“Do you remember that time in Malibu?”
I lean over and kiss her cheek. “I was just thinking about that trip. We should go back this sum…” I let my words trail off.
“What is it?”
“I was offered a job here, at Omni, after graduation.”
Elle looks up and smiles. “You should take it.”
“What?”
“Seriously, take it. You deserve it, Ben. I know how hard you’ve worked.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No buts.” Elle turns to face me and reaches for my hand. A sense of dread washes over me. I knew last night was too good to be true. She’s going to tell me she’s changed her mind and that we’ll never work. “The night before I flew out here, Quinn took me to see this band he likes, and I like them. As soon as I graduate, I’m going to sign them, along with Quinn. I thought long and hard about what to do. My options are to start at the bottom somewhere or go out on my own. I like the idea of being out on my own, however, if I come to an agency with a strong core of talent under me, I think I have a better chance at being taken seriously.”
“That’s great, Elle. But what does this have to do with me living here?”
“Don’t you see?” she says, cupping my face. “There’s so much untapped talent here. I can be here with you, working and discovering the hidden gems. I’ll have to travel, but New York can be my home.”
“What about your parents?”
She looks at me oddly. “What about them?”
“I don’t know, I just thought…”
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“Peyton and Noah aren’t going to live in California. She wants to work for ESPN, and I think they’re out of Connecticut or someplace over here. Besides…” Elle reaches for my hand and threads our fingers together. “It doesn’t matter where we live, as long as we’re together.”
I couldn’t agree more, but graduation is approaching, and I don’t know if we’ll be at the stage of living together by the time I start my job here, although knowing Elle’s in the city and not living next to me won’t sit very well. I’ve grown far too accustomed to having her within a few feet of me.
“And you want to live with me?”
“Ben, I meant what I said last night. I want to try. I’m jumping with both feet into a Ben and Elle relationship, complete with cheesy selfies on my Instagram, Facebook relationship status change and ridiculous text messages throughout the day telling you how much I miss you and can’t wait for you to come back to California.”
I roll my eyes, but the grin I have on my face tells her I’m only kidding with her. “I should run for the hills. You already seem clingy.”
“I am clingy, and you should totally run. I have so much to make up for. It’s not even funny. What I’ve done to you, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“I like your kind of clingy.” Without pause, I pull her to me and kiss her lips. Elle responds immediately, pushing me back into the sofa. For a swanky hotel, this couch is incredibly uncomfortable, but the girl I love is laid out on top of me, making me not care about a potential backache.
Elle and I make out like two horny high school kids whose parents aren’t home. This is what I’ve wanted, to be in her presence this way, to know her intimately and be the man she calls hers.
When we part, her lips are red and swollen, and her hair is even more messed up than before. “You’re so beautiful,” I tell her. “How’d I get so lucky?”
“You sat down and saw the real me, not the one our classmates saw, the who has a famous family. The fame, it never mattered to you, and I was always just your Elle, your best friend. It’s not a case of how you got lucky, but more so of how I got so lucky. You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, Benjamin. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember the first day we met.”
“Me neither,” I tell her and promptly go back to kissing her.
29
Elle
There’s nothing like kissing Ben. And to think I would’ve never fully experienced the act if my sister hadn’t opened my closed-off mind to the possibility of Ben being the one for me. I wish I could go back, months or even years, and stand outside of the relationship Ben and I have, and really take a look at what we were doing. So much wasted time has gone by. No, it wasn’t lost in a sense we weren’t together, but we could’ve been so much more.
Kissing your best friend is not awkward, at all. I thought it would be, which is probably the most significant part of my hesitation in believing Ben could be the one for me. Yet, I can't imagine anyone else making me feel the way I do. The warm and fuzzy sensation coursing through my body is everything a first love is supposed to be. It just sucks that we've waited so long. Well, mostly me. I have no doubt Ben would’ve jumped at the opportunity if it had presented itself much earlier.