Arianna squeezes my hand. “What’s wrong?” she questions, making me realize that whatever is going on inside of me must be reflected on my face.
I shake my head as I let out a heavy breath. “I don’t know,” I tell her, unable to look away from the dance floor. “I just…I feel kind of heavy.”
Arianna gives me a soft, knowing smile. “It’s Tyson, isn’t it?”
My head whips in her direction faster than lightning. “What?” I laugh. “What does Tyson have to do with anything?”
She grins. “Because you’re in love with him and right now, he isn’t here.”
“Woah,” I laugh. “Slow down there, Ari. I may have a habit of sneaking into bed with the guy, but I’m not in love with him. I just like having sex with him. There’s a huge difference. It’s not that.”
“Bullshit,” Arianna says. “I see it all over your face every time you talk about him, which is constantly by the way. You’re in denial. You don’t want to love him and you’re terrified of opening yourself up to someone like him, so you push him away, over and over, and over again.”
“I do not.”
She squeezes my hand again. “You do. You might think you’re just telling him no and that he’s just a friend with benefits, but he’s so much more. You’re in love with him, Bry.”
I shake my head, unable to believe her lunacy. I mean, me in love with Tyson? That’s absurd. I’d understand me maybe liking the guy a little more than I should, but I’m certainly not in love with him. Despite what Ari might think, we’re just friends and I don’t want to ruin that. I know he feels something more, that’s obvious, but he knows where I draw the line and he’s always been okay with that which is exactly how this whole sleeping together thing has been able to work.
Tyson knew the deal from the very first second he ever touched me. Though to be fair, I think we were both pretty drunk that night. I know I can hardly remember it. I understand Arianna’s confusion. I am incredibly attracted to him, but the need to be where he is, that comes from having such a great connection. My heart races because I know that he can set my body on fire and I want to be around him because I know that if I’m lucky, that’s exactly what he’ll do to me. It’s just sex, nothing more. No, I’m definitely not in love with the guy.
I shake my head, refusing to answer her as I know exactly how that’s going to go. Ari is stubborn just like the rest of our family and if you try to tell her something that she doesn’t think is right, she’ll fight you on it until you’re unsure of what you were even trying to convince her of in the first place.
“So whether you’re in love with the guy or not,” she starts, making me roll my eyes. “Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to at least give him a shot? You guys have something real and I think it could turn into so much more.” She flicks her eyes towards her mom and Harrison as if trying to make a point. “Tyson wants you so bad and despite your endless denials, you want him too, so just do yourself a favor and go be with him.”
“You realize that I live at Yale, right? Hours away from Broken Hill. It would never work. He’s in high school, living it up, partying every chance he gets and probably screwing everything with a pulse, while I spend my nights with my head in textbooks, not even thinking about having fun.”
“It’s called a long-distance relationship. People do it all the time.”
“I know that, but for something like that to work, Ty would have to be faithful and I’d need to be able to trust him, and I’m not sure if that’s possible. He’s a wild card and being with him is taking a risk that I’m not sure I want to take.”
“You know the road goes both ways, right? You’d need to be trustworthy too.”
I scoff at her ridiculous comments. “Who would I be unfaithful with? My eighty-year-old professor, whose idea of an exciting day is combing his hair in the opposite direction?”
“Come on,” she says, turning back to watch the newlyweds first dance. “Just think about it. No harm could come from that.”
“Fine,” I grumble moments before the emcee asks the rest of the bridal party to join their dance. I get up from my chair as Harrison’s nephew, Blake, offers me his arm. I take it with a grateful smile and allow him to lead me to the dance floor.
Blake takes my waist and I turn into him, finding it impossible to get my mind off my conversation with Arianna despite the way he’s looking at me as though I’m some kind of snack. Could Ari be right? Should I actually be considering a future with Tyson, let alone just dating the guy?