Chapter 25: Sawyer

This isn’t going the way I wanted it to. I wanted to be gentler in my approach to this conversation, so I didn’t freak Bryn off but leave it to me to screw it up. This is exactly why girlfriends are a no go for me. I’m not the romantic guy who knows just what to say or do to make a girl feel loved. It’s a problem.

“I see.” Bryn says after a few long seconds of silence.

“You see? What does that mean?” I ask.

“Well I gather from your blunt words that you want me to be your girl, but possession isn’t the same as a relationship. So, which is it? Do you want to own me or be with me?” She doesn’t sound offended by my major blunder, but she also doesn’t sound like she’s taking this seriously.

“I want us to date. You and me a couple. Does that make things clear enough?” I scowl at her when she smiles and laughs a little.

It’s annoyingly cute and equally frustrating. This is a hard conversation for me to have and I’m about ready to roll the window down and puke but I’m holding it together.

When she stops laughing, she clears her throat and sits a little straighter. “I don’t know Sawyer. I mean we are different people than we were back then, and we haven’t gotten to know the new versions of each other yet. It might be too soon for that. Plus, are you willing to put in the work that goes into a relationship? I mean you made fun of everything your brother would do for Poppy, and you hated it when guys would ask your mom out. You scowl and grumble any time you saw a couple together. So how will this be different?”

“How can it not be? We aren’t those people. It’s us…Bryn and Sawyer…we make sense. We always have.”

She has a soft smile on her face, but she shakes her head. “That isn’t enough Sawyer. Being good friends with someone doesn’t mean you’ll make a good couple.”

That’s exactly what it means!
“We know everything about each other and we’re having sex regularly. Aren’t those things part of being in a relationship?”

She looks at me with an expression between shock and ‘you’re an idiot’. “No! That is not all that goes into a relationship Sawyer. For mother earth’s sake! There is a deeper bond involved.”

“And you’ve felt that bond with a lot of others?” I ask to make a point but I’m also fishing for information.

“I may not be experienced in the way of relationships but I know what I’m hoping for in one and knowing someone’s small ticks and sex isn’t all I want. I want more.”

“Okay, what else do you want?”

“For one I want to be with someone who wants to learn more about my interests and what I’m studying not just for their own gain.” She gives me a pointed look and I hold my hands up.

“Got it. I was an ass on that front. What else?”

“I want to spend time doing things together that we will both enjoy. You’re an athlete which means there is a whole lot of stuff you’ll be involved in that I won’t be comfortable with. I went to one party and punched someone. It isn’t really my scene, but it’s yours.”

She makes a point there. Although it’s not required for us to attend parties it helps with morale. We get attention on our sport and enjoy time with the team outside of practice. Even Coach encourages it but with a drink limit, so we aren’t sloshed for practices.

“You won’t have to come with me to those things. I only have to show my face and then we could do whatever you want after that.” I quickly say trying to cut off any excuse she may have to say no to me.

“I don’t know-“

“Give me a chance. I’ll learn to be a good boyfriend and you will get to mold me in your dream boyfriend mold.”

She blurts out a laugh and shakes her head. “You’re an idiot.” Another pause. “Okay, how about this. We’ll try dating but if for any reason either of us doesn’t feel like this is working, we will make it clear to the other. We need to have clear communication so that if we break up then we could still be civil. Our siblings are married after all which means we can’t exactly avoid each other, so our split needs to be clean and agreed on by both parties. How does that sound?”

“Like a trial run?”

“Exactly! We can try it and if it doesn’t work then we end it but without resentment.”

Do people really break up and remain friends? One of them would be hurt no matter what and that would be hard to forget. I promised her that I wouldn’t hurt her like a did before so I would try to be friends still if we ever broke up. That’s a big** IF** because I don’t plan on us ever breaking up.

“Alright. Let’s do a dating trial. We’ll try it and see how it goes, and if it doesn’t we have an amicable break up so that we can still be friends.” I say again to make sure we’re on the same page.

“Right. Okay then I’m in!” It feels like I’ve been slammed hard in the chest.

She agreed!

I’m glad we’re pulling up to the apartment because I need to celebrate this by getting her naked as soon as possible. She turns the car off and turns to me and opens her mouth to say something, but I cover her mouth with my hand.

“Hold that thought.” I throw my door open which doesn’t go as smoothly as I hoped for because this car is ancient, so I push it hard and hold it open so I can pop my body out.

Once I’m free I move to throw the door closed and it makes a fool of me again by barely moving. I’m forced to push it all the way closed, and I can see Bryn laughing inside. My hopes of making a huge spectacle of grabbing her and throwing her over my shoulder is quickly dwindling. I’m going to have to make sure we never take her car when I’m trying to impress her.

“Thanks a lot Louis” I curse the car as I pass around the hood to open Bryn’s door.

She’s already opening the door though and is cracking up like she’s just heard the funniest joke ever.

“What were you doing?” she asks as she closes her own door in a far smoother way.

“Nothing.” I’m peeved that my plan has been ruined by a damn car. “Let’s watch a movie.”

I grab her hand and drag her toward our front door, but I stop short when I see a white bag waiting for us. It looks like take-out, but I didn’t order anything. Bryn drops my hand and walks over to the bag and picks it up. There’s a note taped to it too. She holds the bag up so she can read it, but it doesn’t make her smile. So, this food surprise isn’t a good one.

“Who left it?” I ask her.

“Uh…” She passes it over to me and unlocks the door.

The note isn’t very clear, but I can make out a familiar name and the fact there’s a ‘DR’ in front of the name is a giveaway. Why the fuck is that doctor having food delivered to our apartment? How did he know she lived here?

“Hey B, did you tell the doctor you lived here?” I ask.

She’s already rummaging around in the kitchen when I finally walk in, and her lack of an immediate answer has me worried.

“B?”

“No, I didn’t tell him but your address was on the check-in information. It wouldn’t be too hard to figure out I guess.” She runs a hand through her hair which is pulled back, so it doesn’t go smoothie and she ends up growling in frustration and pulling it down.

Her curls fall around her face and I’m sucked into a trance. She’s so God damn beautiful that it almost hurts to look at her but I’d gladly deal with the pain if I get to see her like this every day. We aren’t breaking up if it means I would miss out seeing her let her hair down and relax after a long day. It’s gross domestic shit, but I’m down for it if it’s with her. I have to blink a few times to refocus on what we were talking about.

“He had my address, but we never said we live together.” I point out.

“Maybe he just assumed, but it doesn’t matter.” She tries to wave this away like an annoying fly buzzing around her but I’m not okay with this.

Plus, from the smell I can tell whatever is inside of it has meat. If he was a good doctor he would have done his research and would have been aware of what would happen if Bryn ate any of this.

“I’m going to throw this out.” I wait for her to acknowledge me and I head back outside.

That fucker has crossed a line. Being a creep is one thing, but this isn’t cool. He could have seriously hurt her!