Bet in the Dark(36)
Author: Rachel Higginson

All because of freaking Tara and her thieving, lying, cheating ways. She officially ruined my life.

“Lift from the knees!” Britte snapped at me. She had been throwing out random pieces of weightlifting advice all morning because she thought it was amusing. The first several times she told us to “Hydrate or Die-drate,” I laughed. Now, her advice was draining my patience.

“Beckett is pissed you didn’t ask him to help us,” I changed the subject before she could remind me to breath in through my mouth and out through my nose. “He texted me earlier to let me know how disappointed he was in you.”

“I know, he texted me too,” she said quietly, reverting into herself. She had been doing that lately, every time I brought up one of my brothers.

“He texted you? Since when do you guys text?” my jaw kind of hung open. Beckett didn’t text girls unless he was demanding a booty call. And since when had he and Britte exchanged numbers?

“Ok, Ellie, don’t hate me,” she whispered fiercely from the other side of the recliner.

We were carrying it upright through the parking lot since the base was the heaviest part, but had to readjust through the doorway.

“You should never start stories like that,” I whispered back and then realized I was whispering. I stood up straight and adjusted the chair so I could walk backwards up the next three flights of stairs with the light end.

Britte grunted from her end but continued, “So, in a night of drunken stupor, one that I don’t even remember…. Apparently Beckett and I….”

“Oh, no. What? What did you do?” I gasped, both impatient and reluctant to hear the end of this story.

“We made out, that’s it. Or that’s all that Beckett will tell me happened. Because honestly, I don’t remember. I am for sure still a virgin though, so we didn’t go that far,” she finished almost as an afterthought.

“How do you know for sure?” I went back to whispering, terrified for my friend and murderous for my brother.

“Because Beckett said, ‘Jesus Christ Britte, if I would have taken your virginity you would have goddamned remembered it,’” she flinched and then said, “That’s a direct quote.”

“Sounds like him,” I had to agree. “How could you not remember?”

“I was really drunk, and it was late. I remember hanging out with him earlier in the night and there are these vague memories I get of him and me with, uh, very little clothes on, but I’m not sure what’s real.” She sounded thoughtful but muffled, probably from how the recliner was balanced on her forehead.

“We should have made Fin and Jameson get this,” I huffed.

“Weren’t we trying to prove something about women’s rights?” Britte panted back.

“Stupid, so stupid. Men can have the heavy lifting jobs. I’ll sweep and mop and vacuum.”

“And the trash jobs, anything involving trash,” she agreed. “I’ll do other womanly stuff, like scrub toilets and fold clothes.”

“We’re so forward thinking,” I noted.

“We’re like post-feminist. The new-age-feminist.”

“I would laugh, but I can’t breathe.” In fact, I had stopped breathing and started grunting. This could not be attractive. But we were on the final flight, almost there. “So how did you find out it was Beckett?”

“He kept texting me. The first time I asked who it was and he told me Beckett. I said, like Ellie’s Beckett? And he got really short with me and sent this text about how I shouldn’t think of him like that anymore. Needless to say I was a little confused. Then he ate lunch with me one day and he was really flirty, but I was mostly freaked out. I mean, he was Beckett. I’ve had a crush on him since I met you, but he’s always been, you know, off limits. He texted me later and asked if I was Ok with everything and if something was wrong like he had a right to know what was going on in my life. So I asked him what his problem was and he said he had fun the other night and he wanted to do it again. Then I told him I had no idea what happened the other night or what he was talking about.”

“Oh, no.” I sighed.

“Yeah, he did not take that well. And he’s been yelling at me ever since.” B sounded exhausted by the whole thing and I wondered if he had hurt her yet or just really confused her.

“Are you Ok?” I asked just as we reached the door to our apartment.

“I will be when he moves on,” she admitted. “Els, he’s hot, but he’s a little bit exasperating.”

“Tell me about it.” I rolled my eyes even though there was no way she could see me through the recliner and then nudged the door open with my hip. We readjusted the recliner again and then again and then one more time before we squeezed it into the doorway at an odd angle.

Fin and Jameson were stealing water bottles out of the refrigerator and all conversation died as soon as we walked in the door.

“Hey!” I yelled at them. “She said she would buy you beer and pizza, stop stealing my water!”

“Els, I don’t think Fin’s here for beer and pizza,” Britte stage whispered from across the chair.

We were still having trouble getting it through the door. We were stuck and I was smashed against the L shaped wall and the chair.

“What makes you say that?” I asked, my back was to Fin and I felt his heated stare on my ass.

“It’s probably the drool that’s been dripping down his chin since he saw you in those short shorts this morning,” she waggled her eyebrows at me.

