I’d come to a decision: if I was go

I’d come to a decision: if I was going to monopolize Will’s time and insist on training with him, then I would have to actually . . . you know . . . train for something.
I’d decided to get serious, to stop thinking of it as a game and start really treating it like an experiment. I started going to bed at a decent hour so I could get up and run with him and still get to the lab early enough for a full day of work at the bench. I expanded my running wardrobe to include some quality workout gear and an extra pair of shoes. I stopped thinking of Starbucks as a food group and cut back on the complaining. And with much flailing on my part and much reassurance on his—we signed up for a half-marathon in mid-April. I was terrified.
But it turned out Will was right: it did get easier. Just a few weeks in and my lungs had stopped burning, my shins had stopped feeling like they were made of brittle sticks, and I no longer felt like vomiting by the time we reached the end of the trail. In fact, we’d actually been able to increase our distance and move to his normal trail along the outer loop. Will said if I could handle the six miles a day and get up to eight-mile runs twice a week, he wouldn’t need to train additionally without me.
It wasn’t just that it started to feel good. I’d started to see a difference, too. Thanks to genetics, I’d always been relatively thin, but never what you’d call fit. My stomach was a tad soft, my arms did that weird jiggle thing when I waved, and there was always this damn little pooch over the top of my jeans if I didn’t keep that shit sucked in. But now . . . things were changing, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“So what’s happening here?” Chloe asked, eyeing me from inside my closet. She pointed a finger at me and swept it around. “You look . . . different.”
“Different?” I asked.
The point of Project Ziggy actually wasn’t to spend as much time as possible with Will—even though he was quickly becoming my favorite person—but to help me find balance, to have a life outside the lab. In the past couple of weeks, Chloe and Sara had become an important part of the effort, dragging me out for dinner or coming over to just hang for a few hours at my apartment.
This particular Thursday evening they’d brought takeout and we’d somehow migrated into my room, where Chloe had taken it upon herself to go through my closet, deciding what could stay and what absolutely had to go.
“Different good,” she clarified, and then turned to Sara, who was stretched across my bed, thumbing through some sort of financial file for work. “Don’t you think so?”
Sara looked up, eyes narrowing as she considered me. “Definitely good. Happy, maybe?”
Chloe was already nodding. “Was just going to say that. There’s definitely some kind of glowy thing happening in your cheeks. And your ass looks amazing in those pants.”
I looked at my reflection, checked out the front and turned to see the back. My ass did look pretty happy. My front wasn’t too bad, either. “My pants are a little loose,” I noted, checking the size. “And look, no muffin top!”
“Well, that’s always a plus,” Sara said with a laugh, shaking her head, then going back to her documents.
Chloe started putting things on hangers, shoving others into plastic bags. “You’re toning up. What have you been doing?”
“Just running. And lots of stretching. Will is big on the stretching. He added sit-ups to our routine last week, and let me be clear on how much I hate those.” I continued to study my reflection, adding, “I can’t remember the last time I had a cookie, and that feels like a crime.”
“Still training with Will, huh?” Chloe asked, and I couldn’t miss the look that passed between her and Sara. The look that said I’d just dropped a giant nugget of awesome in their lap and they were going to talk it to death and then dissect it until I begged for mercy.
“Yeah, every morning.”
“Will trains with you every morning?” Chloe asked. Another look exchanged.
I nodded, moved to pick up a few errant things lying around. “We meet at the park. Did you know he does triathlons? He’s in great shape.” I snapped my mouth shut, realizing it probably wasn’t safe to be as obliviously unfiltered with Chloe as it was with Will. I knew her well enough at this point to know she didn’t let very many things slide.
And indeed, she lifted a brow and reached up, pushing a thick wave of dark hair behind her shoulder. “So, about William.”
I hummed, folding a pair of socks together.
“Do you see him outside of this daily running date?”
I could feel their attention like heated laser beams on the side of my face so I nodded, not looking over at either of them.
“He’s very handsome,” Chloe added.
