by Danica Flynn
“That’s it! It’s really not that hard. Just give her what she wants.” She took a sip of her beer again.
“That can’t be it,” TJ scoffed.
She sighed at him. “Or just go read a romance book and figure it out yourself.”
“A romance book?” Hallsy asked. He stroked his dark-skinned hand across his clean-shaven face as if in thought. His dark brown eyes twinkled with mirth at the thought.
Mia and Dinah shared a look. “Yes, because women always get what they want in romance books,” Dinah explained.
“And what’s that?” Hallsy asked.
“For you to touch her clit or eat her out!” Dinah exclaimed with another laugh.
TJ roared with laughter. He pointed at her. “Come on, you up for beer pong? Riley wants a rematch.”
She shook her head. “Nah. You know I’m bad at it.”
TJ grinned at her. “That’s why I wanted you to play on Riley’s team.”
She laughed some more. “It’s not like he isn’t going to team up with Benny. Man, their bromance is ridiculous.”
Hallsy had his arm around Mia, but he nodded to TJ. “We’ll play.” Hallsy and TJ shared a look, and Mia smiled at me. Oh no, I think they were all making an excuse to go back into the other room with the rest of the party to leave me alone with her. Seeing her here now, I wasn’t sure I could make the move.
They all filtered out of the room and Mia gave me a thumbs up. I internally groaned, was I so obvious to everyone? Except to the person who mattered?
I moved closer to Dinah, but she was staring into space now. I called this her “story plotting” face, and I had a feeling that was what she was calculating in her head right now. Her talent to pull characters and stories from out of her imagination always astounded me. Riley said he had a friend from back home in St. Paul, who was also a writer, and he asked her once how she came up with it. She had just shrugged and said, “It’s a gift.” I knew it was the same thing for the small woman in front of me, who was spacing out and not paying attention to the heated gaze I was throwing at her.
“Hey,” I nudged her with my shoulder. “You finish it yet?”
She pulled away from whatever dreamlike state she had been in and looked up at me with a smile and twinkle in her green eyes. “Yeah...but I don’t think it’s ready yet. I think I have a plot hole.”
I put a hand on her leg and squeezed her knee. She giggled, I knew she was ticklish there. God her laugh was like music to my ears. “Can I read it?” I begged.
She shook her head. “It’s a kissing book!”
I laughed and pushed my hair behind my ear again. “So? I read your first book, I liked it.”
She gave me a quizzical look. “Really? You did?” she asked in a small voice.
I had definitely told her this already, but maybe she didn’t believe me the first time.
My hand roamed up her thigh, resting on her waist while my thumb absent-mindedly stroked across her hipbone. She had to know I was trying to make a move, but she wasn’t trying to stop me.
Why wasn’t she trying to stop me?
“Yeah, it was really good. You really know how to write a good love story,” I complimented her and it wasn’t a lie.
She put her hands over her face and looked at me in-between her fingers, but didn’t try to move my hand away. I kind of wondered if she noticed it at all. I moved so I was standing directly in front of her now, my legs squeezing in-between her spread thighs. I just wanted to scoop her up in my arms and take her to my bedroom, but I never would have done that without her consent. I wanted her to want me. I wanted to see her tipping back her head and moaning my name in pleasure, but I wanted it to happen because she wanted it to happen. Because she wanted me.
“You really liked it?” she asked again and pulled her hands away from her face.
I grinned at her. “Yes! Is this one about the best friend in the first one?”
She nodded. “He’s the love interest in this one, it’s about another girl.” She stared up at me for a moment and then she sat up straighter. “Oh my god!”
“What?” I asked.
She pushed me away and hopped down from off the counter. “I figured it out! I need to go fix something.”
“You just got here,” I whined.
She frowned. “Sorry, I’m chained to the muse! Give me like an hour and I’ll be back. Or just come over and get me. Okay?”
I smiled and nodded. I hunched down to hug her again and then she was off. I chugged the rest of my beer. I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to make a move on her. God, I wanted her to see me as an object of her desire, but she was always going to see me as just a friend. I didn’t believe in that crap about the Friend Zone. I mean, yeah I guess it existed, but women didn’t owe you anything just because you were nice to them.
When I looked up, TJ was standing in the kitchen. He had a frown on his face. “Dude, did you just blow it?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”
TJ groaned at me. “You’re hopeless! I love you man, but you either ask her out or you move on. I know something happened between you two already.”
Oh.
No.
After Dinah’s husband died, she was a wreck, and I tried to be a shoulder for her to cry on. I tried to be there for her as a friend. Then one night I came home early, while TJ went home with some girl he met at the bar, and I found her in the stairwell passed out. I ended up taking her to the hospital. I missed practice the next morning, because making sure my friend was okay when she needed me was more important than playing some game. I ended up getting benched a couple games, but I never told anyone what happened.