I growled at her and then asked, “Hey Fin, what are you doing?” I shot Britte a smug look although I didn’t really know what I was expecting.

“Ogling you,” he said simply.

Britte snickered and I heard Jameson cough into his hand.

“Could you stop?” I gritted out.

“Probably not.”

A cleared my throat, willing my cheeks to stop blushing and asked, “Then could you at least ogle me over here? We need some help!”

I heard him move off the kitchen counter but he still said, “Only if you promise to ogle me back.” He stopped just behind me so that his body heated warmed my back.

“And here I thought we were getting good at being friends,” I said flippantly.

He reached down next to me, lifting the chair out of my hands. I let it go easily but he still stalled my retreat by whispering in my ear, “Not friends, Ellie. Never friends.”

I shivered, letting his words sink into my skin. I wasn’t going to let things get beyond flirting, not again, but it didn’t mean I didn’t love every moment of his attention.

“What do you think, Britte?” Fin asked as he shouldered most of the weight of the chair and guided it into the apartment. “Is Ellie ogling me? Is she holding up her part of the deal?”

“I think she’s been holding up her part of the deal since you showed up this morning,” Britte answered dryly.

I was probably going to kill her.

If Beckett didn’t get around to it first.

“I regret letting you move in with me already.” I threw her a nasty look and then joined Jameson in the kitchen. “J and I are deciding on pizza and you two aren’t allowed to vote. Don’t worry though, roomie, I have Fin’s credit card memorized.”

“I thought I was getting paid for this good deed?” Fin called back in while Britte directed him around the room with the chair.

“You were. But you’re not anymore,” I explained.

“I don’t have to pay for any of this, do I?” Jameson asked. He sounded annoyed but he’d been wearing a permanent grin all day.

“No, don’t worry. Plus, I still owe you for all your Econ notes.” I called and ordered enough pizzas for everybody, basically an entire large for each person. Britte wouldn’t be able to stomach that much food, but then I could save hers as left overs. Fin could be so generous when I was in charge of his credit card.

“How do you feel about the midterm?” Jameson asked after I hung up the cellphone.

“Not bad actually. Thanks to your notes and tutoring.”

“We make a pretty good team. You’re not as lost as you think you are. But if you still want help, we can keep studying together.” His cheekbones were highlighted with pink again and he kept brushing his auburn hair out of his eyes.

“That would be great. I could always use help, thank you. After spring break? We could start like a weekly study session. Just go over the class or whatever?” I asked hopefully.

“That works. You’ll get it in no time,” he promised with a sweet smile.

We finished unloading everything by the time the pizza came. Fin and Jameson even had time to run out and get a couple six packs of Spotted Cow. Then we stood around the kitchen counter eating straight from the boxes.

“My feet hurt,” Britte whined. “I want to sit down.”

I gave her a helpless shrug. “I used to have furniture. I will never take that for granted again.”

“Tara the biotch. I hate that little witch,” Britte grumbled and then grabbed a paper towel, another piece of pizza and plopped down in the recliner.

“One day, I want to hear the entire story,” Jameson looked at me, sincere and serious.

“One day I will tell you the entire story,” I promised and then winked at him.

I felt Fin’s eyes on me so I turned around and engaged Britte in small talk. She wasn’t really paying attention to me, she was watching Jameson and Fin interact behind me. I could feel them communicating without words but I didn’t even want to guess what it was about.

Until suddenly Jameson announced, “Alright, thanks for the pizza Britte, I mean, Fin. I’ve got to go.”

“Already?” I asked, mostly because I had a feeling it would piss Fin off.

“Oh yeah, I still have to finish, uh, I have a date, later. I forgot about it until right now. Better go.” And then he was gone, before any of us could even say goodbye.

I whirled on Fin, “Did you scare off your own friend.”

“What?” he asked incredulously. “You heard him, Ellie, he had a date.”

I just rolled my eyes at him.

“Actually, I have to go too,” Britte stood up from the recliner and wiped her hands off on her paper towel. “I have study group in a half hour. And that is not an excuse, I really do.”

“Aw, I thought we’d hang out tonight. You know do roommate stuff, like eat ice cream, watch scary movies! I even splurged and bought Kitkats and Rocky Road!”

“Some other night, Els, sorry babe,” she disappeared into her room presumably to get dressed.

And then it was just Fin and me. I turned around and gave him an awkward smile.

He was leaning against the counter watching me. His eyes had gone dark and intense and his jaw was doing that ticking thing, that rapid muscle movement I was starting to realize appeared whenever he was trying to hold himself back. He wanted to kiss me right now; I felt it down to my very bones.

And for a moment I was so desperate to let him I forgot how to breathe.