Puppy Love

Chapter 6

2 Months Later...

Amelia

"Hold on." I look at my beeping phone and see that Owen has sent me a message.

I need a drop to work today. I also need coffee.

"You can't just say hold on during sex," Ryan murmurs as he looks over my shoulder at my phone, "Why is he messaging you at 7 in the morning?"

"He's my co-worker and my only friend," I say as I confirm his requests, "I have to say hold on for him."

"You treat him better than you treat me," he grumbles as he waits for me to finish my conversation with what he calls my other half.

"Not true," I laugh as I set my phone back on the bedside table. I turn to him and cup his cheeks with my hands, wrapping one leg around his waist. "I give you sex. He doesn't get that." I kiss him long and passionately enough that he almost forgets what we're talking about. I can feel his excitement poking against me and, just when I think we're about to return to our previous activities, he stops me.

"How do I know you don't give him that?" he chuckles, rolling over to tower over me.

"I guess you'll have to trust me," I shrug, pushing him back to his side so I can get out of bed and get ready, ditching the idea of sex with him this morning. He's being insecure again and it annoys me a lot, but I understand why he would feel that way; Owen and I are pretty close now. I just wish he didn't spend so much of his energy teasing me about how close we are.

"Amelia," he whispers lowly and lovingly as I'm about to go to the bathroom. I turn and look at him, expecting him to ask me something. Instead, he says, "I love you."

And, of course, I freeze.

------

"It's not funny!" I groan as I stand outside Owen's tiny shower, in his tiny trailer, in my brother's large backyard.

"It's hilarious," Owen responds, laughing in between, "So you just stood there and stared at him after he said it?"

"No," I whine, "I smiled, kind of, and then I just walked off and locked myself in the bathroom." I bring my hands to the sides of my face. "Oh god, he's going to break up with me and never speak to me again."

"Maybe," he agrees, making me roll my eyes, "But why didn't you just say it back to him? You say it to me all the time."

"That's different," I quickly dismiss, folding my arms across my chest, "And I don't know why I didn't say it back, I just froze."

"Don't you love him?" he asks.

"I do!" I say quickly. I do love Ryan, don't I? It feels like love, more so than it did with James.

"Then why didn't you say it?" His hand sticks outside the shower, attempting to reach for something. "You guys have been together for, like, three months now. Are you afraid of loving a guy with no aspiration or something?"

I sigh as I ponder my answer. "I have no problem with him being a diner cook, Owen. I'm just..." Saving it for the right person? "It's stupid, I'm stupid."

"Yeah, you are," he agrees, still reaching for something, "The fact that 'I love you' is now being used in your relationship is questionable by itself. You're an adult, now pass me the shampoo."

"You have been absolutely no help to me," I say as I go into his bedroom and retrieve the bottle.

"I can't tell you what to do, Amelia," he lectures me as I walk back to the shower. He sticks his entire body, which is drenched, out of the shower as he covers the rest with the curtain, which is strategically hiding his lower half. "You should know what to do."