
"So what sports do you follow?"
"Football. I'm a huge Eagles fan. And it's not just cause of the tight pants."
"Really?"
"Why are guys so surprised when I tell them that?"
"Sexism at its finest," Jackson said.
"Thank you, Jackson!"
"Well I don't believe you. Girls always pretend to be fans of the local teams. And then you actually sit down and watch a game and they don't even know what a field goal is. I bet you can't even name any of the Eagles' past quarterbacks," said Connor.
"Psh. McNabb, Vick, Kolb, and Foles. Boom." I made an exploding noise and spread my fingers in the air.
"You are full of surprises, Keira." He lifted up his beer bottle to me. "But I really wish you would stop booming me. That is so 2009, right Jackson?"
"So 2009," Jackson agreed.
"You guys are weird," I said.
"What were you up to tonight, Keira?" Rory asked. It was the first time he had spoken since I arrived.
"Actually, I had an amazing evening. I went out with some friends." He didn't need to know that going out meant hanging out talking about him. And that my friends were Emily and her husband. I looked over at him. "What were you up to tonight?"
Rory put his hand out, gesturing to his friends, somehow flipping the switch so that it looked like I was the one that was curious about his life.
"Oh, come on!" Connor yelled at the T.V. "Well, that's the end of that game. Why do they suck so much this year?" He switched the channel to ESPN.
"You know, I never understood why guys love this channel so much. You literally just watched everything that happened. Why do you need to hear about it again?"
"Apparently you wouldn't understand because you're a woman," Jackson offered.
"Mhm. Does anyone want anything?" I asked and stood up. They were all silent. I took a step and tripped over Rory's foot. Before I could fall, he grabbed my waist with both his hands. His fingers slid up slightly underneath my shirt.