Love with strings detached

Chapter 31

I brush my fingers through her thick brown hair as she rests her head on my torso, holding a tube of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other.

We've been binge-watching Emmas favourite movies for a couple of hours now and we still have a few more to go.

"Are you feeling any better?" I ask, digging my own spoon into the melting ice cream.

"I don't know, I'm trying to focus on the movies and I'm succeeding for a few minutes but then my thoughts go back to him," she says.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.

"I feel a bit ridiculous because we've only been together for three months," she says shrugging.

Emma and her ex weren't together for long or had anything too serious but still, Emma is a sensitive soul and she did like him a lot. Things just weren't going anywhere, they were very static in their relationship, there was no progression.

It was clear that it wasn't going to last long.

"It doesn't matter, you still liked the guy," I say, placing my hand from her hair on her shoulder.

"Whats some break up advice you'll give me?"

I think back to how I've dealt with my breakup with George and how I got over it because even though I wasn't in love with him at the time and I did the breaking up, it still hurt.

"Make notes whether on a diary or mentally of all the things that you didn't like about him and the things that didn't work in the relationship. Remind yourself that you broke up for a reason and what was the reason," I say, rubbing her shoulder.

"I didn't like how passive he was, I want someone that's passionate. I didn't like how lazy he was, I want someone more energetic. Someone that wants to hang out a lot more than this guy and someone that's more excited about hanging out with me," she says, listing all the things she can think of on top of her head.

"It's quite funny cause now thinking about all these things makes me question why I even stayed with him for so long," she says, mouth full of ice cream.

"When we're in a relationship we tend to overlook some things," I say, turning my head to the side looking outside the window.

"Aint that the truth," she says, scooping more ice cream.

"Well enough about him, what's going with you and Theo?" She asks, making me return my gaze to the back of her head.

"Why do you think something is going on between us?" I ask, eyebrows furrow slightly.

"You two started spending more time again together," she says, sitting up with her back on the headboard, looking at me.

I tuck the large thick sand colour blanket closer to me, playing with a few loose threats.

"We became friends with benefits as of recently," I reveal the truth to her.

"Omg! Shut up, really?" She yells with eyes wide and hand halted mid-air.

"Yeah, really," I say, wetting my bottom lip.

"Who offered you or him?" She asks, mouth agape.

"He offered, I took my time thinking about it and then I decided to take it," I say.

"I never thought of you as the type of person to be able to have this type of friendship with anyone, you're such a hopeless romantic," she says, putting the spoon back in the almost empty ice cream tube. 

"Yeah, I'm a romantic person but I still have sexual needs to take care of and Theo is a hot guy," I say smiling. 

"Daisy, do you see Theo only as a friend or do you see him as something more and that's why you agreed on this?" She asks, looking at me.