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“This is stupid,” Brienne mumbled as she watched Jaime pull a slip of paper out of the basket on their professor’s desk.
“I don’t know, it could be fun. I love romance novels.” Sansa sighed happily behind her.
“They are so unrealistic. That’s probably what Jaime and I will do our presentation about.” Brienne rolled her eyes when Jaime gave her a big grin and a thumbs up when he read the paper before trying to work his way around the line of other students waiting their turn to pick to get back to her.
It was their senior year of college, and their lit selections were slim this semester, so they ended up in genre fiction. Brienne had enjoyed the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror portions of the class. But now they were on romance.
Ever since her nanny, Roelle, had caught her with a steamy romance novel when she was 12 and subjected her to a three-hour lecture about how those books were indecent, unrealistic and gave girls like her silly expectations of men – she had steered clear of them.
Her best friend, Jaime, however, had practically skipped his way to class today because it was romance day. She had no idea why, as she had never seen him even touch a bodice ripper.
“We got bed sharing!” Jaime happily shoved the paper in her face. “This is going to be awesome.”
Brienne groaned. What a silly trope. Their professor told each group of two to pick a romance novel trope out of the basket and do a presentation on it at next week’s class. “Great, we can talk about how silly it is that characters fall asleep with a pillow mountain in between them and always end up snuggling in the morning.”
Jaime laughed. “And how there is always only one bed. Always.”
She grinned at him, glad that they were on the same page. “Yeah, so unrealistic, right?”
He cocked his head at her. “Now wait a minute, there, wench. We don’t know that for sure.”
Brienne huffed. “Two people who have unspoken feelings for each other have to share a bed and then suddenly they are snuggly and there are romantic confessions? Would never happen in real life.”
Jaime arched an eyebrow at that. “Oh really? What happens in real life, then, if you’re such an expert.”
“I don’t know, someone snores and there is probably bodily injury when someone gets elbowed in the middle of the night.”
Jaime laid a hand over his heart. “Brienne Tarth. That sounds so romantic.”
“Exactly. Sharing a bed is not romantic at all.”
Jaime was quiet for a moment, studying the piece of paper after he took it back from her. “Let’s test it then.”
“What?”
“It’s a great idea for our project. We are a pair of male and female friends. Let’s share a bed for one night and write our report about what happens.”
“That’s so silly. Nothing will happen. There will be nothing to put in our report.”
Jaime grinned. “Well, then you can rant for at least five minutes about how much I snore and how unrealistic it all is.”
“No, Jaime.”
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid you’re going to end up snuggling me?”
“Of course not!”
He shrugged. “You’re not harboring any unspoken feelings for me.”
Brienne’s heart pounded so loudly in her chest, she wondered if the rest of the class could hear it. Lie, she told herself, lie like your life depends on it.
“Um, no.”
Brienne could have sworn that she saw Jaime’s smile dip a little, but she convinced herself that she was just imagining things.
“Well, then, what do you have to be afraid of. Your dorm room or mine?”
She sighed, seeing that there was no use arguing with him. “Fine, yours, because you have the high-end cable.”
“I don’t think watching TV helps the experiment, unless you want to watch porn to get in the mood.”
He laughed, even though she knew she punched his arm hard enough to leave a mark.
**
Four hours later, she knocked on his door. They always usually just walked into each other’s rooms, but she was jittery. Why had she anguished over what pajamas to pack? Brienne had hung out with Jaime in her PJs before, but now suddenly all her sleep shorts seemed too short or on the flip side, her sweats and t-shirts seemed to bulky and mannish.
Knowing that all the high-end electronics in Jaime’s room tended to make the temperature warm, she reluctantly went with the shorts and tank top option.
She regretted her decision, promptly turning beet red when Jaime opened the door to his dorm room and his eyes dropped right to her legs.
“Hi wench,” he said after clearing his throat. “I see you came prepared with the pajamas AND notebook. Very studious of you.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved past him, trying to ignore the fact that he was not wearing a shirt. He really was going for his authentic sleeping experience.
“Are you tired, or do you want to watch some TV first?” Jaime waggled his eyebrows when he said it, reminding her of just what kind of entertainment he had suggested earlier.
