🥊 Hate or Fate 💕 {Enemies to Lovers}

.39.

"Excuse me, what now?" I demanded after almost reattaching my jaw.

"You heard me," Rebecca arched her brow and gave me a sideways glare while I mentally pulled the pieces together. "You and Gray. You two need to hump like bunnies and just get it out of your system. Please stop looking all shocked! It's been obvious since the day we met that poor boy on the street."

"What has?" I squawked, dropping my phone like it caught fire.

Rebecca watched the battered case bounce off her rug before her eyes flashed back to mine.

"OK, I can spell it out," her lips stretched into a knowing grin. "He. Is. In. Love. With. You."

A shock of ice shot through my veins to prickle my limbs with embarrassment and shame. I bent over my waist to fish for my phone, which buzzed again.

"I have been trying to get you to see it for weeks," Rebecca snorted, folding her arms across her bountiful chest with a satisfied smile. "First I tried to make you jealous so you would admit that you liked him too, but no matter what I did, you ran away! I even helped drag you out to his show, after Gray begged, so he could apologize to you in person! Elijah actually did tell you the truth about one thing, Gray's had feelings for you for a long time. And you've got it bad for him too, you dummy."

There it was. The truth I was too blind (more like too stubborn) to see. I was a dummy.

I slowly lifted my head up to look her in the face. "He told you about that?" I whispered.

The static between my ears hissed and crackled with too many incomplete thoughts and questions.

"I mean, it's not like he bared his soul to me," Rebecca giggled. "But after you took off after his show, he got wasted and cried on Bart's shoulder while I awkwardly eavesdropped."

"So, you've known Bart this whole time too?"

"Yup," Rebecca tilted her chin in a self-congratulatory manner. "And don't you dare let Gray take the credit for that dinner party! It was my idea. So, we get a baller free meal, I get a date with Bart, the hot volunteer fireman. And you will hopefully have a man satisfy you in ways Elijah never could."

I shook my head, unsure whether I should thank her or yell at her.

Sweet relief washed over me, releasing my scrambled thoughts and saturating me in a warmth that made me feel lit from within. We didn't have to sneak around or lie to Rebecca. If anything, Rebecca had been the one to bend the truth, but only to benefit me in the nicest way.

My phone buzzed in my hand, indicating I had a call. I glanced down to feel my cheeks redden at the picture.

It was Gray and Elijah together, grinning from ear to ear in the dugout after practice. They were covered in dirt and despite their broad-shouldered uniforms and Gray's full-sleeve tattoos, they looked like happy goofballs. I'd taken the photo about a month before Gray abruptly quit the baseball team, without any explanation or prior warning, which Elijah said cost them the championship that year.

It was one of the few pictures I had of Gray, at all.

"Answer the phone," Rebecca reminded me. "You're welcome."

She was already halfway off the couch and on her way to her bedroom.

"Hey," I choked out, excited to hear his voice and slightly terrified of what I might say.

"Long time no speak," he joked, a little too casual to be unpremeditated. "What about Thai food?"

"What about it?"

Gray's chuckle normalized his tone, lowering it to the deep resonance that I craved. "How about a Thai food feast for the party?"

"Perfect," I couldn't hide the giddiness creeping into my voice, and I didn't care.

"Right? A little sweet, and a little spice?" I could practically hear the smile on Gray's sumptuous lips. "Well, that was it."

"It was?"

"Unless," he paused. I imagined him gulping to shift the intricately inked hawk decorating the hollow of his throat and the top of his collarbone. I wanted to trail my fingers across the swell of its wingspan. "Unless there's something else?"

Yes, there was everything else.

My mouth ran bone-dry as my thoughts spun up like a cyclone. There was so much we'd left unsaid, for so long.

"Rebecca told me she knows," I managed to eke out.

"Good," he sighed, exhaling far more than words.

I wanted to ask him how long he'd had feelings for me, but not over the phone. I needed to see his face and peer into his crystalline eyes for the truth he'd promised. I yearned to feel his heart accelerate when I laid my palm on his chest, an unspoken confirmation of what I stirred deep within him.

"So, what now?" I breathed.

My heart exploded into a gallop in my chest, pumping a dizzying amount of blood to my head. I had no idea what I wanted, and I was pretty sure Gray didn't either.

"You let me make you dinner, next Friday," he replied, a charming hint of something more than a tantalizing meal in his tone.

My heart sagged a little in my chest. That was nearly ten days away, and it was scary to admit, but it felt like too long to wait.

I ached to touch him again. To be touched by him again.

"Sounds good," I nodded, picturing him relaxed somewhere and stretched out like a large cat. "And, um, thank you, you know, for today."

"Always," he sounded so sure, so adamant, that hope bubbled in my chest. "Hey, maybe I could stop by the office this week? Just to say hi, of course."

"That sounds great, actually," I tried to swallow the cheesy grin in my voice it. "Braxton will be so excited to see you."

Gray's pleasant laughter struck a chord that my heart recognized. I squeezed my eyes shut and swooned into Rebecca's couch cushions, biting my lip to ground myself in reality.

"Sweet dreams, Gray," my voice was husky from the desire to touch him, to feel him pressed against me like earlier that afternoon.

I hung up the phone and shifted in my seat to realize that I'd soaked through my panties in under five minutes. 

Excitement, fear, lust, and about fifty million other emotions were smashing around in my head. 

I longed for the delicious heat that swept us up into a frenzy of riotous sensations when we kissed. The pads of my fingers itched to roam the contours of his tantalizing muscle. My heart ached to know the private pain burning behind his rheumy eyes.

All at once, I was overwhelmed and completely out of my depth. I couldn't tell whether my feelings for Gray were coming on too fast or if they were a long time coming.

chapter word count: 1,204

A/N ~ My goodness I really appreciate your time and your comments and votes!