Page 18 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend (Chicago Awakenings #2)

OAKLEY

August

“ I ’m starving, I really hope the girls have already ordered dinner,” I huff out.

I hit the elevator button more times than necessary, impatient to get upstairs.

Parker laughs at my admittedly childish display, but I’m in a mood.

The annoying summer humidity is in full swing.

We were stuck at work late tonight, on a fucking Friday, with some of the other execs on an international call with the management team of our hotel in Tokyo.

I was in other meetings all day and accidentally skipped lunch.

My hanger is real, and I need to eat something before I get really nasty to be around.

Finally, the elevator arrives, and we head straight to Sage and Aspen’s place.

They knew we’d be late, since we weren’t sure how long the meeting would go, but we texted them when we left the office.

I’m hoping their lack of response means they immediately ordered food, and that’s why they didn’t text back.

I sent another one that we were in the lobby, though, and it doesn’t look like it’s been read either .

“Do you think they went to pick something up instead?” I ask Parker as we knock on the door after having no luck with their doorbell.

“I don’t know. I think they would have texted us if they did,” he says as he puts his ear up to the door to listen inside. “It sounds like the TV is on, maybe they fell asleep watching something?”

“Maybe…” I mutter as I give up knocking and try the handle.

It’s unlocked, so I hesitantly push inside.

The lights are all on, but I don’t hear anyone.

I look back at Parker with a raised brow, unsure if we should just walk in, but also starting to get worried that something might have happened to the girls.

He shrugs and motions for me to go in, so we enter their condo together, looking around to make sure some masked murderer isn’t about to pop out. Everything looks normal and I can hear the TV on, so I head in that direction.

As I round the corner into the living space, I start to hear…moaning? Is someone hurt? “Shit, Sage are you okay?” I ask as I rush into the space, only to stop on a dime when I see what’s happening on the couch in front of me.

No one is hurt, that’s for sure.

Sage is straddling Aspen, passionately making out with her

“What the fuck are you doing?” I hear myself demand. Seriously what the fuck is going on? I’m aware that Parker is standing mutely next to me, but I’m too confused by what we just interrupted to turn and see his full reaction.

The girls scramble apart so that they’re sitting next to each other on the couch. “Oh, hi! Sorry, we must not have heard you come in,” Aspen responds in her normal bubbly tone, although her wide eyes are darting between Parker and I, looking guilty.

“No shit. I mean why the fuck were you two hooking up?” I ask incredulously.

Sage is still sitting on the couch, a dazed expression on her face as she lifts her fingertips to her lips, the gesture so slow I’m not sure she’s even aware she’s doing it.

Aspen walks up to Parker and grabs his hand, finally pulling my attention to him. He doesn’t seem upset, expression introspective as he stares blankly at the couch they’d just been on.

“I swear I didn’t initiate that,” she says in a low tone that’s practically a whisper. “Can you give us a few minutes to talk? Maybe fill Oakley in and then we’ll all sit down and figure out what’s going on?”

Why the fuck does she need to talk to Sage first? To get their story straight?

Hell no.

“Or,” I cut in loudly, “the four of us can stay right here and all talk together because we just caught you fucking cheating on us. You can have all of the time you want after we end things.”

Aspen looks alarmed at the suggestion that we’re about to break up with them, but what does she expect? That we’d be totally fine with walking in on their hookup?

“You’ve seen us kiss before,” she reminds me weakly.

I roll my eyes. “Okay, telling us that you’ve kissed before, or even kissing in front of us, is very different than us walking in on you two hooking up, alone .

Who knows how far you would have gone if we hadn’t walked in?

” I try to point out, but Aspen and even Parker look so calm, and Sage is still very quiet, not looking nearly as concerned as Aspen did at the idea of us breaking up, that I’m starting to question if this really is as big of a deal as I thought it was when I first saw them.

“If you walked in on me with Parker’s dick in my mouth, wouldn’t you be upset?

” I demand, trying to express my feelings in a way that they might understand.

Wait, what did I just say? And why would I volunteer to be the one putting a dick in my mouth?