Danger danger, my brain warned. “He is.”
“Have you seen each other naked?”
My eyes shot to Chloe’s. “What?”
“Chloe,” Sara groaned.
“No,” I insisted. “We’re just friends.”
Chloe snorted, moving to the closet with a handful of clothes draped over her arms. “Right.”
“We run in the mornings, meet up for coffee sometimes. Maybe breakfast,” I said, shrugging and ignoring the way my honesty meter seemed to flare into the red zone. Lately we’d been having breakfast together almost every morning, and talked at least one other time during the day. I’d even started to call him for advice on my experiments when Liemacki was traveling or just busy . . . or just because I valued his scientific opinion. “Just friends.” I glanced at Sara. Her eyes were trained on her papers but she was smiling, shaking her head.
“Bullshit,” Chloe all but sang. “Will Sumner doesn’t have any women in his life that are just friends, outside of family and the two of us.”
“This is true,” Sara reluctantly agreed.
I didn’t say anything, just turned and began searching through my drawers for a sweater. I could feel Chloe watching me, though, could feel the pressure of her gaze against the back of my head. I’d never had a lot of female friends—and I’d definitely never had one like Chloe Mills—but even I was smart enough to be a little afraid of her. I got the distinct impression that even Bennett was a little afraid of her.
I found the cardigan I’d been hunting for and slipped it over my favorite Firefly T-shirt, doing my best to keep my expression neutral and my head free of anything Will-related that ventured outside of the friend zone. Something told me these two would see through that in a second.
“How long have you guys known each other?” Sara asked. “He and Max go way back, but I’ve only known him since I moved to New York.”
“Same here,” Chloe added. “Spill, Bergstrom. He’s too smug and we need some ammo.”
I laughed, grateful for the semi-shift in topic. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, you knew him when he was in college. Was he a giant dork? Please say he was in the chess club or something,” Chloe said, hopeful.
“Ha, no. I’m pretty sure he was the guy who turned eighteen and all of the moms wanted to bang.” I frowned, considering. “Actually, I think I might have heard that exact story from Jensen. . . .”
“Max said something about him dating your sister?” Sara asked.
I chewed on my lip and shook my head. “They hooked up once over a holiday, but I think they just made out. He met my oldest brother, Jensen, on their first day of college, and then he lived with us and worked with my dad after graduation. I’m the youngest, so I didn’t really hang around with them that much other than at meals.”
“Stop evading,” Chloe said, narrowing her eyes. “You have to know more.”
I laughed. “Let’s see, he’s the youngest, too. He has two sisters who are way older than him, but I’ve never met them. I get the feeling he was sort of mothered a lot. I remember hearing him talk one time about how his parents are both physicians, and they divorced long before he was born. Years later, they met up at a medical conference, got drunk, and reconnected for one night . . .”
“And boom. Will,” Sara guessed.
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. But his mom raised him. So, his sisters are twelve and fourteen years older than he is. He was their little baby.”
“Well, that would explain why he thinks women were put on this earth to cater to him,” Chloe added, flopping on the bed next to Sara.
That didn’t sit right with me, and I sat down, shaking my head. “I don’t know if it’s that. I think he just really, really likes women. And they seem to like him, too,” I added. “He grew up surrounded by women so he knows how they think, what they want to hear.”
“He definitely knows how to play the game,” Sara said. “God, some of the stuff Max has told me.”
I thought back to Jensen’s wedding and watching Will slip off, otherwise unnoticed, with two women at once. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the first or last time something like that had happened.
“Women have always loved him,” I said. “I can remember overhearing some of my mom’s friends talk about him when he worked for Dad. Jesus, the things they would have done to that boy.”
“Cougars!” Chloe squealed, delighted. “I love it.”
