My best friend said “But we friends though”. Then she kissed me.

The Initiation

I bet my best friend I could make her fall in love with me in a month.

This bet is ridiculous and I’m going to win.

I know what you’re thinking. She fell in love with me. But really, how did I end up here? Let me rewind a bit because this whole situation needs some serious context.

Ava and I had been best friends for three whole years. That’s over a thousand days of shared coffee runs and late-night study sessions. We’d end up talking about everything except work.

We shared an ungodly amount of inside jokes. Everyone assumed we were dating, honestly. We’d get those knowing looks from friends.

They’d ask when we were finally going to get together. But we’d just laugh it off because the idea seemed absurd to both of us.

We were friends, best friends. That was the box we lived in.

Then one completely random Tuesday in October, everything changed. We were at the library. Eva was so focused on whatever she was working on that she didn’t even notice when I sat down.

Her eyebrows were scrunched together. She was mouthing words to herself as she typed.

And something just clicked in my brain. I wanted to watch her get lost in her work like that for the rest of my life.

I spent the next two weeks absolutely losing my mind.

Every time we hung out, I’d catch myself staring at her for too long. I’d read way too much into the casual way she’d touch my arm when she laughed.

Then one Friday night at her place, we were eating pizza when some sauce fell on her shirt. We laughed about how she eats like a child and she went to change.

My breath got caught when she came back wearing my hoodie. She’d stolen it months ago and refused to give it back. I liked seeing her wearing my clothes a little too much than I would have thought.

And suddenly, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know if there was ever a chance.

“Hey, so I’ve been thinking.”

My voice came out weird, and she looked up at me.

“We should go out to eat.”

Eva blinked a few times, processing my words.

“What do you mean?”

“We hang out all the time.”

“No, I mean like a date.”

“A real date where we dress up and go somewhere nice.”

She pulled at the strings of the hoodie, probably feeling wrong for wearing it now.

“Are you being serious right now?”

She asked, and I nodded. She was quiet for a second, then shook her head slowly.

“No.”

She said it so simply, like she was turning down a second slice of pizza.

“Aaron, I love you, but not like that.”

“You’re my best friend.”

“That’s all I see when I look at you.”

That stung more than I expected it to. I sat there processing what she’d just said.

She couldn’t see me that way because she’d never seen me try to be that person for her. The thought hit me like a truck.

Suddenly, I was talking before my brain could catch up.

“I bet I can make you fall in love with me in a month.”

She laughed out loud.

“What? Are you insane?”

But I kept going.

“One month.”

“Let me take you on dates and be romantic with you.”

“If you still feel nothing after 30 days, I’ll never bring it up again.”

She stared at me like I’d grown a second head. But I knew better. I could see her thinking it over, probably weighing how insane this whole thing was.

Then she smiled, her competitive smile.

“Fine, one month.”

“But when I win and nothing changes, you’re buying me sushi from that fancy place downtown.”

“Deal.”

“And when you lose and realize you’re crazy about me, you’re admitting I was right all along.”

We shook on it like idiots. And just like that, I had 30 days to make my best friend fall in love with me.

The next day, I went to her place with a bagel in hand. She opened the door in her pajamas and monkey slippers and her usual grumpy face.

Ava was usually moody after waking up. But she always felt better after getting some food in her.

“I got you breakfast so you can stop being angry,” I told her.

She didn’t laugh, just glared as she stepped away from the door to let me in.

“You got my usual, right?”

“You know, I hate it when you try to get me to try new stuff.”

“Yes, there was no way I was going to risk getting punched in the face so early in the day just because you got food disappointment.”

That got a small laugh out of her and a punch to my arm. I feigned like it hurt and asked if she secretly started going to the gym.

She rolled her eyes and took a bite of the bagel. It was like I could see her mood brightening up immediately after she swallowed.

“I can beat you up without ever stepping foot into a gym,” she smirked as if she was speaking the truth. I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me.

“Um, you clearly haven’t seen my muscles lately,” I said, and flexed my biceps in her face.

She stared at them in a way that made me self-conscious, as if she were checking me out. I froze where I stood.

Our conversation was flowing naturally despite all odds. But now it got weird because it looked like I was flirting with her.

I put my biceps away quickly and cleared my throat. Ava looked up at me and laughed.

“Don’t make this weird now.”

“You started it.”

I felt the blood rush to my head.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said, trying not to prove her right.

“Okay, so what’s the plan for today?”

She changed the topic. I furrowed my eyebrows. She quickly got the hint I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You do plan on taking me on a date, right?”

I smiled.

“And you say you’re not going to fall for me?”

I rolled my eyes.

“You’re literally begging me to take you out.”

She slapped me on the arm faster than I could move away from her terrifying man hands.

“I’m just trying to get free food here.”

“Who said I’m paying?”

Her jaw fell open while I stared at her dead serious.

“You’re kidding, right?”

She looked disgusted for a second before changing her face.

“You should have seen your face.”

I burst out laughing.

