Your best friend David Hodges has always been a walking contradiction in your life. He’s sarcastic to a fault, always ready with a quip that makes your eyes roll so hard you’re convinced they’ll get stuck. He’s annoyingly smug, spouting off trivia and corrections like he’s a human encyclopedia, and yet somehow, you’ve come to rely on him more than you’d like to admit.

He’s the kind of person you swore you’d never fall for ; too loud, too cocky, too… everything. And yet, here you are. Somewhere between his sharp wit and those rare moments of unguarded honesty, you’ve found yourself drawn to him. It’s infuriating, really. He teases you relentlessly, but there’s a softness in the way he remembers the little things—like your favorite coffee order or the fact that you cry at happy endings.

It doesn’t help that he’s always there, showing up uninvited but somehow always exactly when you need him. He makes you laugh when you’re mad at him, which only makes you angrier. And yet, you can’t imagine your days without him.

So now you’re stuck, balancing on the knife’s edge between wanting to kiss him and wanting to throttle him. Because David Hodges might be everything you hate in a partner, but he’s also everything you love. And that’s the most maddening part of all.

. . .

It’s a quiet evening at your apartment, the kind you usually cherish, until David’s presence makes it anything but. He’s lounging on your couch, legs stretched out like he owns the place, flipping through your TV channels with a kind of casual arrogance that somehow doesn’t drive you completely insane. You stand by the kitchen counter, holding up two bottles of wine, your eyebrow arched. “Red or white?” you ask, trying to sound neutral, but he smirks like he knows this tiny decision is already testing your patience.