“God, every girl was in love with him.” I pulled a pillow to my chest, remembering. “I had a few girlfriends in school—I was twelve the first time he came home with Jensen—and they would find all these crazy reasons to need to come over. One of them pretended like she had to return my sweater on Christmas Eve, and it was her sweater she gave me. I mean, picture Will now but as a nineteen-year-old guy, playful, clearly wise to the ways of the female body, and with that damn cheeky smile. He was in a band, had tattoos . . . he was walking sex. Then when he lived with us over the summer? He was twenty-four and I was sixteen. It was unbearable. It was like it offended him to wear a shirt in the house and he had to show off all that smooth, perfect man skin.”
I broke out of my memory to see both of them grinning at me.
“What?”

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Aku akan datang untuk keputusan: jika aku akan memakan waktu Will dan bersikeras pada pelatihan dengan dia, maka aku harus benar-benar... kau tahu... kereta untuk sesuatu.Saya telah memutuskan untuk mendapatkan serius, untuk berhenti berpikir itu sebagai permainan dan mulai benar-benar memperlakukan seperti percobaan. Saya mulai pergi ke tempat tidur jam yang layak sehingga saya bisa bangun dan berjalan dengan dia dan masih mendapatkan ke laboratorium cukup dini hari kerja di bangku. Saya diperluas lemari pakaian saya berjalan untuk memasukkan beberapa perlengkapan latihan kualitas dan sepasang sepatu. Aku berhenti memikirkan Starbucks sebagai kelompok makanan dan memotong kembali pada mengeluh. Dan dengan banyak meronta-ronta di bagian saya dan banyak kepastian mengenai nya — kita mendaftar untuk setengah-maraton pada pertengahan April. Aku sangat ketakutan.Tapi itu ternyata akan benar: Apakah lebih mudah. Hanya beberapa minggu di dan paru-paru saya telah berhenti pembakaran, tulang kering saya berhenti merasa seperti mereka terbuat dari rapuh tongkat, dan aku tidak lagi merasa seperti muntah pada saat kita mencapai akhir dari jejak. Pada kenyataannya, kita benar-benar telah mampu meningkatkan jarak dan pindah ke jejak nya normal sepanjang loop luar. Akan mengatakan jika saya bisa menangani enam mil sehari dan Bangunlah untuk delapan mil berjalan dua kali seminggu, ia tidak perlu untuk melatih Selain itu tanpa aku.Bukan hanya bahwa ia mulai merasa baik. Saya sudah mulai untuk melihat perbedaan, juga. Berkat genetika, aku selalu relatif tipis, tetapi tidak apa yang Anda memiliki panggilan cocok. Perutku tad lembut, lengan saya lakukan hal aneh goncang ketika aku melambaikan, dan selalu ada anjing sialan kecil ini dari atas celana jins saya jika saya tidak menyimpan omong kosong itu tersedot. Tapi sekarang... hal-hal yang berubah, dan saya tidak satu-satunya yang melihat."Jadi apa yang terjadi di sini?" Chloe bertanya, mengamati saya dari di dalam lemari. Dia menunjuk jari saya dan menyapu itu sekitar. "Anda terlihat... berbeda.""Berbeda?" Saya bertanya.Titik Ziggy proyek benar-benar tidak menghabiskan waktu sebanyak mungkin dengan akan — meskipun dia dengan cepat menjadi orang favorit saya- tapi untuk membantu saya menemukan keseimbangan, memiliki kehidupan di luar laboratorium. Dalam beberapa minggu, Chloe dan Sara telah menjadi bagian penting dari upaya, menyeret saya keluar untuk makan malam atau datang ke hanya bertahan selama beberapa jam di apartemen saya.Ini Kamis malam tertentu mereka telah membawa bungkus makanan dan kami entah bagaimana bermigrasi ke kamarku, mana Chloe telah mengambil itu atas dirinya untuk pergi melalui lemari, memutuskan apa bisa tinggal dan apa yang benar-benar harus pergi."Berbeda baik," ia menjelaskan, dan kemudian berbalik untuk Sara, yang membentang di tempat tidur, membolak-balik semacam keuangan file untuk bekerja. "Jangan Anda berpikir begitu?"Sara looked up, eyes narrowing as she considered me. “Definitely good. Happy, maybe?”Chloe was already nodding. “Was just going to say that. There’s definitely some kind of glowy thing happening in your cheeks. And your ass looks amazing in those pants.”I looked at my reflection, checked out the front and turned to see the back. My ass did look pretty happy. My front wasn’t too bad, either. “My pants are a little loose,” I noted, checking the size. “And look, no muffin top!”