“How are things with you?” Dylan asked. “How’s life treating my favorite marine biologist?”
“Good. Boring. You know.” Testing hormone levels in whale earwax couldn’t stack up to Dylan’s glamorous life in New York. Based on his social media, his life was basically an endless series of cool parties with beautiful people in elegant Manhattan apartments. Not to mention all the traveling he did. Just in the last year, he’d posted photos from Paris, Prague, Phuket, and Tulum. Brooke’s poky apartment couldn’t possibly compare, even if her complex did have a pool. “I hope I’m exciting enough for you.”
“Excitement’s the exact opposite of what I’m looking for. All I want is to spend a nice, quiet, relaxing few days hanging out with an old friend.”
She grinned as it hit home how much she’d missed him. “I can definitely make that happen.”
“And maybe watching some martial arts movies. Assuming you still like martial arts movies?”
“Always.” It had been one of their favorite things to do as kids. They’d wasted endless Saturdays watching Jackie Chan and old Bruce Lee movies on the floral couch in Dylan’s family room.
“Good. Sounds like heaven.”
It was funny how years could pass and their lives could go in two totally opposite directions, and yet they still managed to have a connection.
“I’ll see you in a couple weeks, then,” Dylan said.
“Can’t wait.”
After she said goodbye, Brooke pulled up the old prom photo of her and Dylan again. She hadn’t thought about that night in a long time, mostly because she’d tried hard to forget about it.
It was supposed to be a friend date. Purely platonic.
They’d made the pact their freshman year. If both of them were single when senior prom rolled around, they’d be each other’s safety date. Purely as friends, of course. That had been the intention, anyway.
The night hadn’t exactly gone as planned though.
Brooke had been coming off a bad breakup, and she’d always assumed Dylan only asked her to prom because he’d sensed she was having a rough time. He could have had his pick of prom dates but instead he’d invoked their prom pact. It was him looking out for her, like he always had.
“Wouldn’t it be more fun if we went with each other?” she remembered him saying. “We always have a great time together, and this way our prom memories will be of each other, instead of some rando date we’ll probably never see again after graduation.”
Even if it was just a pity date, Brooke jumped at the chance. She’d had a uniformly awful senior year, and the prospect of going to prom with one of her best and oldest friends was so much better than any alternative she’d been able to imagine. She probably wouldn’t have gone at all if it hadn’t been for Dylan.
Not when Kyle would be there with his new girlfriend. After what he’d done to her, Brooke couldn’t bear the thought of facing him alone.
But Dylan had pulled out all the stops to make sure she had a good time: corsage, limo, dinner at a fancy restaurant. With their diverging romantic pursuits, they hadn’t hung out just the two of them in a while, and it was nice to have Dylan all to herself again. She’d had so much fun dancing the night away with Dylan, she barely even noticed Kyle and his new girlfriend and all the shitty looks he and his friends shot her way.
For that one magical night, it had felt like no one existed in the world but her and Dylan.
After the last dance, when their feet hurt so much they could barely walk, they piled back into the limo waiting to take them home. Brooke was riding an endorphin high, but also feeling a buzz from the flask of Jack Daniels that Dylan had smuggled into the dance. They were both a little drunk, to be honest.
That was the only explanation she could think of for the kiss.
Brooke remembered being tired and resting her head on Dylan’s shoulder. At some point, he’d turned his head so he was looking down at her, his face only inches from hers. Then his hand had curled around the back of her neck, and the next thing she knew he was kissing her.
Until that moment, she’d never thought about Dylan like that.
Well, maybe she’d thought about it a little.
More than a little.
But she’d never imagined he would ever think about her like that.
It completely blindsided her. But it also felt amazing…and right, in a