Chasing That Desire | Danny Amendola

Chapter 5

My entire body was stiff when I found consciousness. I let out a huff and slowly opened my eyes. I was surrounded by white fluffy pillows and soft white sheets.

I began to stretch out as I took in more of my surroundings. There was a beautiful picture of the city of Boston up on the wall in front of me, and the windows had sunlight poking in under the bottom of the shades.

I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked back to the picture of Boston— shit, I was in Danny's guest room, which meant I fell asleep while sobbing in his arms. My cheeks became hot at the thought.

He was a saint— he really was.

I slowly slid out from the covers to notice I was still in my dress, but a fuzzy black sweater was on my top half, and it smelled like Danny. When I made my way out of the room, the smell of coffee hit my nose, causing me to quicken my pace.

Danny was standing with his back to me, shirtless, sipping from a mug when I walked in. I stopped dead in my tracks, appreciating his well defined muscles.

I shook my head— No Juliet, you can't have him. He's not interested. He's only a friend.

Once I made my way to the counter I let out a sigh and sat down in a chair. "Morning," I mumbled as I leaned forward and pulled the sweater closer to my body.

Danny whipped around and looked at me with wide brown eyes. Now that he was facing me, I could see his hair was a complete mess. I smiled a bit. "Morning, Jules. How you feeling?"

"O-Okay I guess," I mumbled with a shrug as I looked down as my hands in my lap. "Thank you for letting me stay last night."

"Hey," he said, a little loud, causing me to flinch. "Sorry... I just... Juliet... look at me."

It took me a second, but I looked up, and he was leaning across the marble countertop as he looked at me with warm, concerned, brown eyes. "I told you; my door is always open— Always."

I nodded slowly, and leaned forward to place a hand on one of his large ones. "Thank you, Danny I really appreciate it. I-I'll be out of your hair in a few hours. I need to find a hotel I can stay at until I find a place to live," I said quietly.

His eyes went wide. "No! I-I mean... Don't be silly, Jules. You can stay here as long as you need. Don't waste your money on a hotel room," he quickly said.

"I-I... No Danny, I couldn't do that. I don't want to intrude," I mumbled with wide eyes. "Staying at a hotel isn't a big deal."

Danny began to shake his head. "Nope. There's no way I'm letting you spend that kind of money. There are no cheap hotels in Boston," he grumbled.

I sighed. "I can't do that Danny. A-And I'm sure you'll want to have the guys over," I quickly added.

He shook his head. "Screw the guys. Please stay here. I want to make sure you're okay and you're not pissing away everything in your bank account just because he's an ignorant asshole," he grumbled, his eyes getting darker.

I let out a sigh. "Are... Are you sure Danny? I-I don't want to be annoying or anything."

"Of course I'm sure. Being a friend means you're always there for friends to lean on. You're not intruding, and you're not overstaying your welcome," he replied. His big brown eyes were looking at me with content.

I sighed— Right, friends, that's all we'll ever be. "If... If you're sure. But I've gotta go over to the apartment and get all my stuff," I said as I took my hand off of his.

He sighed in return. "I'll tell ya what? I'm going to go and take a shower, and then I can drive you over there and we can get your stuff, how does that sound," he asked after a second.

I shook my head. "No, you have practice, Danny, I'm not letting you skip practice, especially since you've got a big game against the Ravens on Monday night," I shot back.

He just looked at me for a second before finally nodding. "Fine. Then I'll have Jules drive me to practice and then you can take my car and move all of your stuff out."

I sighed. "Won't Julian think something is up? Do you guys ever carpool? Ugh! And don't you have a really nice car? How can you trust me with driving it? Gene never trusts me with driving one of his cars!"

Danny stood straight up and rolled his eyes. "What's this guys problem? Of course I'll let you drive my car! Take it for as long as you need it, the guest room is all yours," Danny quickly shot back as he crossed his arms over his muscular chest.

I let out a slow, long breath. "I-I... Okay... If you're sure, Danny."

"Of course I'm sure. Now I'm going to hop in the shower. Also, you've got a few pairs of clothes that you left behind a while back, so you can use those for today. They're in the bottom drawer of my dresser," Danny quickly said as he motioned to his bedroom.

I nodded as I stood up and made my way around the kitchen island. He could tell I was going in for a hug, so he opened his arms and pulled me into him.

Tears began pulling from my eyes. "Thank you, Danny. Thank you so much. You're way too nice to me. I-I... Just thank you," I mumbled into his chest.

He pulled away a bit and began wiping my tears away. "It's no problem at all, Hun. You're completely fine. I promise you, you'll be fine here," he whispered, then placed a soft kiss on my forehead.

His brown eyes looked down at me, kind of upset.

I couldn't help but stand there and look up at him with hope, hope that he and I could possibly be more-- But wait, all I am is a friend. We were friends with benefits.

A sick feeling arose in my stomach.