Life in the Friend Zone

Chapter 9-I'm not the only woman in your life

I was trying to hide my excitement, but I failed miserably. I was smiling like a Cheshire cat. Kylie had left with my car. She said she was meeting some old friends for drinks.

I wanted her to join us because I felt like I needed to spend time with her, but she insisted on going alone and expressed how she’ll be in my face every day that I’ll get sick of her. I had to take her word for it.

So Alex and I were on our way to his place. He decided to cook for me instead of taking me out, and he mentioned a surprise, which was what had me excited. I had tried and failed to guess what it could possibly be. Technically, we had been together for over two months now, and this would be my first visit to his home.

He looked nervous. I figured it was because he was going to cook for me; he was probably worried about it. I took his hand in mind and smiled at him, “I’m sure I’ll love whatever it is you’re going to cook, so stop worrying, I can feel your nervous energy.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” he laughed nervously

“Oh really? So why exactly are you a ball of nerves then?” I mimicked his nervous laugh

He burst into laughter, “I don’t sound like that”

“Yeah, well it’s the best deep voice I can do so you just have to suck it up.” I shrugged

He smiled at me before returning his eyes to the road. Even though the silence was comfortable, I could still feel that he was nervous. “Okay, it’s either you tell me why the confident, slightly cocky Alex is suddenly nervous, or I jump out of this car.” I put on the best serious face I could muster.

“Okay I’ll tell you, but only because you might actually jump out, you’re not very good at jokes.” He chuckled.

I lightly swatted his shoulder, but couldn’t resist laughing along with him; I really was terrible at joking. I would literally do what I was supposed to be joking about, which of course always got the people around me in fits of laughter.

“Okay, tell me then.”

“What happened to patience woman?” this earned him another slap on the shoulder.

“Alright, Alright, I surrender,” he raised his hands in defeat. “We’re here”

My mind went blank in an instant. Yes, I was excited to finally see where he lives, but I was more afraid than excited because of this “surprise” he had mentioned.

I wasn’t really a big fan of surprises; all my experiences with them had gone horribly wrong. For example, there was Lucy. She was popular, a cheerleader, amazing body, you know, all the good stuff. She had planned a huge party for her boyfriend back in high school. The only problem with that he surprised all of us when he walked in having a full make-out session with Lucy’s step sister.

Then there was my Dave, my mom’s best friend’s son. He broke both his legs trying to propose to his long-term girlfriend Corinne by doing a crazy stunt that honestly made no sense but would have gone down in history as the most amazing proposal had he pulled it off.