I had held her in my arms that night and let her cry onto my t-shirt over the baby she had lost. My heart snapped in half for all the bad luck she had to endure that year. I’ve never known the loss of a partner or a child, but I do know how my heart wrenched in my chest when I saw the pain and anguish etched across the face of my friend.
Riley and Benny walked into the kitchen with grins on their faces. “Was that the girl that you got benched a few games for?” Benny asked with a huge grin across his face.
“You’re still not hitting it?” Riley asked. He ran a hand through his blonde hair in frustration.
TJ laughed and pulled out a bottle of vodka to pour us shots. I glared at Riley. I didn’t like him talking about her like that. Like she was some conquest and not a person with thoughts and feelings of her own. None of those jerks deserved her, and none of them understood that woman like I did.
“It wasn’t like that,” I said through gritted teeth, balling my hands into fists.
Benny’s grin faltered when he saw my expression. His dark brown eyes bored into me with a question, but I wasn’t biting.
“Then what happened? Why did you miss that practice?” TJ asked.
“Did she tell you?” I asked.
He shrugged. “She just said that you helped her with something.”
He handed me a shot glass and the four of us knocked one back together. “Then, it’s not my secret to tell.”
Riley asked me cautiously, “So you won’t care if I ask her out?”
I nearly choked on air. “What?”
TJ pointed at me. “If you don’t make a move on her soon, Riley’s gonna ask her out.”
I poured myself another shot and clinked glasses with Benny who had gotten awfully quiet. He gave me a small sad smile of pity. I guess Benny knew all about unrequited love. He was practically in love with TJ’s sister. Too bad she hated his guts.
3
DINAH
Noah was going to kiss me. Noah, my cute neighbor, had been trying to put the moves on me. Maybe he was just drunk. He was kind of cuddly when he was drunk. There have been a couple times when we have gotten loaded at his place and he ended up with his arm around me, clutching me to his side. I had never minded or protested, because it felt good to be held by Noah, even if it was just as friends. I sat there sitting
on top of his kitchen counter while his hand slid up my thigh. Of course then I figured out what I needed to change in my book. Thanks, Muse, for being such a cockblock. I’ve been burned in the past by The Muse, so I knew I couldn’t let it go and I had to go back to writing or I’d lose it for good.
I sat down at my keyboard, and my fingers flew across the keys as the words poured out of my head. I finally felt good about this book, like all the words were clicking together in my head. Satisfied, I sent it over to my editor and closed my laptop. I finished the beer Noah had given me and started on another one from my own supply when I heard the knock on my door.
I glanced at the clock, it was already midnight, maybe I should have gone to sleep, but I wanted to look Noah in the eyes again and see if what I saw next-door was true. That he wanted me. That he saw me as more than just a friend.
“Come in,” I called.
He opened the door, the top of his large frame nearly hitting the doorway. He pointedly locked my front door and glared at me. “You really should lock your door.”
I shrugged and walked into my living room to hand him a cold beer. He took it from my hands and I said, “I knew it was you.”
He shook his head at me, cracked open the beer, and took a sip. “I just worry.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, honey, I’m a big girl.”
I slunk down on my couch and he joined me, lifting my feet up and letting me rest them across his lap. We always felt comfortable with each other, but the way he was looking at me made my breath hitch in my throat. Had he always looked at me that way? Or was I just imagining it?
I cleared my throat. “Hey! You never told me about your date with Ashley!”
He groaned and took a huge chug of beer.
I laughed. “Oh, honey!”
He ran a hand through his longish brown hair and gave me a grimace.
“Was it that bad?” I asked.
“I felt like she just saw dollar signs in my eyes when she looked at me,” he confessed with a sigh.
“Aw, Noah. I’m sorry!”
And I really was. It was no secret that Noah made lot of money. Hell, I only lived in this fancy condo because Jason had a trust fund from his grandmother that we found out about when she died. If the condo wasn’t paid for already, I probably wouldn’t have lived here. Some people lived to chase the fame and fortune that came with pro-athletes. Noah was a sensitive guy and I knew it got to him that a lot of girls he went out with didn’t really “see” him for who he was. The ones who did, ended up not being able to handle having a boyfriend who was on the road for most of the year.
He smiled at me and it went to his eyes making his blue eyes twinkle. I looked down and drank some more of my beer. I shouldn’t have been thinking about Noah like this. Then again, earlier, when his hand had been roaming up my leg, it felt like tiny fires were licking across my skin. It had left me anticipating for more and wondering if his hands would dare wander elsewhere. Like the juncture of my thighs, and maybe his tongue would wander there too.
“Why are you blushing?” he asked amused.
“Nothing! What? I’m not blushing! It’s the beer.”
He smirked at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Fine.” I heard cheering from next door. “Did you want to go back over?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Sometimes TJ and the boys are too much. Unless you want to?”
