Frozen

Chapter 12)

Brianna

I walked into Barney's office without knocking and collapsed on the couch with a loud sigh. I heard his soft chuckle then felt the couch depress where he sat down at my feet. He picked up my legs, scooted over, and then placed them back over his thighs.

"Rough day?" he asked.

I nodded with my eyes closed.

"What happened, baby?" he cooed, taking my high heels off.

"Bentley threw a huge fit this morning," I mumbled.

"Why?" he asked, though I suspected he knew the answer.

For a few days after we decided to be friends, it was awkward. We didn't know exactly what friendship entailed, so we were both super careful not to cross any lines. Then, we got used to it. We decided to stop being awkward and cautious and start just being us. He started spending a lot of time at my place, which made Bentley incredibly happy, and more than once spent the night on my couch. Then, when it got to the point where he was sleeping on my couch three to four days a week, I told him he could just sleep with me. He was wary of this, not wanting to cross any lines, but agreed readily. We both slept easily through the night. So, Bentley also got used to Barney being there in the mornings. So, whenever he didn't spend the night, Bentley was always silently mad the next morning.

That morning, however, his mad had been louder than usual.

"Because you weren't there," I said, opening my eyes and looking at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Sorry, Bri, I had a shit load of paperwork to fill out last night and I wouldn't have gotten there until really late," he said, scrunching his nose up.

"Hey, don't tell me, tell Bentley," I said, my lips twitching.

He grinned and leaned back.

"I will," he said.

I bit my lip and looked away. I had news for him, and I wasn't sure how he was going to take it. I mean, it had been a month since we stopped being...since we became just friends, and he'd definitely moved on since then. Still.

"Why do you have that look?" he asked in a suspicious voice.

My eyes darted back to his face.

"What look?" I asked carefully.

"Your nervous look," he immediately said.

I sighed and sat up.

"Barney, umm, yesterday when I was grocery shopping, I...ran into an old friend. From high school."

His head tilted and his eyebrows drew together.

"But, I thought you moved practically across the country when you left," he said.

"I did," I confirmed, "but, I guess Jesse did, too."

"Oh," Barney said, nodding his head thoughtfully, "well, I guess that's pretty cool. Did you invite her over for dinner?"

Her.

He thought Jesse was a girl.

Shit.

"Sort of...he actually invited me to dinner on Friday. Like...a date," I said, chewing on my lower lip.

Barney's face darkened for a second when I said the masculine pronoun, but his expression cleared and went completely blank in the same second.

"Did you say yes?" he asked.

I took in a deep breath through my nose and nodded slowly.

"Yeah," I breathed.

Barney nodded and looked away for a second before sending me a grin.