I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 27
Inside the apartment, Cole asked again whether Kaitlyn was okay. She set down her purse and faced him. Safety was no longer the question she needed answered.
If he truly cared, she said, he would have accompanied her from the beginning. Instead, he hid their connection until another man touched her. His protection always arrived after his fear had already hurt her.
Cole explained that privacy was meant to shield both of them. He had not found a way for them to be together without risking his position or destroying his bond with Ryan.
Kaitlyn seized on the phrase. Did he actually want them to be together? Cole looked almost incredulous that she still needed to ask.
He wondered whether she truly could not see how he felt. Every warning, every rescue, and every failed attempt at distance had been shaped by feelings he did not know how to name.
Kaitlyn reminded him that history did not grant perfect knowledge. They had known each other forever, but many parts of her would still surprise him. He could not keep making choices based on the child she had been.
Cole accepted the rebuke. If assumptions were the problem, they needed to replace them with truth. The night was still young, and the apartment held enough drinks for an honest conversation.
Kaitlyn proposed a game. Each would make an assumption about the other. A wrong answer required a drink.
Cole suspected the rules were designed to trap him. Kaitlyn smiled for the first time since the bar. He accepted anyway.
She added one final condition: every wrong answer also required removing one piece of clothing. Cole stared, unsure whether she was serious.
Kaitlyn asked if he was afraid. Pride and desire made refusal impossible. Cole said he had never been afraid of a challenge.
They carried drinks into the living room and sat facing each other. The setting was familiar, but the rules turned every glance into anticipation.
Kaitlyn went first. She assumed Cole had a crush on her when they were younger. The question carried the weight of the secret kiss on the backyard swing.
Cole said she was wrong. Back then, she had been a little kid he wanted to protect. Kaitlyn hid her disappointment behind the rules.
She asked what he saw now. Cole’s gaze traveled over the woman before him. She was not little anymore.
Because Kaitlyn’s assumption was wrong, she drank and removed a layer. The playful act made Cole’s confidence less reliable. He reminded himself the game was supposed to create honesty, not disaster.
Then it was his turn. He assumed Kaitlyn had been delighted to discover he was her teaching assistant. She laughed and declared him completely wrong.
The classroom had terrified her. Being forced to pretend they were strangers while everyone admired him was the opposite of delight. Cole ordered her to honor the penalty.
Kaitlyn challenged his certainty but drank and removed another item. Their conversation had barely begun, yet the physical barrier between them was disappearing faster than the emotional one.
Cole watched her reach for the next question. If the game continued, one of them would reveal far more than skin. Kaitlyn intended to discover whether his loyalty to Ryan would always matter more than his feelings for her.