I glance over at Parker and see him looking at me with more shock than when we caught the girls. Aspen is smirking at Parker now, shaking her head no in response to my question.

Then the doorbell rings, interrupting this awkward moment. “That must be the concierge with our food,” Sage says, still seeming like she’s lost in her own head as she gets up to answer it.

Food. I desperately need food.

Apparently, the doorbell works just fine. They were just too busy making out with each other to notice.

Fuck. I am way too hungry to be dealing with any of this right now. I look over at Parker again to try to gauge his reaction to any of this. My first thought when I saw them tangled up together was that we had caught our girlfriends cheating on us and our relationships were done.

But no one else seems to be upset.

Am I overreacting? Am I missing something? What the fuck is going on?

Sage comes back into the open concept kitchen and living space, and Aspen helps her unload the takeout bags from one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants.

They look nervous, both girls’ gazes pinging from each other to us and back, but they’re still going through the motions like we’re all about to sit down for a normal meal.

I grab Parker’s arm to stop him from following them to the table. “Come on, isn’t this really weird? Why am I the only one freaking out?” I frantically whisper to him.

“We should let them talk,” he mutters. “I have to admit something, and I don’t know how you’re going to take it…” he trails off, confusing me even more.

This is all way too much for my level of hunger, so I grunt an agreement and decide that eating is the most important move I can make right now.

I reluctantly sit next to Parker at their table where Sage and Aspen have already put a few of our favorite tacos on plates for us. Parker nods at Aspen, and she looks to Sage, acting far more hesitant than she had when she was whispering with Parker.

“Sage, would you mind coming into my room for a few minutes? There are some things you should really know before we all sit down,” she slowly asks as she stands.

Sage finally makes eye contact with me, brow furrowed, what I think is an apology shining in her eyes before she follows Aspen into her room.

I let out a very confused huff before taking a bite of a taco.

No use letting the food go to waste when I definitely need it.

I finish the whole thing before turning to face a very worried-looking Parker.

I’d hoped that he would start his explanation while I was eating, but it looks like he needs more encouragement.

“Okay, spill. What the fuck is going on? What is it that you haven’t told me? ”

He stares at me for another moment, eyes wide and mouth open like he wants to speak, but nothing is coming out.

I’m starting to panic that it’s something awful with how hesitant he’s being. “Come on, Parker, spit it out!”

“Aspen and I have never really been together,” he finally blurts. The words are said quickly, but I’m able to understand them. Even if their meaning completely blindsides me.

“What the fuck are you talking about? You’ve been dating for months.

I’ve been there the entire time.” Obviously, I’m missing something.

I need to shut up and listen, but that was the last thing I expected him to say.

Parker’s my best friend, we’re always together, we talk about everything.

Surely I would know if he wasn’t actually dating his girlfriend.

Right?

Although, we never talked about our kiss, so we don’t technically talk about everything.

Fuck.

“ That first night, when you and Sage went into your room, Aspen admitted to me that she’s in love with Sage.

She told me all about her horrible judgmental family who would disown her, sabotage her business and cut off access to her money if she was ever with a woman, and she asked me to pretend to date her to get them off of her back about moving home to marry some family friend that they have picked out for her.

” He’s talking so quickly that I can barely hear the individual words he’s saying, let alone process what they mean.

It’s been fake the whole time? “ Why didn’t you tell me?” I interrupt, honestly more surprised that Parker and I apparently have so many secrets than by what he’s saying. He’s got a huge heart, of course he’d want to help her.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was a big deal at first,” he says with a shake of his head.

“She seemed convinced that Sage didn’t feel the same way.

I figured that we had a great time that first night, the four of us could keep hanging out, and you and I wouldn’t have to split the time we usually spend together with your new relationship.

I know previous girlfriends have complained about how close we are, and I thought maybe you and Sage would have a better chance, because she would understand with how close she is to her own best friend.

Plus, Aspen would get the freedom she was after, and we’d all get to keep spending time with each other.

The fact that her and I weren’t having sex seemed unimportant. ”