“Well, that’s always a plus,” Sara said with a laugh, shaking her head, then going back to her documents.Chloe started putting things on hangers, shoving others into plastic bags. “You’re toning up. What have you been doing?”“Just running. And lots of stretching. Will is big on the stretching. He added sit-ups to our routine last week, and let me be clear on how much I hate those.” I continued to study my reflection, adding, “I can’t remember the last time I had a cookie, and that feels like a crime.”“Still training with Will, huh?” Chloe asked, and I couldn’t miss the look that passed between her and Sara. The look that said I’d just dropped a giant nugget of awesome in their lap and they were going to talk it to death and then dissect it until I begged for mercy.“Yeah, every morning.”“Will trains with you every morning?” Chloe asked. Another look exchanged.I nodded, moved to pick up a few errant things lying around. “We meet at the park. Did you know he does triathlons? He’s in great shape.” I snapped my mouth shut, realizing it probably wasn’t safe to be as obliviously unfiltered with Chloe as it was with Will. I knew her well enough at this point to know she didn’t let very many things slide.And indeed, she lifted a brow and reached up, pushing a thick wave of dark hair behind her shoulder. “So, about William.”I hummed, folding a pair of socks together.“Do you see him outside of this daily running date?”I could feel their attention like heated laser beams on the side of my face so I nodded, not looking over at either of them.“He’s very handsome,” Chloe added.Danger danger, my brain warned. “He is.”“Have you seen each other naked?”My eyes shot to Chloe’s. “What?”“Chloe,” Sara groaned.“No,” I insisted. “We’re just friends.”Chloe snorted, moving to the closet with a handful of clothes draped over her arms. “Right.”“We run in the mornings, meet up for coffee sometimes. Maybe breakfast,” I said, shrugging and ignoring the way my honesty meter seemed to flare into the red zone. Lately we’d been having breakfast together almost every morning, and talked at least one other time during the day. I’d even started to call him for advice on my experiments when Liemacki was traveling or just busy . . . or just because I valued his scientific opinion. “Just friends.” I glanced at Sara. Her eyes were trained on her papers but she was smiling, shaking her head.“Bullshit,” Chloe all but sang. “Will Sumner doesn’t have any women in his life that are just friends, outside of family and the two of us.”“This is true,” Sara reluctantly agreed.I didn’t say anything, just turned and began searching through my drawers for a sweater. I could feel Chloe watching me, though, could feel the pressure of her gaze against the back of my head. I’d never had a lot of female friends—and I’d definitely never had one like Chloe Mills—but even I was smart enough to be a little afraid of her. I got the distinct impression that even Bennett was a little afraid of her.I found the cardigan I’d been hunting for and slipped it over my favorite Firefly T-shirt, doing my best to keep my expression neutral and my head free of anything Will-related that ventured outside of the friend zone. Something told me these two would see through that in a second.“How long have you guys known each other?” Sara asked. “He and Max go way back, but I’ve only known him since I moved to New York.”
“Same here,” Chloe added. “Spill, Bergstrom. He’s too smug and we need some ammo.”
I laughed, grateful for the semi-shift in topic. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, you knew him when he was in college. Was he a giant dork? Please say he was in the chess club or something,” Chloe said, hopeful.
“Ha, no. I’m pretty sure he was the guy who turned eighteen and all of the moms wanted to bang.” I frowned, considering. “Actually, I think I might have heard that exact story from Jensen. . . .”
“Max said something about him dating your sister?” Sara asked.
