This is the first half of Chapter One. Contains spoilers if you haven’t read Next to Me, (the story of Nash and Callie).

JAKE
“You’ve gotta give up on this girl,” Nash says as he tosses his burger wrapper into the trash. “You’re starting to look desperate.” He takes a napkin from the stack and wipes his hands. “Actually you’ve been looking desperate for months. Now you’re starting to look pathetic.”

“I’m not here to see her.” I tighten the cap on my bottle of water and stand up. “I’m checking on the project.”

“It’s my project. You don’t need to be here.”

“I’m checking on the status.” I walk over to the glass partition that separates the office from the rest of the library. I spot Ivy in the children’s section, hovered over a square piece of wood that she’ll have turned into a masterpiece by the end of the week. She’s so damn talented. Best damn carpenter in the city. And freaking hot. Even from here, I can see her tight ass in those jeans and it gets me going.

“Jake.” I hear Nash behind me and turn around.

“What?”

He grins and leans back in his chair. “Did you hear anything I just said? Or were you too busy drooling over Ivy to notice?”

“Would you stop teasing him?” Callie walks in and over to Nash.

Callie is his girlfriend. They live together and are in love to the point that it gets annoying to be around them. They’re always touching and kissing, and they don’t care who’s watching. I’m happy for Nash. I just wish he’d tone down the PDA. I don’t need to see that. Or maybe I’m just jealous. I never keep a girl around long enough to get to that stage. The stage when you’re so in love you can’t help but show it off to the world. Let everyone know the girl is yours and yours alone.

I don’t have girlfriends. I sleep around. Play the field. I’ve been doing it since high school and I’ve loved every minute of it, but I have to admit, it’s starting to get old. I’m 23, and by now I should’ve had at least one girlfriend but instead I’ve had a random stream of girls come in and out of my life for a night, and that’s it. But that’s how I wanted it. I didn’t want a girlfriend. I didn’t want to be tied down.

“I have to give him shit,” Nash says, pulling Callie onto his lap. “That’s what brothers do.”

“You done with this?” I ask Callie. Her half-eaten burger is still on the table.

“Yeah, I’m done.”

I go to toss it out, but Nash lurches forward and grabs it. “You can’t throw that out.” He stuffs it in his mouth, still holding Callie on his lap.

She shakes her head. “Don’t you ever get full?”

“Nope.” He smiles and reaches around her for a napkin and wipes his mouth. “Can you grab my pop?”

Callie hands it to him and he takes a swig. He hands it back to her and she takes a swig for herself, then sets it down.

“I gotta go,” I say, checking my phone.

“You gonna at least say hello to her?” Nash asks.

I glance up from my phone. “For the last time, I didn’t come here to see Ivy. I’m here to check on the project. That’s it.”

Nash takes Callie’s hand, threading their fingers together. Their constant touching is so automatic, I don’t think he even knows he’s doing it. “You can get a status update over the phone.”

“I could, but then you wouldn’t get to see my smiling face.” I give him an overly wide grin as I take my coat off the chair.

“Don’t listen to Nash,” Callie says. “We like it when you stop by.”

“Especially when you bring us lunch,” Nash says. “Next time, bring extra and we’ll invite Ivy to eat with us.”

“Yeah, like that’s not obvious.” I roll my eyes.

“Dude, she knows you like her. You’ve already asked her out.”

“That was months ago. I’m sure she forgot about it. ”

“You asked her out more than once,” Nash says. “She didn’t forget about it. And she knows you stop by here all the time to see her.”

“Yeah? So? What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying she’s not interested. Either that or you’re not trying hard enough.”

“How the hell hard do I have to try? It’s a date. One date.”

Nash grins. “So you admit you still want to date her?”

I ignore him and check my phone again. There’s a text that just popped up from Tracy, a girl I met last night when I stopped for a beer after work with some of the guys from my construction crew.

“Looks like I already have a date,” I say, holding up my phone. “I’m going out with Tracy tonight.”

“Who’s Tracy?” Callie asks.

“Some girl I met at the bar last night. We talked a few minutes. She was with a group of her friends.”

“You know, if you’d stop doing these random hook-ups,” Nash says, “you might actually get a girlfriend.”

“I don’t need a girlfriend.” I put my phone in my pocket, then realize I forgot to text Tracy back. I’ll do it later.

“What exactly did you say to her?” Callie asks me.

“Who?”

“Ivy. When you asked her out, what did you say?”

“I don’t remember. I think I just said something about wanting to hang out sometime.”

“No wonder she didn’t agree to it.” Callie gets up and comes over to me. “First of all, the words ‘hang out’ imply that you consider her a friend, like one of the guys. That’s not date language.”

“That’s not true,” Nash says to her. “I asked you to hang out with me when we were dating.”

She turns to him. “We weren’t dating then. We were just friends when you said that.”

“But it worked. You let me hang out with you.”

“Only because I’d made it clear we weren’t dating so the ‘hang out’ term was appropriate in that situation. We were just two friends hanging out.”

“We did a lot more than hang out.” He smiles.

She smiles back. “Yeah, well, our situation was different.” She turns back to me. “Anyway, if you want this girl for more than just sex—wait, is that the only reason you want her? For sex? Because if so then—”

“No,” I say, but then wonder why I’m doing this. All my past relationships, if you can even call them that, have just been about sex. Nothing else. So what’s my plan with Ivy? Am I going to date her for real? “Go ahead,” I say to Callie since I interrupted her.

“I was just saying that if you really want this girl, you need to make it clear that you want to take her on a date. Be specific. Tell her you want to take her for dinner and then suggest a restaurant.”

“That seems too formal. I’d feel like a kid asking a girl to prom.”

“It’s not formal. It’s how you’re supposed to do it.”

“And that’s what Nash did?” I chuckle, because I know he didn’t.

She glances at Nash. “Well, no, but whatever.”

“Hey.” Nash gets up and stands behind Callie, wrapping his arms around her. “I made you dinner. That was better than taking you somewhere. And I brought you flowers I picked out of the weeds, and cheap wine from the gas station.”

She laughs and tilts her head up to him. “Yeah, you were so romantic.”

He leans down and kisses her.

I look away. “Are we done here? I need to go.”

Callie focuses on me again. “Just ask her to dinner. And be sure to mention the restaurant you want to take her to. That way it looks like you put thought into it. She’ll appreciate that.”

——

Want to read more? Give Us a Chance releases in March.