“I don’t remember you mentioning him.” He shook his head.
“Remember I told you, his brother went to school with David Berkeley.”
“Who the fuck is David now?” He frowned at me. “Another guy you want to study with?”
“Rhett?” I sighed. “David Berkeley, my favorite singer, remember?”
“Hmmm.” He shrugged and looked sheepish. “Oh yeah.”
“So Holden is coming over tonight so we can work on our assignment, so I need to get ready.”
“Get ready?” He raised an eyebrow and his jaw dropped. “Did you put a facemask on to get your skin all glowy for him?”
“Rhett.” I shook my head. “Don’t be an idiot. I meant get ready for our discussion, not dressing up.”
“Am I going to have to let this guy know what’s up?”
“No, we’re just friends.” I sighed and blushed. I didn’t tell Rhett that Holden was hot, really hot. And smart. I knew Rhett wouldn’t appreciate hearing about that. Even though he knew I loved him. Even though he knew he was my world. It was funny, I never would have thought that even gorgeous guys could be insecure, but they were as insecure as the rest of us. It still amazed me that Rhett and I were dating and that we’d gone from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend with very few hiccups. Not that I wasn’t worried of course. A part of me was scared that everything would go down badly and I’d lose my best friend and my boyfriend. A part of me was scared that someone like Rhett couldn’t change. I mean, how many players went from multiple women to one girl? Not many, I was sure. And Rhett was gorgeous, so all he had to do was go out to have women hitting on him. It was hard dating someone with such good looks and charisma. Though I trusted him. I had to trust him.
“Are you mad at me?” Rhett sighed as he studied my face and I just gazed at him.
“No, I just get worried sometimes.”
“Worried about what?” He asked softly.
“If we made a mistake.” I looked down. “I don’t want to lose you Rhett.”
“All good things one day begin. If I knew the words I’d sing, I’d sing it loud so we could hear. We have only this one chance. Let’s take it my dear. Let’s taste it my dear.” Rhett sang softly at me and I smiled.
“I love that you don’t know David Berkeley’s name, but you know his songs. I love Back To Blue.”
“Of course I know his songs; you play them all the time.” He grabbed my hands. “But it’s true, Clemmie. We only have one life, we only have one chance. We couldn’t just walk away from what we have without giving it a shot.”
“Don’t you ever get worried though?”
“Never.” His blue eyes became serious. “There is no doubt in my mind that you’re the girl for me.”
“But you never wanted to fall in love or have a girlfriend or...” I stopped myself from saying get married. I knew that he didn’t want to hear the words married or baby right now. I tried to stop myself from giggling at the picture his face would make if I said the words marriage. Not that I didn’t want to marry him. Of course I did. However, I knew it was important to take baby steps with Rhett. It had taken him long enough to figure out he had feelings for me, I didn’t want to cause him to go backwards. Not when I’d been in love with him for so many years.
“Or what?” I could see him thinking as he stared at me. The blue in his eyes changed from a light sky blue to a more serious azure color.
“Nothing.” I said lightly and turned away from him. I could feel my heartbeat skipping, worried that he’d catch on to what I’d been thinking and flip out. I knew Rhett well enough to know that the words wedding and marriage would cause him to have a heart attack, no matter how much he denied it. It would be too much, way too soon.
“Remember when we went to that movie theater and danced and sang that Hansen song?” He grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“How could I forget? The MMMBop song?” I made a face and he laughed.
“Yeah, remember how we were laughing and dancing?” His eyes crinkled as he recalled the spectacle we had made of ourselves.
“Yeah why?”
“We did that because we thought it was fun. We did it because we had no fear of what other people were going to think. We did it because we were together and we just wanted to have a good time.” He squeezed my shoulders. “We were each other’s rocks. We can do anything together Clemmie. I’m not scared about what could happen to us because I know that there’s nothing that could happen that we couldn’t get over. We’re still best friends first.” He grinned. “And that means I can still tease the heck out of you and not worry that you’re going to get all silly and girly on me.”
“Phew.” I laughed. “I thought you wanted to go to Copley Place, that mall downtown, and perform a new dance routine.”
“Hell no.” He laughed. “My dancing days are behind me.”
“We could do some twerking, Nicki Minaj style.” I grinned.
“I think I’ll keep my anaconda in my pants, thank you for very much.” Rhett laughed and winked at me.
“I cannot believe you know the name to her song, or that you even know who she is.” My jaw dropped as I stared at him. I felt warm and secure inside. I loved that Rhett could always push my worries aside so easily.
“I’m dating you. I know all the crappy musicians now.”
“She’s not crappy.” I rolled my eyes. “At least some of her songs aren’t crappy.” I conceded.
“I don’t mind if you want to practice your twerking though.” He pulled me towards him and squeezed my ass. “Preferably on my lap.”
“You’re disgusting Rhett.” I hit him in the arm. “I’m not about to twerk on your lap.”
“You weren’t complaining last night.” He licked his lips and playfully slapped my ass.
“Is everything about sex with you?”
“Is that even a question Clementine O’Hara? We’ve been best friends for years and that was never an issue, do you really think that’s all I want now?”
“I don’t know what to—”
“Seriously Clementine?” He cut me off and stepped back and his lips quivered. “Is that what you think of me?” I saw his eyes widen and he bit his lower lip. “Do you really think I’m capable of being that sort of man?” His eyes looked dolefully into mine and I burst into laughter.