Free Only With You by Monica Alexander Page B

at a bar near USF. Jake and I had fake IDs, but the girls didn’t, so Jake let them take sips of his beer when no one was looking. I fiddled with my new phone, having re-downloaded all of my apps and my contacts on the drive down.
    It had not really been my intention to ignore the blond next to me who was definitely interested, but I’d made the mistake of going on Twitter as we were driving to the bar, and I’d seen all the posts Sydney had sent out after her concert thanking her fans and telling them how awesome the Tampa crowd had been. I should have stopped following her, but I never did, and now I was regretting it.
    And Jake was now right about something else. I couldn’t stay away from her no matter how much I wanted to. And she was so close by.
    She was in Tampa. I was in Tampa. And I had a phone. I wondered if that had been Jake’s evil plan all along. Maybe he didn’t want me to sleep with the blond. Maybe he wanted me to work up the nerve to call Sydney.
    Yeah, probably not. It was Jake after all. He wasn’t that diabolical – or smart for that matter.
    Yet four beers in, I decided to take action since I had a mild buzz going, and the conversation around me was boring. I sent Syd a text.
    You were really great tonight.
    It wasn’t technically a lie, since although I hadn’t been at the show, I knew she’d been great. I set my phone down after she didn’t respond right away. I wondered if she would. She was probably pissed about the text she’d thought I’d sent the night of the concert.
    “ Who are you texting,” the blond girl, whose name I’d honestly already forgotten, asked me.
    She’d been attempting to flirt with me all night, but I’d only half paid attention to her. A part of me felt bad, but another part didn’t. I hadn’t exactly agreed to hang out with her. I’d been pretty much coerced.
    “My friend,” I said, wishing that was the case.
    “Is it a girl?”
    S he pouted at me while she waited for my answer.
    “Yes,” I said, earning myself a kick from Jake under the table.
    I grunted as silently as I could and glared at him. He shook his head and gave me a look that said ‘Dude, occupy the friend. I’m this close to getting head’.
    And he was probably right. The brunette he was with was practically sucking his tongue down her throat. She looked about ready to crawl under the table and blow him right there. And it would not have been the first time that happened to Jake. Nor would it have been the first time I’d been there when it happened. I’d never look at Chicken Marsala the same way again.
    I was about to comply with his request to entertain the friend when my phone dinged, and I looked down to see a reply from Sydney.
    Oh, so he finally decides to respond to me.
    I was going to go out on a limb and assume that was meant to be sarcastic and that she was mad at me. Well, two could play that game.
    So t he next time I’m five feet from you, are you going to pretend I’m not there? That you can’t see me?
    Take that.
    I hate you, she texted back, and it actually made me smile. She only told me she hated me when she didn’t mean it.
    No, you don’t. You love me.
    How easy it was for us to slide right back into what felt like normal. We’d been doing it for so many years. I actually forgot for a few seconds that things were weird.
    But then Sydney didn’t respond for a few minutes, and I wondered if she really was mad and that she really did hate me.
    Syd?
    I’m here.
    You okay?
    I held my breath as I waited for her to respond.
    Not really. I’m sorry about the other night and the past five months. I miss you, and I’m sorry – for everything.
    And that ladies and gentlemen is what we like to call just putting it out there without actually saying it. She was apologizing for rejecting me. I knew that, and it sucked, because all I wanted was for her to tell me that she’d made a mistake and she actually wanted to be with me. I was so pitiful.
    Of course, she