Not in That Way Ch. 07

Eventually we're both stuffed, but can't seem to untangle our limbs from each other. I take it in for a moment: the dark, empty apartment that no longer feels desolate. We're naked, with no qualms or judgement. It feels nice.

"Let's play a game." I say, setting my coffee down.

He raises an eyebrow, "We could play Jenga with our dicks." He says, laughing at himself.

I wince, "Actually I borrowed that from Grace, so that's a hard pass." I smirk, "No pun intended" leaving Gabe hysterical.

"Give me your best pick-up line. First one to break loses."

I see him thinking for a bit. Gabe's as competitive as he is charming. And despite the recent spell of bad news and uncomfortable conversations, he's never able to go more than a few minutes talking to me without a laugh.

"I got one." He says with a smirk, "Do you wash your jeans in Windex? Because I can see myself in them."

I smile, but hold my ground.

Leaning in, I reply, "Is your name Oliver? Because I wanna be Oliver your dick."

Gabe looks unfazed as he quickly retorts, "Is your name Justin? Because I wanna be Justin you."

I fake yawn, "That one was so close to working." I wink, "Off by one letter."

He rolls his eyes, but doesn't lose that smile. "The UPS called. They told me I need to check your big package."

I get into his face, "I'm jealous of your heart because it's pounding inside of you, and not me."

That manages to set him off as that closed mouth smirk opens, letting out a laugh that I didn't expect. It's so infectious that I'm laughing too as he reaches over and entangles himself around my naked body. We wrestle like that for a little before we're both out of breath. Eventually, we settle back down and retake our places on the couch.

"Okay that was good- you win."

I flash him a wink as he takes another sip, "What else do you want to play?"

-

Gabe thinks for a minute and sets his cup back down, "Hmm. Tell me something I don't know."

"We've been best friends for nine years. I feel like you know everything there is to know."

He corrects, "Based on the past few days, I'd say there's a lot we don't know about each other."

I nod and then turn my face into a scowl, conjuring up my best Game of Thrones impression, "You know nothing, Jon Snow"

Gabe laughs and looks back at me, waiting for me to kick it off. The truth is there's a lot of things that Gabe doesn't know, and I'm left cherry picking my answers to see where I want this conversation to lead. I find one and play it like the best hand I've got.

"Tom and I broke up because of you." I say, feeling the warmth on my cup.

Gabe looks at me surprised, "No way." He says, shaking his head. I nod as he replies. "Shit, Dust I'm sorry." He says, though half-heartedly.

I shrug, "Don't be sorry" I grab his wrist, "I'm not."

I tell him the story, "It was the night of my Mom's birthday. Tom didn't know you were coming and he was insecure that whole time, saying how you stole the show." I say with air quotations. "We went back to my place and it was this big thing that basically ended up with him forcing me to choose."

"And you chose me?"

I nod, "In a sense, yeah, I did. Your friendship meant more to me than some guy who made up a competition he'd never win"

Gabe's sitting there taking in that information as I drink, "Okay, your turn."

He pauses, "I hated Tom." He corrects himself, "Like I really fucking hated him."

I reply, "I had a feeling that you didn't like him, but why didn't you ever tell me?"

He sighs, "Because you were happy."

Gabe sinks his head down, "I was still dealing with all that shit from my dad and I was too much of a coward to get over that. I wasn't in the emotional headspace to be with you, so why ruin your relationship if we couldn't even be together "

He adds, "And Tom just seemed like a douchebag."

"Since we became friends, I'd always had this idealized relationship set up for you- sorta like a checklist of things that any potential guy had to meet." He shrugs, "Tom just kept missing every box and so, in my head at least, he wasn't good enough for you."

I rekindle that argument from a few weeks ago, feeling it thaw in the warmth of this night and how honest we're being.

"Well maybe the reason no one was good enough is because the only one who can check all those boxes, is you."

Gabe looks at me with a glint in his eye, "My mind is pretty fucked up, isn't it."

I pull him close and kiss him on the cheek. And just like that he's smiling at me again. The mood softens a bit as our coffee goes lukewarm.

"You know I bribed Mrs. Guevera at the Admin office so we could have all our class together."

My eyes go wide, "You didn't."

He nods, "I did. I hadn't even attended a single class before you met me at the coffee shop. I really liked you and was disappointed to find out that we only had that one class together. So I went to the Admin office after that first day and made up this whole story about how I needed to be in every class with you because I have bad anxiety."

He laughs, "Poor Mrs. Guevera tried comforting me and everything, and I almost turned on the waterworks until she finally agreed to change it."

I hit his arm, "And here I was thinking it was some grand coincidence."

He shakes his head, "Sadly it was not."

I think about how badly Gabe wanted to spend time with me and everything starts making a little more sense. I reach for another secret.

"One time I sabotaged your date."

Gabe hits me with a pillow, "No!" He says shocked, "with who?"

"Carter Moreno- that dude that hung out with us a few times Senior Year in college."

His eyes go wide, "The Poli Sci major? He was so hot!"

I roll my eyes, "He was also a pretentious fuck! I remember him constantly bragging about studying abroad in Barcelona" I say with a lisp, "and how cultured he felt like he became." I gag, for emphasis.

Gabe put his hands up, "I kinda bought it, not gonna lie." He chuckles, :He just seemed so exotic and god knows I was trying to distract myself from you. Plus he was clearly into me."

"Which is why I couldn't let things go any further. So right after you told me you guys had a date, I used that spare key you got from the front desk worker, went into your room and stole all your condoms."

"Dust!" He says, hitting me with a pillow. "Carter and I basically spent the whole date talking about what we were gonna do after. And then when we got back and I saw I was out of condoms, he was convinced I had been leading him on, only for me to make up some excuse as to why we couldn't hook up!"

I scoffed, feeding into the pettiness, "Well Carter got around and ended up sleeping with my lab partner the next day, so I'd say you dodged a bullet there, buddy."

Gabe shakes his head with a wide smirk, "Dustin Green sabotaged a date because he was jealous." He grabs my hand and kisses it, "Hindsight tells me it was all worth it in the end."

I nod as I lean back into the couch, "What more don't we know?" I chuckle, "we were closer than most best friends and yet there's all these nuggets of information I'm still finding."

He eases into me, "We'll dig all of them up, Dust." He pauses, "together."