The second period ended, and as everyone started to pile out to take a break, she figured it was the perfect time to ask him about Austin. She leaned over and nudged his elbow. “So, how long are going to avoid my question?”

He smiled, his eyes remaining directed toward the ice below them. “As long as you were going to let me by with it.”

“Well, you’ll have to forgive my curiosity. It’s just you and Austin never fight about anything. What’s going on?”

Sighing, he leaned back in his seat. “Austin asked if I wanted to go out last week, and I might have suggested we just go home instead. Now, he’s giving me grief about it every time I turn around.”

“Why? And don’t give me some bullshit excuse. I want the truth.”

The look on his face totally said he wanted to give her a bullshit excuse.

“Austin has this crazy idea that I don’t want to go out because—” He paused, not willing to finish his statement, but she already knew what he would say.

“Because of me?” She watched his reaction, and it was clear in the way he avoided eye contact that she hit the nail on the head. “You’re not going out because of me.”

She mulled that idea over for a second, and the more she thought about it, the more it scared her. They were just supposed to be friends, nothing more, not anything that would only end up complicating her life more.

“I’m going to the restroom,” she blurted out.

Run. Escape. It was always her natural instinct.

Henrik whirled around her, though, and blocked her exit. “Leila, wait. You said you wanted to talk about it, so let’s talk. Don’t leave every time things get tough.”

She stood up a little straighter, her shoulders pulled back. “Henrik, I know you haven’t been out lately, and you haven’t had any girls over since that night I showed up here. I just—” she paused, taking in a calming breath “—you don’t have to deprive yourself for my benefit.”

“I’m not depriving myself,” he bit out, trying to keep his voice down.

“Look, this morning—”

“Do you think that’s what I was doing this morning? Depriving myself and then coming over and hitting on you?”

She stood her ground, though she dropped her voice too. “So, you’ve had sex since that girl I passed getting off the elevator?”

Now she was the one avoiding eye contact. She didn’t want to know. She couldn’t continue to lie to herself if he answered. She would no longer be able to ignore the obvious, which was that he was Henrik.

His finger touched the tip of her chin and tilted it up. “First of all, I didn’t sleep with that girl,” he offered. “I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

She barely even heard the words. It couldn’t be true. Nothing he said could actually be true.

“Like I said—you don’t have to do that for my benefit,” she replied, making a poor attempt to be casual.

His hand clenched at his side. “Damn it, Leila. I’m sorry for touching you this morning. I’m attracted to you. I’m pretty sure we both know that by now, and I’m not used to being a gentleman about it. I sincerely apologize. It was my mistake.”

She averted her eyes. It was all a mistake. Their night together. Their so-called friendship. It wasn’t supposed to happen.

“I need a learning curve here,” he pleaded. “Don’t push me away.”

“I have to,” she bit out, the tears already glossing her eyes as she finally turned around to face him. “You’re better off just spending your time with someone else.”

Her voice broke before she finished. She glanced away, but she knew he already caught the sight of tears. When she couldn’t hold it back anymore, she rushed out of the room, her hand covering her mouth.

She made it all the way downstairs and out the main entrance before she stopped. She ran head first into a crowd of people, backing up until she felt the hard concrete of the building at her back. Then she sank to the ground and curled her arms around her legs.

None of this could be real.

In real life, Henrik didn’t act like that. He wasn’t considerate and attentive. Henrik had sex with girls, and he flaunted it in her face. She was supposed to hate him.

She didn’t hate him. She was so far from hating him that she hated herself.

“Leila.”

She looked up, tears blurring her vision. He stood above her, his hands shoved in the pockets of his dress pants. She snuffled, wiping the tears out of her eyes. He sat down next to her, sliding down the wall until their hips connected. No one spoke. They sat there, pretending to watch the people walk by, listening to the high screeching of cab horns.

When she finally found enough courage to look over at him, he kept his eyes locked on the traffic in front of them. “Just so you know I like spending my nights at home.” He finally glanced over at her and smiled. His new, sweet Henrik smile. “And it has nothing to do with you.”

She quirked a smile back. It was faint, but it was there. He was a horrible liar.

“All right, so maybe it has forty percent to do with you, but the other sixty is me.” He leaned in toward her. “I’m tired of not getting any respect because of the way I live my life. I’m trying…to figure out what makes me happy.”

“You weren’t happy before?”

“I just know I’m happier now. Plus, the trade rumors have stopped, and my coach hasn’t given me a life lecture in about a month. I want to keep it that way.”

She nodded, because she didn’t know what else to do. He wiped away the remainder of her tears with the edge of his sleeve. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this Henrik yet. “I said we could be friends, and I meant that.”

He looked down his nose at her. “Why do I feel like there is a ‘but’ coming after that?”

“If you want to spend your free time at home, because that’s what you want to do, that’s fine. I just don’t want you to bail out on Austin, because you think that’s what I want. If you want to go out this week while you’re on the road, then that’s what you should do.”

She had never heard herself say something so unconvincingly in her life. However, she knew she had to make sure this new Henrik 2.0 was real and he was doing these things for himself. Not because he thought it was what she wanted from him.

He pursed his lips, clearly unsatisfied.

“It’s my only stipulation,” she added, “to trying this whole friends thing out with you.”

“Is there an agreement form I need to sign?”

“No,” she said weakly, preparing herself for what she would say next. “I just don’t want to know about it. You know, you’re not depriving yourself.”

“That’s two stipulations,” he pointed out. “Are you sure we don’t need to write all these down? Get lawyers involved?”

She made a face at him. He smiled again. “There isn’t going to be anything to tell, but fine. Hook-up stories are officially off the table.”

“Okay.” She nodded as if she were trying to convince herself, and that was probably right.

He elbowed her, and when she looked up, he was still smiling. “Let’s go get nachos,” he said casually.

“Nachos?”

“Yeah, nachos are awesome. Austin has been making me eat asparagus and beets for a week. I really want some fucking cheese in my life.”

He was changing the subject. Just like Drew. Just like a friend would do.

Leila finally laughed, and the uncertainty and fear slowly started to drift away. Maybe this friendship thing could actually work with Henrik. “You realize Austin’s been sneaking over and stealing Oreos from me all week, right?”

“What?”

Damn. Even annoyed, he was cute.

Friends were allowed to be cute. Cute was safe.

“He has an entire secret stash of food in his gym bag too,” she told him, trying to keep her thoughts focused.

Henrik stood up, dusted off his pants, and held his hand out to her. “Oh, we are so eating nachos right now. And Twizzlers. Do you know how much I miss eating Twizzlers?”