The Hardest Fall

by Ella Maise

I couldn’t really have moved even if I wanted to; she was…it was all too…captivating—that’s the word I was looking for. She was all over the place and yet she was captivating as hell, a fresh breath of air, for some reason.

“Let me have a taste. Then you can tell me all about what you’re planning to do to me.”

“This is the strangest thing, but I think you’re going to be my best friend, Zoe Clarke.”

Stopping when only two steps separated us, I leaned against the marble counter. “Hi. How is your morning going so far?”

“Let’s bet on a kiss,” I said, deciding to end her misery. “I think we’re gonna end up kissing one of these days, and I bet you’ll be the first one to beg for it.”

His other arm reached around me and rested on my back, a little higher than the other one, and I felt like it was okay to close my eyes. He’d make it okay.

I smiled at her and didn’t think before speaking. “I know you won’t, baby.”

“You look beautiful,” I said honestly. “You always look beautiful, but tonight you look happier. I like your smile tonight. I always like it when you smile, Flash,” I said sincerely.

“It’ll happen soon you know. I wonder if you’re ready for it, because we’re almost there. I can see it in your eyes, and you’re going to lose, Zoe, just like I knew you would.”

My buddy. My very own buddy…who I wanted to fuck senseless.

“Choose me, Zoe.” The words rushed out of me before I could stop myself.

“I need you to let him go, Zoe. Whatever it is that’s going on between you two, I don’t want to know. Just…I need you to choose me now. I’m the one that’s supposed to be with you, not anyone else.”

He’d help me breathe after scaring me to death. He’d save me from earthquakes, hold my hand after watching a scary movie, buy me pizza because he knew it’d make me happy, protect me from anything and everything by putting himself in front of the danger. He’d watch over me until morning.

“My heart beats differently for you. It feels different somehow. I know this probably doesn’t make sense, but…it beats louder, wilder when I see you.”

“It feels like I’ve been waiting for this to happen all my life, waiting for you to happen.”

“You’ve called me an idiot a few times tonight, so I’m guessing I’m your other half, just as big of an idiot, if not bigger.”

He was the dream, the one you always wanted to end up with, the other half of your soul, if you believed in that kind of thing. I was willing to bet Dylan Reed would check every single box every single woman had on their must-have list, and yet there he was, standing in front of me, smiling at me with a crooked grin.

I’d made it. I’d fucking made it. I had everything I’d ever wanted and more.