Balancing Boys (Part VII): Playing with Fire.

She hadn't spoken to Jake in awhile, and to be honest, she hadn't minded. She'd been so distracted by Alec's company that she hadn't really had a solid minute to sit down and process anything Jake-related. Alec was her best friend, and the two had recently been spending a lot of time together. They'd become joined at the hip to the point where people would mistake them for a couple. She'd just laugh, lay her hand on his lap, and explain that they were friends. The truth of the matter was, she felt so comfortable around him, more so than she'd ever felt around any other guy, and she was growing to prefer his platonic company to most others'. He'd even been by her side the day she discovered her perfect Nate was not so perfect. He'd sat and laughed with her about it, that someone could be so stupid as to throw away what they'd had.

{But what did they have?}

She sat by the crackling fire place that night at the bar. The weather was warming, and she was giggling over a tall glass of Zinfandel. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Jake.

"Whoops," Alec said. "I forgot to mention he was going to be here," and he smiled a cheshire cat smile. Alec swigged his beer as he watched her uncomfortably squirm around on her stool. She twirled a strand of long, blonde hair around her finger as Jake approached her.

"I can't stay long," he whispered in her ear, and her heart raced. He proceeded to reprimand her for all the things she hadn't done wrong. He mocked her giggle, and rolled his eyes at every word she spoke. Before he left, he grabbed her waist. It looked as if Jake had half expected a kiss, but she knew what Jake had really expected. Jake was waiting for her to swoon over his presence. He was waiting for her to fall back into his arms the way she'd always had. He was waiting for her to look at him the way she always did, with that look that inferred she'd loved him. He missed that about her. He missed that he could disappear for years, and she'd be right back where he left her. In love.

She let Jake pinch her waist, and watched him walk off into the night with his beautiful little face all scrunched up. "You're impossible," he teased her, the way he did every time they parted.

She smiled.

"I know, Jake," and turned to face Alec.

Alec downed the last of his beer. 

"And the saga continues," he whispered.