“Yes, I’m paying.”

“We’re going to go to an Italian restaurant.”

“You should probably change before we go, unless you want to have fine dining in your monkey slippers.”

We both looked at them and she wiggled her feet.

“Hm.”

She hummed.

“Do they have a dress code?”

“Nah, I think you can get away with it.”

“And if I can’t, you’ll bribe them to let me in, right?”

“Obviously, if you don’t come in with me, I’m going to look like I got stood up, and I don’t think the food is good enough for me to experience that kind of humiliation.”

“Then why are we going there?”

She raised an eyebrow. I knew she thought she was the funniest person on earth.

“So, you want me to be humiliated?”

“It would be funny,” she giggled. I swear time stopped for a second, letting me enjoy every second of her laugh.

Before I could say anything, she ran off yelling something about a shower.

I sat down on the couch and considered taking a nap. She was going to take hours to get ready. But the silence let me think about what just happened.

I honestly expected Eva to overthink to death and change her mind overnight because of how ridiculous she thought this was.

I could barely sleep last night thinking about her slamming the door in my face today. I imagined her telling me she never wanted to see me again because I was some sort of creep.

But I was glad that things didn’t turn out that way. I think she’s just more competitive than I give her credit for.

Ava came out of the shower 30 minutes later. She popped into the living room holding up a red and black dress.

“Which one looks better?”

She asked. It almost sounded like she was asking me which one I thought she looked prettier in.

And like a useless idiot, I almost said either of them worked. But Ava was as indecisive as they come.

So, I knew that answer would only result in a shoe getting thrown at me. It’s happened before.

“The red one, you light up in red.”

“It makes you impossible to look away from.”

She stared at the red dress for a long time. I wasn’t sure what was running through her mind.

Was it the fact I got a little too romantic and she’d never heard me speak that way to her before? Or was she wondering if she actually wanted to wear the red dress?

After a long moment of silence, she said, “I’ll take your word for it,” and shuffled to her room.

I gulped nervously. I wondered if I had messed up our friendship by letting my emotions take control of me.

She came back out an hour later wearing the dress, black heels, earrings, a necklace, and bracelets. I had never seen her so dressed up before, and definitely not for me.

I actually felt my heart wanting to jump out of my chest.

Me three weeks ago would have told her that she should change into the monkey slippers again. I would have made fun of her for trying too hard for a guy.

But I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to appreciate the effort she put in for me. I wanted her to know that I was serious about wanting her.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said.

Even I was shocked by how soft-spoken those words came out. They weren’t lustful, just honest and real.

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“Um, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

I cleared my throat and stood up. The energy in the room shifted. I desperately wanted to get it back to our normal.

“You’re going to love this place.”

“Trust me,” I said, holding the door open for her.

“Okay, I trust you.”

On the drive to the restaurant, we talked about her shift at the campus bookstore. She started ranting about this girl who tried to return a textbook she’d highlighted in neon yellow.

“Like the entire book,” she said, gesturing wildly. Every single page looked like a highlighter exploded on it.

“What did you do?”

From the corner of my eye, I could read her expression telling me, “You’re seriously asking me that?” I laughed.

“She had to pay full price, and she had the audacity to look at me like I was in the wrong.”

“Aaron, I swear she was seconds away from throwing her pumpkin spice latte in my face.”

“Was it at least cold?”

“No.”

“Oh, you were almost cooked.”

The restaurant had dim lighting and candles on every table.

I thought that it didn’t matter how romantic the place looked. We were still going to joke around like we were literally doing five minutes ago when I parked.

But the second we got seated, Ava shifted around uncomfortably in her seat. It was like it hit her at the last minute that we were on a date and not hanging out as friends.

I hated that I let the awkwardness get to me. Just for a second, I wondered if I would actually be able to win her heart.

I nearly choked when she grabbed her menu and held it up between us like it was some kind of safety barrier.

We were acting like complete strangers on a blind date. This was instead of people who’d spent three years together.

The waiter came by and we both ordered in these weird polite voices that didn’t sound like us at all.

After he left, I just looked at her and said, “Okay, this is stupid.”

“We can just be normal.”

Her whole body relaxed and she put the menu down.

“Oh, thank God.”

“I was trying so hard not to be weird that I made it 10 times weirder.”

I laughed.

“Yeah, I could tell.”

“You looked like you were meeting the queen or something.”

She gasped, offended.

“Well, you didn’t look much better.”

“I thought you were going to run away.”

“Never.”

Our food came and we ate in comfortable silence for a bit.

Then I tried to give her a compliment. Something about how the candlelight made her eyes look nice. She stopped mid-bite and stared at me.

“Did you just compliment my eyes?”

I asked.

“What was wrong with that?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing.”

“It’s just you never say stuff like that.”

“It sounds wrong coming from you.”

I asked her if she wanted me to stop and she thought about it.

“No, keep going.”

“I need to see how far you’ll take this.”

She was smiling though, like she was enjoying watching me try.