I chewed on my lip and shook my head. “They hooked up once over a holiday, but I think they just made out. He met my oldest brother, Jensen, on their first day of college, and then he lived with us and worked with my dad after graduation. I’m the youngest, so I didn’t really hang around with them that much other than at meals.”
“Stop evading,” Chloe said, narrowing her eyes. “You have to know more.”
I laughed. “Let’s see, he’s the youngest, too. He has two sisters who are way older than him, but I’ve never met them. I get the feeling he was sort of mothered a lot. I remember hearing him talk one time about how his parents are both physicians, and they divorced long before he was born. Years later, they met up at a medical conference, got drunk, and reconnected for one night . . .”
“And boom. Will,” Sara guessed.
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. But his mom raised him. So, his sisters are twelve and fourteen years older than he is. He was their little baby.”
“Well, that would explain why he thinks women were put on this earth to cater to him,” Chloe added, flopping on the bed next to Sara.
That didn’t sit right with me, and I sat down, shaking my head. “I don’t know if it’s that. I think he just really, really likes women. And they seem to like him, too,” I added. “He grew up surrounded by women so he knows how they think, what they want to hear.”
“He definitely knows how to play the game,” Sara said. “God, some of the stuff Max has told me.”
I thought back to Jensen’s wedding and watching Will slip off, otherwise unnoticed, with two women at once. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the first or last time something like that had happened.
“Women have always loved him,” I said. “I can remember overhearing some of my mom’s friends talk about him when he worked for Dad. Jesus, the things they would have done to that boy.”
“Cougars!” Chloe squealed, delighted. “I love it.”
“God, every girl was in love with him.” I pulled a pillow to my chest, remembering. “I had a few girlfriends in school—I was twelve the first time he came home with Jensen—and they would find all these crazy reasons to need to come over. One of them pretended like she had to return my sweater on Christmas Eve, and it was her sweater she gave me. I mean, picture Will now but as a nineteen-year-old guy, playful, clearly wise to the ways of the female body, and with that damn cheeky smile. He was in a band, had tattoos . . . he was walking sex. Then when he lived with us over the summer? He was twenty-four and I was sixteen. It was unbearable. It was like it offended him to wear a shirt in the house and he had to show off all that smooth, perfect man skin.”
I broke out of my memory to see both of them grinning at me.
“What?”

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 2:

Saya akan mengambil keputusan: apakah aku akan memonopoli waktu Will dan bersikeras pelatihan dengan dia, maka saya akan harus benar-benar. . . kamu tahu . . . kereta sesuatu.
Aku memutuskan untuk serius, untuk berhenti memikirkan hal itu sebagai permainan dan mulai benar-benar memperlakukannya seperti sebuah eksperimen. Saya mulai pergi ke tempat tidur pada jam yang layak sehingga saya bisa bangun dan berjalan dengan dia dan masih mendapatkan ke laboratorium cukup awal untuk sehari penuh bekerja di bangku. Aku diperluas lemari pakaian saya berjalan untuk menyertakan beberapa kualitas latihan gigi dan tambahan sepasang sepatu. Aku berhenti memikirkan Starbucks sebagai kelompok makanan dan mengurangi mengeluh itu. Dan dengan banyak memukul di bagian saya dan banyak kepastian tentang nya-kami mendaftar untuk setengah maraton pada pertengahan April. Aku takut.
Tapi ternyata Will benar: itu lebih mudah. Hanya beberapa minggu dan paru-paru saya sudah berhenti membakar, tulang kering saya telah berhenti merasa seperti mereka terbuat dari tongkat rapuh, dan saya tidak lagi merasa seperti muntah pada saat kita mencapai ujung jalan. Bahkan, kami akan benar-benar mampu meningkatkan jarak kami dan pindah ke jalan normal sepanjang lingkaran luar. Akan mengatakan jika saya bisa menangani enam mil sehari dan mendapatkan hingga delapan mil berjalan dua kali seminggu, ia tidak perlu melatih tambahan tanpa aku.