“I had to get up early this morning to cram before a test, so I’m kind of sleepy.”
They both sat down on his bed. She had sat here many times before, beating Jaime in video games, watching TV and even studying. Why did the bed seem so small with the two of them in it now?
Her bare shoulder bumped up against Jaime’s and she scooted away from him as if burned. Jaime cleared his throat again.
“Do you need a lozenge?”
“What?”
Brienne pointed to his throat. “You keep making that clearing sound and I was wondering if you were getting sick. We have exams coming up.”
Jaime made the noise again. “No, I’m fine.”
“Really because you just did it again.”
Jaime’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. He opened a trunk at the end of his bed and started pulling out extra pillows.
“I borrowed a bunch this afternoon from people who had some to spare, so we could build our divider, just like in the romance novels. Do you want the wall side of the bed or the outside?”
Brienne thought about it for a moment. Too close to the wall and she might get claustrophobic. And she didn’t like the idea of having to climb over Jaime’s naked chest on her way to the bathroom if it was needed. A girl could only take so much.
“I’ll take the outside.”
He nodded, and she waited for him to climb in and build the pillow separation between them.
“This really doesn’t give us a lot of room, we need to put that in our report. Pillow walls, while made from something comfortable, do the exact opposite.”
Brienne chuckled at his words. “Goodnight, Jaime.”
“Goodnight, Brienne. Try not to fall in love with me while we are sharing this bed,” he teased.
Oh, if he only knew that it was too late for that warning.
His hand reached out to squeeze hers, and it startled Brienne so badly that she rolled over quickly…right off the bed. She landed with a thud.
“Gods, Brienne! Are you alright?”
“Remember that bruised elbow thing I was talking about earlier? Yeah, I’ve bruised a lot more than that.”
Jaime scrambled out of bed to turn on the light and help her up. “You don’t have enough room.”
“I’m fine. This will be fine.”
He shook his head. “Nope, this pillow wall is ridiculous.” He started pulling them off. Brienne’s mind scrambled. What was she going to do? Without that pillow wall, would her body act of its own accord and reach for Jaime while sleeping.
He COULD NOT know how she felt about him. He would only laugh at her and their friendship would be ruined.
“I think we should keep the pillows, you know, for the integrity of the experiment.”
Jaime lifted his eyes quickly to her face, and after a moment a big grin erupted. Brienne wondered what he had read there. Surely, she had schooled her thoughts. She had years of practice.
“Perhaps the lack of pillow wall will only enhance the experiment. Can you keep your hands off of me without their protection?”
Brienne grabbed a pillow off the floor and threw it at him. “Shut up Jaime.”
He laughed as he crawled into bed. “Turn of the light, will you, wench?”
She begrudgingly did and climbed onto her side. Keeping as far away from him as possible. She gripped the sheets with all her might, so willing herself to not roll over and grab him while she slept.
“Don’t fall off again,” he teased. She didn’t respond, and soon Brienne heard his soft snores overtake him.
Brienne didn’t think she would fall asleep at all that night, with all the tension coiled in her body. But mercifully, her eyes began to droop.
She was still gripping the bed sheet when she woke up the next morning, and Brienne was relieved to realize her plan to not snuggle Jaime in the middle of the night had worked.
Jaime must not have had a similar plan, however, because he was currently draped all over her. Brienne tried not to shiver as his hot breath tickled her neck. As his naked chest pressed against her back, and his leg had wrapped itself over her hip. His hand rested softly on her belly.
Surely, Jaime must have been dreaming of someone else and clung to the nearest warm body. How could she extricate herself without waking him up and embarrassing them both? After about 10 minutes of careful wiggling and shimmying (and once when he groaned and whispered her name – she didn’t know what that was about), she managed to get free, grab her stuff and sneak out the door.
When she was in the shower – a cold one to help wipe away the memories of the not-so-platonic way her body reacted to being held by her best friend – when she saw her phone start to light up with a text message, then another.
When Brienne stepped out of the shower, she saw they were from Jaime, wondering where she had gone. A rush of heat filled her again when she thought of him lying shirtless in bed, texting her. His hair was probably ruffled. She sighed and decided to get back in the cold shower.
Brienne thought it would be best to avoid Jaime for a few days because she did not trust herself to keep her feelings inside anymore. Why had she agreed to that stupid experiment?
