She shoots me an exasperated look, seemingly frustrated that I’m not accepting her just friends policy. “What?” I defend. “Friends can call each other.”

After sliding my phone back into my pocket, I hail a cab. Reaching around her to open the door, I inhale her sweet scent. Silently, I wonder how long her friendship requirement is set for. A week? A year?

When she whispers a quiet “thank you” into my ear, I pray it’s closer to the week mark. Because holy shit, there’s no way I could survive a year not being able to touch her, to kiss her.

Hell, holding back those desires right now is proving to be monumentally difficult.

Grace waves at me from the cab as it pulls away, but I can still feel her breath on my skin. I can still smell her perfume in the air.

After I’m settled on the subway, heading back to my apartment, my thoughts go back to Grace and her “friends only” agreement. That’s when I have to laugh at myself.

Every day, I willingly run into burning buildings. I can run up dozens of flights of stairs wearing close to a hundred pounds of equipment, but here I am worried about whether or not I can be strong enough only to be her friend.

Somehow, I doubt I’ll be able to hold up my end of the deal.

“I’m an ass.” With an overly dramatic sigh, I continue folding my laundry. Jade listens on, somewhat amused at my randomness. “Oh, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. You know, like ‘no, you’re not, Grace. Why would you think that? You’re perfect, Grace. Don’t say such mean things about yourself.’” Prattling on and on, Jade smiles and nods as she continues to flip through the latest issue of People. When another minute of silence passes between us, interrupted only by the crinkling of the pages as she turns them, I drop the shirt I am folding onto the pile and huff dramatically. “Hello?”

For good measure, she gives herself another few seconds before actually closing the magazine and responding to me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were talking to me.” Looking over her shoulder at the wall behind her, she knows full well I was talking to her.

My retaliation for her being a wiseass is wadding up a T-shirt and sailing it at her head. “Jerk,” I mutter, sticking my tongue out at her. Of course, she does the same to me and we giggle like teenagers.

The entire exchange is mature. Very mature.

After the giggle fit stops, Jade drops her magazine onto the chair and joins me in folding my laundry. Standing next to me in front of my bed, she pulls a wrinkled pair of khakis from the basket. “So what makes you think you’re an ass?” she asks, holding the pants in front of her as if they’re infected with some kind of disease. “Except maybe these pants. Seriously, Gracie. These are horrendous.”

Grabbing them from her hand, I defend my fashion choice. “They are not. And they’re comfortable.” As I fold them, I add, “And practical, too.”

If possible, Jade rolls her eyes at me so hard she nearly sprains them. “Sure, sure. We’ll go with practical.” She laughs and helps me fold a few more items before getting back to the original line of conversation. “So, you said you were an ass. How so?”

“I told David we should just be friends,” I admit. Sighing, I roll a pair of socks into a ball and drop it alongside the others.

“The hot firefighter David?” She clutches her chest. “The one who saved you when you were a little girl? Damn fine David?” Her rambling makes me realize what a fool I am.

“Yes. Him.” Shooting her a wry look, I know she’s rambled off the laundry list of David’s gorgeousness in order to emphasize my own stupidity.

“Oh, honey. Why’d you do that?”

Shrugging, I say, “It seemed like a good idea at the time. But now I’m not so sure.” Avoiding eye contact with her, I put some shirts away in my dresser. “Yet, thinking about being more than friends makes me feel unsure, too.”

“So then, it’s easy.” Jade’s casual comment about a situation with which I’m struggling catches me off guard. Without even having to ask her how it’s easy, she explains, “Which not sure are you okay with never knowing about?”

“I never thought about it that way,” I admit, flopping down onto the bed.

“Well, start thinking about it. Are you okay with only ever being friends and never knowing him any other way? Or are you okay with taking a risk and finding out if there’s really more there, even though it might mean losing him as a friend?”

“What if I don’t have to lose him at all?” I muse, my voice a wistful whisper.

“There’s always that,” Jade says, standing to walk toward the door. “But it’s up to you to find out.”

With that little nugget of wisdom, she walks out of the room, letting me know she’ll be out for the night with Bryce. It’s not lost on me that announcing her plans is also her way to let me know the apartment is open for the evening.

As I clean up the rest of my room, my mind wanders. Naturally, it lands right on David. Sure, we could be just friends, but I’d be lying to myself if I said that’s all I wanted. There’s no hiding the reaction I have to him. And the flash of jealousy I felt at watching him leave the bar with Kelsey wasn’t a feeling with which I’m familiar.

And thinking of him being with her, or anyone else for that matter, is all I need to garner the courage to call him. Besides, he wouldn’t have given me his number if he didn’t intend for me to use it.

With shaking fingers, I pull up his number on my cellphone. Of course, it’s already been saved. It rings four times before the voicemail picks up. His deep voice greets me, prompting me to leave a message.

“Hey. It’s me, Gracie. I was just . . . uhh–” I stutter into the line, overcome by a sudden nervousness. “I . . . uh . . . just wanted to say hi.” After taking a deep breath, and pulling on my big-girls panties, I finally put together an intelligible thought. “I wanted to see if you were doing anything tonight. Give me a call back if you’re free.”

And with that, I hang up and silently curse myself and my nervous jitters. Figuring the best way to keep myself distracted is to finish cleaning my room, I get to the task at hand. I’d like to say I’m an organized person, but then I’d be lying. Add in the fact that the last semester of school, coupled with student teaching provided me with very little free time. And whatever time I did manage, I sure as hell wasn’t going to spend it on cleaning my room.

After the last of my laundry is put away, I start organizing the piles of books stacked in the corner. “Looks like I’ll need another bookshelf,” I say to myself, trying to squeeze yet another paperback onto the already filled shelves.

The buzzing of my phone startles me and forces me to drop the book in my hand. As I slide it out of my back pocket, I try my best to calm my racing thoughts. But when I see David’s name flash across the screen, my heart leaps into my throat.

“Hello?” I answer, my voice wavering with my all-over-the-place nerves.

“Hey,” he responds, almost breathless. “Sorry it took me so long to call back. I only just got your message.”

It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since I called him, so the fact that he’s apologizing for the delay is somewhat sweet to me. “That’s okay. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“No. Of course not. I’m at my parents’ house working on their new kitchen.” There’s rattling and banging going on in the background, echoing his words. “I’m trying to help out on the demolition, save them some money. You know?”

“That’s really nice of you.” Imagining his handsome, yet rugged face, warm over with a smile at my compliment makes me smile as well. Thinking of him all sweaty and worked up isn’t so bad either.