Bukan hanya itu mulai merasa baik. Aku mulai melihat perbedaan, juga. Berkat genetika, saya akan selalu relatif tipis, tetapi tidak pernah apa yang Anda sebut fit. Perut saya anak laki-laki yang lembut, lengan saya melakukan itu aneh goncang hal ketika saya melambai, dan selalu ada ini anjing sialan sedikit di atas jeans saya jika saya tidak terus omong kosong itu tersedot. Tapi sekarang. . . hal-hal yang berubah, dan aku bukan satu-satunya yang memperhatikan.
"Jadi apa yang terjadi di sini?" tanya Chloe, menatapku dari dalam lemari. Dia menuding saya dan menyapu sekitar. "Kamu lihat . . . yang berbeda.
"" Berbeda? "tanya saya.
Titik Proyek Ziggy sebenarnya tidak menghabiskan waktu sebanyak mungkin dengan Will-meskipun ia dengan cepat menjadi favorit saya orang-tetapi untuk membantu saya menemukan keseimbangan, untuk memiliki kehidupan luar laboratorium. Dalam beberapa minggu terakhir, Chloe dan Sara telah menjadi bagian penting dari upaya, menyeret saya keluar untuk makan malam atau datang untuk hanya menggantung selama beberapa jam di apartemen saya.
Ini khusus Kamis malam mereka bawa bungkus makanan dan kami entah bagaimana d bermigrasi ke kamarku, di mana Chloe telah mengambil pada dirinya untuk pergi melalui lemari saya, memutuskan apa yang bisa tinggal dan apa yang benar-benar harus pergi.
"Berbeda baik," ia menjelaskan, dan kemudian beralih ke Sara, yang membentang di saya tidur, membolak-balik semacam file keuangan untuk bekerja. "Apakah kamu tidak berpikir begitu?"
Sara mendongak, mata menyipit saat ia dianggap saya. "Pasti enak. Happy, mungkin? "Chloe sudah mengangguk.
"Apakah hanya akan mengatakan bahwa. Pasti ada semacam hal glowy terjadi di pipi Anda. Dan pantat Anda tampak luar biasa di celana mereka.
"Aku menatap bayanganku, memeriksa bagian depan dan berbalik untuk melihat kembali. Pantat saya memang terlihat cukup senang. Depan saya tidak terlalu buruk, baik. "Celana saya yang sedikit longgar," Saya mencatat, memeriksa ukuran. "Dan lihat, ada muffin top!"
"Nah, itu selalu plus," kata Sara sambil tertawa, menggeleng, lalu kembali ke dokumen nya.
Chloe mulai meletakkan hal-hal di gantungan, mendorong orang lain ke dalam kantong plastik. "Kau toning up. Apa yang telah Anda lakukan?
"" Hanya berjalan. Dan banyak peregangan. Will besar pada peregangan. Dia menambahkan sit-up untuk minggu terakhir kami rutin, dan biarkan aku menjadi jelas pada betapa aku benci mereka. "Saya terus belajar refleksi saya, menambahkan," Saya tidak ingat kapan terakhir kali aku punya cookie, dan yang terasa seperti kejahatan.
"" Masih berlatih dengan Will, ya? "tanya Chloe, dan aku tidak bisa melewatkan tampilan yang melewati antara dia dan Sara. Tampilan yang mengatakan saya hanya akan menjatuhkan nugget raksasa mengagumkan di pangkuan mereka dan mereka akan berbicara sampai mati dan kemudian membedah sampai aku memohon belas kasihan.
"Ya, setiap pagi."
"Apakah kereta dengan Anda setiap pagi ? "tanya Chloe. Melihat lagi ditukar.
Aku mengangguk, pindah untuk mengambil hal-hal yang menyimpang beberapa tergeletak di sekitar. "Kami bertemu di taman. Apakah Anda tahu dia tidak triathlon? Dia dalam kondisi sangat baik. "Aku tersentak tutup mulut, menyadari mungkin tidak aman untuk menjadi seperti obliviously tanpa filter dengan Chloe seperti itu dengan Will. Aku mengenalnya cukup baik pada saat ini untuk mengetahui dia tidak membiarkan sangat banyak hal geser.
