Oh Scott, please shut your damn mouth.
Lyra cleared her throat, looking as uncomfortable as I was sure I did. “So, how were the roads?”
“They’re not great, but we were able to get in. Forecast is clear for the next few days, so we should have no problem getting home,” Allison said, sitting on the arm of the chair and putting her arm around Scott’s shoulder. Seeing that simple gesture made me bitter. I was in no mood to see my happily shacked up friends express their love in front of me.
Nope, not in the mood at all.
“So, what should we do?” Maren asked. “We have a few hours until we ring in the new year. I say we do it up right!”
“And what do you suggest?” Lyra asked, looking at me as she spoke. Again, I looked away.
“We could go downstairs to the bar…have some cocktails.”
“Are they even open?”
“Oh…good point. Maybe not.” Maren wrinkled her nose. “We could play more board games…unless you guys are tired of it.”
“We haven’t played Cards Against Humanity yet,” Lyra said, raising her eyebrows as she looked at me. Her eyes begged for forgiveness, and I was a weak man. I felt myself softening a little bit. “And it’s Dev’s favorite.”
Maybe it was just a nervous impulse. Maybe I’m not a joke to her.
“I’m assuming there’s Tito’s?” Pete asked.
“Do you even have to ask?”
“All right, let’s do this.”
After several hilarious rounds of my favorite game, I was feeling better, lighter. Lyra was on her best behavior during the game, but she still sat as far away from me as possible. The tension between us lingered, only now it was more complex. I still wanted her. God, I wanted her, but I was torn between my desire for Lyra and my dignity, my self-worth. I refused to want someone who didn’t realize I was a catch. I didn’t want someone who jerked her hand away. I wanted someone to hold on to me as I tightly as I held on to them.
Yeah, I know. At the heart of me, I’m a cheesy motherfucker.
“Let’s take a break,” Maren said, “unpack our stuff a little, then hang out until the ball drops.”
“You realize we need our television to do that, right?” I said, feeling snarky.
“Not true, we have our phones.” Maren stood up and ruffled my hair. I groaned, realizing she was right.
“You’re one step ahead of me, Mare,” I joked.
“Always. Need anything, Dev?”
“Nah,” I said, patting the half-empty bottle of vodka. “I’ve got all I need.”
Maren shook her head, following Peter into one of the empty bedrooms. Just then, Scott popped his head out of the other empty room. “Wait, Dev, did you take one of the big rooms?”
“I mean…you guys weren’t even supposed to make it, so…”
“So you changed rooms? Did you sleep in the small one the first night?”
“Not exactly.”
“So you took the big room before you knew we weren’t coming?”
I clenched my teeth. “Yeah, kinda.”
Scott shook his head, laughing under his breath.
“You wanna switch back?” I asked, hoping he would turn me down. I really didn’t feel like moving all of my shit, especially while on crutches.
“Nah, it’s just two nights. We’ll be fine, but you owe me.”
“Whatever, dude.”
Once both couples had disappeared into their rooms, I realized I was alone with Lyra for the first time since they arrived. The air was heavy and the silence awkward as hell.
“Hey,” Lyra said, lowering her voice. “About earlier.”
I cut her off. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But you seemed upset.”
“Me?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Dev…”
I tilted my head toward her, my tone condescending. “Lyra.”
“I don’t want to go backward.” Her eyes were pained.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I paused for a second, then shrugged. “No one’s going anywhere. It’s all good.”
Lyra’s shoulders drooped as she realized I wasn’t going to entertain this conversation. I was done. I wanted to focus on my friends, and that was it.
“Fine,” she huffed, grabbing her cup and walking into the kitchen, her back to me as she cleaned the countertops.
“You realize this is a hotel, right? You don’t have to clean.”
“I clean when I’m pissed.”
I craned my neck in disbelief. “Wait a second, you don’t get to be pissed! I’m the one who’s pissed!”
Lyra stalked toward me, her voice a harsh whisper. “You have no right to be pissed. You have a girlfriend! What was I supposed to do?”
“You’re full of shit!”
“Oh my God, you’re unbelievable!”
“You’re telling me that’s the only reason you pulled your hand away?”
She opened her mouth to speak, her cheeks a deep shade of red, but said nothing.
“Exactly.”
She pursed her lips, looking ridiculously busted. “Don’t look at me like that!”
“Like what?” I hissed.
“Like I broke your heart or something. For God’s sake, it was a moment. We shared a moment, okay? Get a grip!”
“Oh honey, I am far from heartbroken. Like you said, I have a girlfriend, right?”
“Yeah, you do. And she’s sure as hell not me!” She turned and stalked back to the kitchen, picking up a sponge and wiping with vigorous strokes. If I wasn’t so irritated with her, I’d probably tease her, make some sexually suggestive remark about how hard she was stroking that counter. But it wasn’t the time. I felt like Michael Scott wanting to tell his “that’s what she said” joke in front of the corporate goons who were there to bust him on his shit. The joke was on the tip of my tongue, but my own anger stopped it.
I was my own corporate goon.
What is this woman doing to me?
“Thank God!” I said, knowing it was a low blow. I was never one to hold back during a fight, especially with Lyra.
“You can really be a dick sometimes, you know that?”
“How you love to remind me.”
She threw her head back in defeat, tossing the sponge into the sink and walking back to the living room. She didn’t want to fight anymore; her body language said it all. “Dev, c’mon, you caught me by surprise, okay? I didn’t know what to do. And seeing our friends again, it…it brought me back to reality. That’s all.”
“Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on that.”
“Dev—”
“Forget it, Lyra. Won’t happen again.”
“What won’t happen again?” She tilted her head to the side, placing her hands on her hips. God, she was sexy even when I was pissed at her.
“Just forget it, okay? Forget all of it. Let’s just pretend it never happened. You hang out with the girls, I’ll hang with my boys, and in a couple days we’ll go home and go back to hating each other—we’ll go back to the way things were meant to be.”