for, liar

Chapter 29

"Kind of. Just so I can figure out what we're going to do."

I'm trying really hard to keep my cool. I don't want this to go too far. It's embarrassing enough hashing this out in front of our boyfriends.

"Yes, we'd like to have the place to ourselves. You might want to leave though in case it gets too loud."

Damian coughs a few times, trying to swallow his food. He looks at Maddy bewildered by her obnoxious comment. I fight hard not to roll my eyes.

"We'll just go see a movie." I murmur and sip from my glass.

"We could always come with you guys! It could be a double date. We are pretty much already on one since we're having dinner together." Damian says.

"I'd rather not." Me and Maddy say in unison, only escalating the tension.

"Okay..." he sighs and shoves a bite of pasta in his mouth.

Miles finishes his plate and wipes his mouth off onto the napkin. "Well that was great, Mads. Thank you for dinner."

He's such a polite man. Damn.

"Yep." She responds and keeps eating.

I have to get out of here before I start screaming. She can be rude to me all she wants but she better not take it out on Miles too. I get up and take our plates to the kitchen. I make sure to get everything loaded in the dishwasher so the only thing that has to be done is starting it when the other dishes are in. Miles puts the leftover wine in the fridge and walks over to me.

"What's going on with you guys?" He whispers.

"It's nothing. Let me get my purse and we can leave."

He looks disappointed when I resist telling him what happened. I want to be in a relationship where I can be completely honest about everything, I just don't want to have these few certain conversations with him just yet to scare him away.

We leave the apartment without another word from Maddy, the way that I like it. The more time that goes by, the more I feel like shit about this whole thing. We live together now so there's zero reason for us to hold a grudge over something this stupid. Maybe I should apologize.

"Where exactly did you want to go?" Miles asks halfway into town.

"I'm up for literally anything. I don't even care."

I check my phone to make sure I don't have any messages. Absolutely none.

"What if we go back to my place? Have a movie night or something?"

I set my phone in the center console, turning my head towards him. "Is that what you want to do?"

He has never invited me to his place. Suddenly my nerves are shot and I'm sort of hoping he suggests something else. Not for any apparent reason...

"Yeah, I think it would be cute. We could bake some cookies and chill out on the couch."

My pulse settles. Now I'm liking the idea more than I thought I would. I run my tongue across my bottom teeth and smile.

"That's perfect."

His place isn't far from mine. We make it there in less than twenty minutes. I start to get anxious again when he pulls into the driveway. He lives in a small patio home near the main road to the city of Charlotte. The neighborhood is small and every house looks exactly the same, just with different numbers printed on the doors.

Miles gets out and walks around to open the car door for me. I wonder if he'll ever give up on being a gentleman. Guys usually do at some point in the relationship when they get comfortable with a woman. Ben never even had that phase to begin with.

"Alrighty, this is it." He says and puts his hand out for mine.

I grab it and climb out of the car. I look around and take in the simplicity, which I'm instantly in love with. All of this suits him so well.

He leads me inside to the dark hallway, where he fumbles for a minute to find the lights. He flips the switch and illuminates the hall, half of the kitchen area, and the living room. It's very small and looks to have two bedrooms from what I can see so far. It's definitely bigger than an apartment but still small for a house. I already feel comfortable and I've barely stepped foot in the door.

"This is so cute." I whisper and take a look around.

Miles keeps my hand in his as he leads me down to the living room. He's got one couch, a dark wood coffee table, and a decent sized television in the entertainment center. There's a shelf with a few pictures resting on top, next to the TV. I try to make out who it is but it's a little too far away and I don't want to be a creep by just walking over to look at his photos.

"Do you want something to drink?" He asks and sets his keys down on the table.

This place is spotless. He might even be more of a clean freak than Maddy.

"What do you have?"

I set my purse down on the table and take a seat on the couch. It looked like leather from a distance, but feels way too soft to be that. I could fall asleep right now.

"Well I've got soda, beer, seltzers, uh...water?"

I chuckle and give him a thumbs up. "Water would be great."

He nods and smiles at me, this time with his teeth. A wide and genuine smile that's making me fall deeper with each passing second.

"Feel free to look around on Netflix for a movie." He says and tosses me the remote before disappearing into the kitchen.

I flip the TV on and start searching through his Netflix. I don't really know the mood right now so I definitely don't want to choose the wrong movie. Maybe I should just wait and talk to him more before we decide to watch something. It's cute that a lot of his previously watched are a bunch of Sci-Fi movies I had never heard of.

Miles comes back a few minutes later with a glass of water and a seltzer. He hands me the water and plops down on the couch next to me. I check my phone anxiously, hoping Maddy would have texted me by now. The more I wait to speak to her, the more I really feel like I should apologize.

"So what exactly happened with you and Maddy?"

I guess my silence is a big giveaway that it's still stuck in my mind. I hate to think I'm being too awkward and quiet, it could ruin tonight.

"It's nothing, really. We both said some things that we didn't mean. It'll blow over by morning like usual." I say and sip some water.

He nods and cracks open the can in his hands. I don't know why I can't just be honest with him and tell him what we were talking about. I just hate bringing up topics if they aren't currently an issue. If we get there and I feel like we need to talk about it then it will for sure be addressed, but as of now it's not relevant. Though spending all this time with him makes me want it to be.

Revised;