Dan memang, dia mengangkat alis dan mengulurkan tangan, mendorong gelombang tebal rambut gelap di belakang bahunya. "Jadi, sekitar William."
Aku bersenandung, lipat sepasang kaus kaki bersama-sama.
"Apakah Anda melihat dia di luar tanggal ini berjalan setiap hari?"
Aku bisa merasakan perhatian mereka seperti sinar laser dipanaskan di sisi wajahku jadi saya mengangguk, tidak memandang ke salah satu dari mereka.
"Dia sangat tampan," tambah Chloe.
bahaya Bahaya, otak saya memperingatkan. "Dia."
"Apakah Anda melihat setiap telanjang?" Lainnya
Mataku ditembak Chloe. "Apa?"
"Chloe," Sara mengerang.
"Tidak," aku bersikeras. "Kami hanya berteman."
Chloe mendengus, pindah ke lemari dengan beberapa pakaian menutupi lengannya. "Benar."
"Kami berjalan di pagi hari, bertemu untuk minum kopi kadang-kadang. Mungkin sarapan, "kataku, mengangkat bahu dan mengabaikan cara kejujuran meteran saya tampaknya suar ke zona merah. Akhir-akhir ini kami telah memiliki sarapan bersama-sama hampir setiap pagi, dan berbicara setidaknya satu kali lainnya selama hari. Aku bahkan mulai memanggilnya untuk nasihat tentang percobaan saya ketika Liemacki bepergian atau hanya sibuk. . . atau hanya karena saya dihargai pendapat ilmiah. "Hanya teman-teman." Aku melirik Sara. Matanya dilatih di atas kertas, tapi dia tersenyum, menggelengkan kepalanya.
"Omong kosong," Chloe semua tapi bernyanyi. "Akan Sumner tidak memiliki wanita dalam hidupnya yang hanya teman-teman, di luar keluarga dan kami berdua."
"Hal ini benar," Sara enggan setuju.
Aku tidak mengatakan apa-apa, hanya berbalik dan mulai mencari melalui laci saya untuk sweter. Aku bisa merasakan Chloe menonton saya, meskipun, bisa merasakan tekanan dari tatapannya terhadap bagian belakang kepala saya. Aku tidak pernah punya banyak teman perempuan-dan saya pasti akan tidak pernah punya satu seperti Chloe Mills-tapi bahkan aku cukup pintar untuk menjadi sedikit takut padanya. Saya mendapat kesan yang berbeda bahwa bahkan Bennett agak takut padanya.
Saya menemukan kardigan saya telah berburu untuk dan menyelipkannya lebih favorit Firefly T-shirt saya, melakukan yang terbaik untuk menjaga ekspresi saya netral dan kepala saya bebas dari apa pun akan terkait yang berkelana di luar zona teman. Sesuatu mengatakan kepada saya dua ini akan melihat melalui bahwa dalam satu detik.
"Sudah berapa lama kalian saling kenal?" Tanya Sara. "Dia dan Max pergi jalan kembali, tapi aku hanya mengenalnya sejak aku pindah ke New York."
"Sama di sini," tambah Chloe. "Tumpahan, Bergstrom. Dia terlalu sombong dan kita perlu beberapa amunisi.
"Aku tertawa, berterima kasih atas semi-pergeseran topik. "Apa yang Anda ingin tahu?"
"Nah, Anda tahu dia ketika dia masih kuliah. Apakah dia dork raksasa? Harap mengatakan ia berada di klub catur atau sesuatu, "kata Chloe,
harapan." Ha, tidak ada. Aku cukup yakin dia adalah orang yang berusia delapan belas tahun dan semua ibu ingin bang. "Aku mengerutkan kening, mengingat. "Sebenarnya, saya pikir saya mungkin telah mendengar cerita yang sebenarnya dari Jensen. . . .
