Sighing, I start to do the same Colin does. Take a bouquet of flowers and put them in any of the empty vases. “I’m not like in love with Sofia. I just don’t like her getting fucked with.”
“Because you’d ratheryoufuck her,” Lily says, brushing off some hay from the chairs.
I groan. “Don’t say that.” Seriously, she’s my sister. If Colin said that, it wouldn’t bug me nearly as much as when Lily does it.
“It’s the truth though. You could barely keep your pants on with Winter around. I can only imagine how awful this must be for you when Sofia is around,” Colin adds for my sister. “Ever thought about just telling her how you feel?”
“I did.” They both look at me with raised eyebrows. “Kind of.” Sitting down on one of the chairs, I kick some hay in front of me away, tapping my foot on the wood. “We’re dating, you know. Like, genuinely. She’s my girlfriend now. But it’s… complicated.”
“Really?” Lily comes running over to me, kneeling while keeping her hands on my knees to keep herself steady. “You didn’t mentionthat.”
“It’s not that big a deal.” It is though, to me. I’ve been holding on to a promise for years, not knowing whether we’d ever get there or not. And now Sofia and Iaredating, still there’s a huge possibility that it’s all for nothing. “She just might not ever come back to America after she’s graduated.”
“What?” Colin drops the bouquet in his hands in the vase, his head instantly snapping over to me. “Why the hell not?”
“For reasons I cannot say. But it’s huge and I’d totally get if she didn’t come back, you know. It’s just…”
“You’d be separated from an ocean again with almost to no way of seeing the other regularly,” Lily fills in for me when I just trail off. I only manage to nod. “You could move to Germany, though, right? I mean, you’d have to learn a whole new language because I doubt you could live here for the rest of your life depending on Sofia to translate.”
“I can’t.” Moving to a whole other country, that’s difficult as fuck. Getting a temporary work visa, or one for travelling is much easier thanmovingto the country you’re visiting.
“Yeah, he can’t,” Colin says. “He’ll be drafted to go pro, and that sure as fuck won’t be in Germany.”
“I’d drop hockey for her, but I doubt I’d be happy so far away from everyone.”
“And you say you’re not in love.” My sister rolls her eyes, plopping down to sit in front of me now. “Ever thought about that maybe Sofia wouldn’t be all too happy being away from her family either?”
I’ve thought about that just around a million times for two days.
“Besides, Ron, if you don’t think your relationship is going anywhere, why bother being in one in the first place?” Lily asks.
“Because I’d rather have limited time with Sofia than none at all.”
“Holy shit,” Colin says, followed by a long groan. “You were right.”
Right about what? I didn’t say anything.
Lily laughs, and for once it doesn’t bug me as much when she laughs without me knowing why. I used to hate it because I always thought she was laughing about me. But recently, even if she were laughing about me, it’s better than to never hear her laugh ever again. “Told you, Aaronisthe dating-type.”
All right. Yeah, that’s definitely laughing about Colin for, apparently, thinking I wasn’t interested in dating.
I am not. Not unless it’s Sofia I am dating.
Colin pulls out his wallet from his pocket, opens it, sighs, and closes it again. He then looks up at Lily. “I don’t have money on me. But the second we’re back home, I’ll give you your fifty bucks.”
My eyes almost pop right out of my head. “You werebettingabout me ever dating someone?”
Colin shakes his head. “Nah, we were betting about you dating Sofia. I said no way, you’re too much of a pussy for that. Lily said you’d totally go for it the second you get the chance to.”
“I hate you guys so much.”
The audacity of them. I am having a real crisis here, and they’re making bets about me and Sofia dating.Unbe-fucking-lievable.
“Ah, shut it. You’ve done the same with Miles and Grey about Colin and me,” Lily says, waving me off.
“I did not.” I made bets with the entireteam. I won.
“Oh, you so did. Miles told me about it.”