The Final Choice

16 (Colby's POV)

"This room is beautiful," Callie sighed, glancing at me. I smiled and shook my head, as I took in her appearance for the hundredth time. "Not as beautiful as you," I whispered, winking at her. 

"Stop," she replied, rolling her eyes. Her cheeks flushed slightly, letting me know that she kinda liked the compliment. I had thought I could deal with us being just friends, while she was here. The longer I was around her, the harder I was finding that to be. 

Everything she did, every look, every time she bit her bottom lip, every time she blushed, or sighed. It was all a hit straight to my gut. I just wanted to grab her and kiss her. Like really kiss her. 

That wasn't possible though, because we were just friends. 

She grabbed her phone, then started texting someone. Will's face flashed in my mind, but that was stupid, right? She wouldn't actually be talking to him anymore...only, I knew that she definitely would be. 

I watched her thumbs fly across the little screen of her phone, before I heard her stomach let out a fierce growl.

I chuckled lightly to myself, not wanting to embarrass her, since I saw the blush in her cheeks again, as she looked around the room to see if anyone had noticed.

"Sounds like you're hungry too," Kat laughed, sending her a friendly smile. She was lying down on the other bed, with her head on Sam's chest. 

"Yeah, I guess so," Callie giggled. "We haven't really eaten anything since early this morning. Denise said that she would only be a few more minutes and she's free until tonight. So, that gives us time to go out to eat and then maybe check out your place. I don't know if she wants me to to go to this mixer thing that her company is having tonight."

Callie's eyes met mine again, as thoughts raced through my mind. A mixer? A dance? That could be interesting. Seeing Callie all dressed up and getting to hold her in my arms again. I would definitely be down for that. I wondered if Denise could bring a few more guests to this thing. I'd have to find out. But wait...she said they would come over and check out our place. That was a great idea too!

"Yeah, that would great! We would love to have you guys over!" I replied, excitedly. She smiled and nodded at me. "If we have time, I'd really like that. I wanna see how you guys live. So, Katrina?"

She looked away from me and towards Kat. "Yeah, what's up?" Kat asked. "What's it like, living with these two? Are they messy? Do they drive you crazy?"

Really? She was really asking that? I poked her in the side for that one. She sucked in a breath, and shooed my hand away, grinning even harder at Katrina. 

"Oh! Well, that kinda depends on the day. Sam is mostly okay about cleaning up and picking up after himself. Colby...hmmm. He's annoying as fuck, but mostly keeps his mess in his own room. I think I've caught him cleaning and loading the dishwasher once. Pretty recently, in fact," Kat replied, sending me a wicked smile.

She was really going there. Sam wanted to laugh at me, but he held it in, only showing a wide grin. I felt the blush rise in my own cheeks, as I prayed that she wouldn't really rat me out. 

"Shut up," I replied, sternly, as I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're annoying. And I clean. Sometimes. If I don't feel like it, or it gets bad, then I'll call the cleaning service." Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Did it make me sound douchy? 

Callie had a slight smile on her full lips, as her eyes went from me to Kat, then back again. I could've just sat there and watched her, but Sam had to start teasing me too. 

"The cleaning service, dude? You do realize how messed up that is, right? You let things get so dirty, that you have to call a maid to clean it. Maybe we should have friends over more often. Then you would actually wash the dishes," he teased, with a glint in his eyes.