My Best Friend Changed Boyfriends Weekly... Until She Chose My Ten-Year Fiancé novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: 12:01

Willem's POV

At eleven forty-one on Sunday night I was standing in my own kitchen with my truck keys in my hand, and I had no idea how to put them down.

I'd promised her a week.

She had wanted it to end at midnight, and I had said fine, because it was the only thing I could say to her.

Ginny sat on the new counter in a T-shirt of mine, with her bare feet swinging, and watched me stand there.

The oven clock was the only light that worked.

"You're holding your keys like a man leaving," she said.

"I'm holding them like a man who's about to sleep in his truck."

"Why?"

"Because the deal says I'm done at midnight."

"And you do what the deal says."

"I do now," I said. "I let you down once with a glove box."

She stopped swinging her feet.

"So at twelve I'm out," I said. "I don't get to touch you because it's convenient. If you want me after, you come and say it with nobody watching and nobody owing anybody."

"That's a speech."

"I practiced it in the truck."

Her mouth twitched.

11:52.

She slid down from the counter and crossed the floor, and she took the keys out of my hand and set them on the sill.

She stood in front of me close enough that I could smell her hair.

She did not touch me.

I could feel how badly I wanted her to.

11:56.

"Tell me when you knew," she said.

"Knew what?"

"That you were in trouble."

I thought about lying, and I couldn't make it work.

"The first night," I said. "You pushed that elevator button three times with your jaw shut tight, and you didn't cry."

"That was before you even talked to me."

"I know."

11:59.

Her breath was very quiet.

I watched her hand come up, and stop an inch from my chest, and shake.

The oven clock changed.

12:00.

Neither of us moved.

12:01.

"The deal's over," Ginny said.

"I know."

"Say what you want."

I had planned it all out for three days, and none of it came.

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend