“I was thinking back to that night and those first few weeks we hung out. I wanted to kiss you again so bad, but I was scared of freaking you out or pressuring you. You intimidated the hell out of me.”

“No way.” Her brown eyes stare back intensely.

“Yes way. I figured it was obvious.”

“Not to me. I thought I turned you off with my five-date thing.”

“What five-date thing?”

“My five-date rule,” she says again like that’s supposed to mean something to me. “I had a rule about not hooking up with anyone before five dates. Actually the rule died after you.”

“It did? Why did it start?”

“Remember the guy, Will, that I told you about?”

“The dickwad who ghosted you?”

She nods. “After him, I was determined to make sure I didn’t let anyone else take advantage of me like that, so I told you I had a five-date rule to keep myself from sleeping with you and then being hurt when you never called me again.”

“I wouldn’t have done that.”

“Which is why I gave up on the rule. It obviously didn’t work.”

“Well, it kept us from sleeping together.”

“The idea was that I would get to know a person before I jumped into bed with them. You and I hung out a ton, way more than five dates. I came over in my cutest dresses to play video games for crying out loud. I figured you thought I was too high maintenance or crazy.”

“I completely forgot about the five-date rule. I was waiting for you to give me the go-ahead that you were ready and then it felt like the moment had passed.” Five dates or five hundred, if I’d known that was what was stopping her, I’d have given them to her to prove how much I wanted her.

“Strange to think about how it might have been different if I’d kept my mouth shut that night.”

“Well, I would have tried to get you naked and probably made you feel like I was another Will, so it was probably for the best.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Even knowing I potentially missed out on seeing you naked…” Jesus, just thinking about having sex with her, my voice goes gruff and my dick stiffens. “I think I got a pretty good deal having you as a best friend instead.”

“Do you think it’s possible we would have hooked up and still been friends like we are now?”

I really wish the answer to that was yes. It’d make entertaining the idea of doing something about it now to make up for two years ago a lot easier. “Probably not, but part of me wishes we had anyway.”

Her grin lights up the room. “Same. I think it would have been good.”

My face feels warm. Actually my whole body does, straight down to my groin. “No doubt about that, babe.”