"" Kata Max sesuatu tentang dia kencan adikmu? "Tanya Sara.
Aku menggigit bibir saya dan menggelengkan kepala. "Mereka terhubung sekali selama liburan, tapi saya pikir mereka hanya terbuat. Dia bertemu kakak tertua saya, Jensen, pada hari pertama mereka kuliah, dan kemudian ia tinggal bersama kami dan bekerja dengan ayah saya setelah lulus. Saya yang bungsu, jadi saya tidak benar-benar bergaul dengan mereka yang banyak selain saat makan.
"" Hentikan menghindari, "kata Chloe, menyipitkan matanya. "Anda harus tahu lebih banyak."
Aku tertawa. "Mari kita lihat, dia yang termuda, juga. Dia memiliki dua saudara perempuan yang jalan lebih tua dari dia, tapi aku belum pernah bertemu dengan mereka. Saya mendapatkan perasaan dia semacam diasuh banyak. Aku ingat pernah mendengar dia berbicara satu waktu tentang bagaimana orangtuanya keduanya dokter, dan mereka bercerai jauh sebelum ia lahir. Bertahun-tahun kemudian, mereka bertemu di sebuah konferensi medis, mabuk, dan menghubungkan kembali untuk satu malam. . .
"" Dan booming. Will, "Sara menduga.
Aku mengangguk pelan. "Ya. Tapi ibunya membesarkannya. Jadi, saudara-saudara perempuannya yang dua belas dan empat belas tahun lebih tua dari dia. Dia bayi kecil mereka.
"" Yah, itu akan menjelaskan mengapa ia berpikir perempuan ditempatkan di bumi ini untuk melayani dia, "Chloe menambahkan, menjatuhkan diri di tempat tidur di samping Sara.
Itu tidak duduk benar dengan saya, dan saya duduk, menggelengkan kepala. "Saya tidak tahu apakah itu itu. Saya pikir dia hanya benar-benar, benar-benar menyukai wanita. Dan mereka tampaknya menyukainya juga, "aku menambahkan. "Dia tumbuh dikelilingi oleh perempuan jadi dia tahu bagaimana mereka berpikir, apa yang ingin mereka dengar."
"Dia pasti tahu bagaimana untuk bermain game," kata Sara. "Tuhan, beberapa hal Max telah mengatakan kepada saya."
Saya pikir kembali ke pernikahan Jensen dan menonton Akan lolos, jika tidak diperhatikan, dengan dua wanita sekaligus. Aku cukup yakin itu bukan waktu pertama atau terakhir sesuatu seperti yang telah terjadi.
"Perempuan selalu mencintainya," kataku. "Saya ingat sengaja mendengar beberapa teman ibuku berbicara tentang dia ketika ia bekerja untuk Ayah. Yesus, hal-hal yang mereka akan lakukan untuk anak itu.
"" Cougars! "Pekik Chloe, senang. "Aku menyukainya."
"Allah, setiap gadis jatuh cinta dengan dia." Aku menarik bantal untuk dada saya, mengingat. "Aku punya beberapa pacar di sekolah-aku dua belas pertama kalinya dia pulang dengan Jensen-dan mereka akan menemukan semua alasan gila ini perlu untuk datang. Salah satunya berpura-pura seperti dia harus kembali sweater saya pada malam Natal, dan itu sweternya dia memberi saya. Maksudku, gambar sekarang Will tapi sebagai pria sembilan belas tahun, lucu, jelas bijaksana untuk cara-cara tubuh perempuan, dan dengan senyum sialan nakal. Dia berada di sebuah band, memiliki tato. . . ia berjalan seks. Kemudian ketika ia tinggal bersama kami selama musim panas? Dia dua puluh empat dan aku enam belas. Itu tak tertahankan. Rasanya seperti itu tersinggung dia mengenakan kemeja di rumah dan dia harus memamerkan semua yang halus, kulit manusia yang sempurna.
"Saya pecah memori saya untuk melihat mereka berdua tersenyum
padaku." Apa? "