Page 43 of Unforgettable You

“I am an asshole. You know that.”

Sophie pulled her legs up and set her chin on her knees. “I don’t think you’re as much of an asshole as you want people to think you are. And you’re not an asshole at Sapph.”

I made a face. “Don’t remind me. I swear I have to unscrew my smile every night when I’m done. Makes me not want to make a facial expression again for at least a week.”

“So why do you do it? If you hate it. Because it kind of seems like you hate it.”

My response was instant. “I don’t hate it. It’s just…hard sometimes. But I make decent money. And I’m good at it. Mixing drinks isn’t the bad part. It’s the customers.”

Sophie snorted. “Yeah, a bar that made drinks without customers to drink them probably wouldn’t be very successful.”

“No, it wouldn’t be.”

Voices made me turn and look over my shoulder. A family joined us on the top of the hill, the parents ordering the kids to get together so they could take pictures. It was sweet. I couldn’t remember the last picture I’d taken with my mother. It had probably been one of the posed shots they took at the dance studio when I’d been wearing one of my dozens of costumes. No idea what my mother had done with them.

“But if you really want to do something else, you could,” Sophie said, bringing me back to the conversation at hand.

Normally I’d snap at her and tell her to leave me alone. That I knew that I could do something else. That I was fine working at Sapph.

“I’m not qualified to do anything,” I said instead.

“You were a dancer for a long time,” she pointed out, her voice so gentle.

“I’ve thought about that a million times. And it all comes back to the fact that I’d have to see kids going through the same thing I did. With parents that forced them and made them miserable. And I couldn’t do it. I teach one baby ballet class sometimes and that’s all I can do. Because they’re so young that there isn’t as much pressure. There’s some, but you can’t really make a four-year-old into a professional dancer no matter what you do. But if I had to teach older kids? No. I couldn’t handle it.”

Sophie seemed to think about that for a long time.

“That makes complete sense.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I can’t seem to make other people see it that way. I never did anything else, Soph. Never had any ambitions. I just… I danced. That was my life. And now I have nothing.”

Sophie moved closer and put her arm around me, resting her head gently on my shoulder.

That was the second time she’d touched me today and I should be pushing her away. People touching me nearly always felt like an invasion.

Except I wasn’t pushing her away. I was sitting here and letting her lean on me and smelling her scent and feeling her warmth light up the right side of my body and her arm across my back.

Having her this close was a bad idea. I liked it far too much. I liked her far too much.

“You have so much, Reid,” she said, settling even closer. Her fingers squeezed my shoulder. “If you ever want to sit down and brainstorm, I’m at your disposal. If you want to sit around the apartment and get totally wasted and complain about life and how we don’t know what we’re doing, I’m up for that too. I just…you’re my friend, Reid. I want us to be able to talk to each other. You’ve done a lot for me. I only want to be a good friend to you in return.”

Fuck, she was going to kill me. I hadn’t met anyone quite like her.

“You are a good friend, Sophie. You’re an incredibly good friend.” I almost felt spoiled having her to myself. She had Larison, but I knew her anxiety sometimes held her back from making more friends.

“Thanks. That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.”

I snorted. “Then I should compliment you more often.”

Her smile curved against my shoulder. “I like that idea.”

The two of us stayed like that for a while. Until the sun had moved higher in the sky and it was time to go back to the car. Plus, I had to pee, and I was not squatting in the woods even if I had supplies. Not if I could avoid it.

Sophie and I made it back to the car and she sighed happily when she sat down in the passenger seat.

“It’s wild how walking so much can make you tired.” She hid a yawn behind her hand. “I’m sorry.”

I waited for another car to leave before I backed out. “What would you say if I ordered some pizza and we sat on my couch and ate it while we watched something?” I was being reckless, spending this much time with her, but I couldn’t help it. I craved her. Being around Sophie was just…good. Things were better when she was there. When I could talk to her and ask her opinion.