Yes

“Oh come on,” you try to sound cheerful, “you’ve never not wanted to tell me about one of your crushes before.”

It’s the truth, although you conveniently left out the fact that during the last few years at least, you’ve never been particularly anxious to hear about it.

“It’s not a crush,” Melody informs you, “and just no.”

“Come on,” you insist, conscious of the fact that you’re coming dangerously close to pushing her too hard.

“You really want to know?” Melody has sat herself back up again and glances over at you as she adjusts the blanket which is wrapped around her.

“I promise I won’t laugh.” You try to sound a bit more sincere.

“You won’t.” Melody promises, rather cryptically.

“Remember when Gia broke up with you?” Melody begins, and you wonder how you could forget it. “You know how I spent a lot of time with you then?”

You remember that as well, particularly how you were never able to decide whether it was incredibly sweet of Melody to look after you like that and trying to ensure that you would keep your nose above the surface or incredibly frustrating to have her so close to you for so long when you were in such a state.

“Well, it made me start to wonder why I was dating Keith to begin with.” Melody reveals. Great, so it was taking care of you that caused Melody to drift apart from Keith, giving some other lucky bastard the chance to come in and sweep her off her feet before leaving you to pick up the pieces once he’s broken her heart.

“But then the months went by without you telling me why Keith was wrong for me.”

“Well, I did.” You object.

“No, you didn’t. You told me why I shouldn’t be with Keith, not who I should be with instead.” Melody explains, making you feel as though there’s some part of the female logic which you’ll never understand.

“Look, could you turn that off?” Melody nods at the TV, and you comply with her wishes by reaching for the remote, prematurely ending the first sappy love scene between Joshie and Skinny.

“You know when I was looking after you after that whole Gia disaster?” Melody seems to be trying a new tactic, and you wonder why you keep coming up in her explanation. “How you told me how happy you were that there was no attraction between us and we were just friends?”

Well, you did say that. Although in your defence, you mainly said it because you thought it was how she felt and you didn’t want to scare her or anything. Now, for whatever reason, you’re beginning to suspect that that was a mistake.

“Uh… yeah.”

“Well, that really hurt me, and at first I couldn’t figure out why.” Melody reveals, causing you to experience a moment or two of irregular heartbeat.

“What are you saying?” You think that you could probably sound less like a fool if you tried to, but you’re not so sure that you could sound any more like it without some heroic, grade A stupidity.

“Look, I didn’t go out tonight considering breaking up with Keith, I’d already made my mind up that I would.” You’re not sure what you should make of Melody’s revelation, doubly more so when she adds “And I sure as hell didn’t dress up like that for his sake.”

“And I didn’t cry because of his betrayal either.” Melody is spitting out the words so fast now that you couldn’t get a word in even if you could think of anything to say. “Rushing back here, the only thing going through my mind was the fact that you’d find out about what he’d done, and you’d try to be as good a friend to me as possible.”

“I put that skirt and that shirt and a thong and a bra on for you, hoping that I could surprise you by showing up early and telling you about how I broke up with Keith and then maybe make you stop looking at me like I was your sister just this once.”

Well actually, the way you’ve been looking at Melody doesn’t really match how a brother would view his sister, not unless he was one of those people who saw Deliverance as a documentary on his way of life, but now’s probably not the best time to mention that.

“I was going to make you change your mind about me tonight, but instead I show up here knowing that it’ll be months before I can make a move on you without you thinking that I just want somebody who’s breathing to get over Keith, and at that point you’ll probably have met somebody else and it’s all shit and…”

Melody’s voice drops to become so weak that it’s barely even a whisper when she adds “And I love you.”

Glancing at Melody, you remember what she looked like when she came through the front door. Despite the fact that she was soaking wet then and looked like she had been crying, the expression which she’s sporting now is far worse than that.