He texted her and tried to call her every day, worried that something was wrong. She assured him that she was fine, just busy with midterms. Brienne knew that Jaime didn’t believe her, but was glad that he didn’t press the matter further.
The day before their presentation for the lit class, he texted and asked if they should get together to work out what they would say.
“I’ll talk for three minutes about how unrealistic the trope is and then you can do what you do best – take the last three minutes to argue against what I just said. See, we’ve got it!” Brienne sent the message via text, hoping that it would work, and she wouldn’t have to face him today. She wasn’t ready.
“Fine.” His response was short and to the point. She cringed that it contained none of the snarky teasing that usually came from Jaime. He was probably pissed that she was avoiding him. Brienne knew that she would have to come up with a better excuse than just working on midterms.
The next day in class, Jaime did not even greet her, instead plopping down in a different row than where they usually sat. He didn’t even look her in the eye when their names were called to give their presentation.
Nervous to be in the front of the class, Brienne stammered her way through an argument about how tropes were unrealistic. She talked about the night she and Jaime spent together (leaving out the morning snuggles, of course) and how it had not ended in a love confession.
“And now, my partner Jaime will give the counterargument.”
Jaime glared at her as he walked up to the podium. He really pissed at her, and she wracked her brain to find a way to make up for avoiding him all week.
“Brienne is incorrect, I will not be giving a counterargument to her statement that the bed-sharing trope is unrealistic.
Brienne’s mouth dropped open as she turned to him.
“I thought the bed-sharing trope would work in real life. I suggested that the person I love but was too afraid to tell share the night in a bed with me, convinced she felt the same way. I did everything right. I even got rid of the pillow wall. I snuggled her in the night. And what happened? Rather than love declarations, I woke up to an empty bed and a missing best friend.”
Brienne forced herself to breathe. She froze as the entirety of the class turned to look at her. Jaime turned to her too. His eyes were no longer shooting daggers, something else was reflected in them…panic?
“And now it seems that not only did I not get the relationship I wanted, but I also lost the relationship I had because that best friend won’t even talk to me anymore.”
Brienne closed her eyes, unable to process what was going on. “Jaime…” she said in a whisper.
“Can you forget it Brienne? Will you forgive me for trying to move us in a direction that you didn’t want? I miss you. Can you forget that I pulled you into my arms?”
The earnestness in his voice broke the barrier she had on her tear ducts, and Brienne felt moisture trickle down her cheeks. “No,” she said firmly, wiping away her tears.
“No? You can’t forgive me?”
Jaime’s shoulders slumped and he hung his head.
“No. I mean no, I won’t forget what it felt like to be held in your arms. I can’t forget.”
Jaime took a step forward. “Wait…are you saying?”
She nodded. “You were right, I do have feelings for you too.”
Brienne heard Sansa happily sigh from the back of the room, and was suddenly aware that they had an audience. She started to back away from Jaime, ready to flee the room when she got to the door. Jaime grabbed her hand.
“Why did you run?”
“I thought you would wake up and realize that you thought I was someone else that you had been dreaming about. I didn’t want you to be embarrassed.”
Jaime closed his eyes, and she could hear him whispering – counting to ten – something he did when someone was annoying him.
“Oh, my stupid wench. It’s you, it’s always been you.” And then he kissed her. Brienne quickly got over the shock of his lips pressed against hers, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
The class erupted into applause.
“Well, I have to say this is one of the most…unique…presentations I’ve ever seen for this class,” Professor Varys said when the cheering calmed down. “Congratulations, you both get an A.”
Jaime just grinned and kissed her again.
“Um, you guys can stop kissing now,” the professor said, but they just ignored him. They also ignored when the class ended, and all the other students filed out.
When the lights in the room turned off, Brienne finally pulled away from Jaime’s lips in surprised. She blushed when she realized what happened.
“Hey, wench, how about we try out that bed sharing trope again? For science.”
She laughed. “But Jaime, I think the data will be skewed since we are already together.”
“Hmmmm…. Then perhaps we should add another variable just to keep it interesting. How about we try it naked this time.”
Brienne rolled her eyes at him but didn’t argue when he pulled her quickly toward his dorm.