I sighed in relief, because I was so tired. Figuring out my book had taken this weight off my shoulders, but now I was just exhausted. So we talked instead for a little, him filling me in on their latest road stretch, even though I watched every game I could. Then he started begging me to let him read my book.
“It’s too early!” I protested.
“Come on,” he whined and gave me that pouty puppy dog face. Ugh, he was too cute. “Let me read it.”
“Fine,” I huffed.
I must have been imagining it earlier, because now we just felt back to normal. Just Noah and Dinah, two friends low-key hanging out on a Friday night.
“You look tired,” he observed.
“I am,” I agreed. “Should you head to bed?”
“Are you kicking me out?”
“No!” I protested. “I just thought you had a game tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but it’s later. Will you come?”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “You want me to come?”
“I always want you to come.”
I barked out a long laugh, and his pale face turned beet red. “I didn’t mean it like that!” he explained but put a hand on his face and laughed behind it.
I leaned back on the couch and watched him squirm in embarrassment. Why did he have to be so cute when he was embarrassed? “Noah, I’m sorry, but you know what it sounded like,” I said in-between laughs. I rolled my shoulder trying to get a knot out of it.
He must have noticed, because he pushed my legs off his lap. “C’mere,” he said in this husky voice I had never heard him use before. I felt a tightening in my lower stomach.
“What?” I choked out.
He sat up and pulled me over to him, so my back was against his chest and I was sitting in between his legs. His big hands rubbed over my tense shoulders and up my neck. My heart kept thinking, go lower, but I tried to shake it off. “You’re really tense,” he whispered in my ear.
His breath was hot in my ear, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. A moan escaped my lips involuntarily as he rubbed the tension out of me. “Why are you so tense?” he asked.
I sighed. “Work on top of working on this book is super stressful.”
His hands continued to get the knots out of my back. How did he know how to do this? “Is this okay?” he asked and ever so gently placed a kiss on my neck.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
That...
No...
No way!
“Y-yes...” I stammered and bit my lip to keep another moan from escaping.
Seriously if that was his move, it was a damn good one. His big meaty hands kneading the knots in my back was putting my feelings into overdrive. His hands worked me over, while his lips pressed feather-light kisses across the skin where my neck and shoulder met. I was afraid if I closed my eyes I was going to wake up from this dream.
I leaned back against him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. He didn’t kiss me again, so I was unsure if it had actually happened or if I had just imagined it. I was really tired, and his strong arms wrapped around me made me relax. I was really tense and stressed out, and him rubbing my shoulders made me melt.
We ended up lying on my couch together for a bit with his chest pressed up against my back and his face nuzzling my neck. I still wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Noah did get really cuddly when he was drunk, maybe that was all this was. When I felt Noah’s breathing get steady, I slipped out of his arms and went into my bedroom. Had that really happened? My hand touched the spot on my neck where he had kissed me, and I felt like I was on fire. I needed to get a shower and scrub the dirty thoughts in my head away.
I changed into pajamas after my shower and towel-dried my hair. I glanced at the clock, it was really late, but I planned on doing nothing but working on outlining book number three tomorrow, so it was fine. I always had a hard time sleeping, it was kind of why I became a writer. When I couldn’t sleep, I wrote my stories. I sat on my bed and was startled when I heard footsteps in the other room. A dark, tall shadow came over the door, and I jumped at it, until Noah’s form stepped over the threshold into my bedroom.
He had a sheepish look on his face and he pushed his hair behind his ear. He always did that when he was nervous. Why was he nervous? It was just me. “Sorry,” he said when he saw me jump.
I rolled my eyes. “You Canadians and your apologizing.”
He grinned, but when we locked eyes, I knew then that what had happened earlier had not been my imagination. He sat on the bed beside me, and his hand cupped the back of my head. I froze at his touch and his eyes
scanned my face questionably. “Is this okay?” he asked.
“Noah...” I trailed off dreamily.
“Yeah?” he whispered in a small voice.
“Noah...just fucking kiss me already.”
He laughed and leaned over to actually listen to me for once. He pressed his lips to mine, soft at first, ghosting across mine as if he was afraid to push too hard. His hand gripped the back of my neck, and I was melting into his gentle caresses. His tongue slid over my bottom lip, and I opened to him. Letting him explore that part of me I had kept locked away for so long. His kisses matched his personality — gentle and kind. When he pulled away it felt like a moment too soon, and I saw that my hands were gripping the front of his shirt hard trying to pull him towards me down onto my bed. His eyes shot up in surprise, and I gingerly pulled away and looked down at the floor.
His finger gently lifted my chin up to look him in the eye. “Was that...okay?”
Oh my god, he was too freaking cute.
“Was it okay?” I asked confused. “The kiss?”
“That I did that.”
“Oh honey, yes...” I whispered huskily.
He grinned at me, and I think it was the biggest smile I had ever seen him wear. I wanted to make him feel that way all the time. To have that badge of honor that I was the reason his eyes twinkled brightly when he smiled.
“It’s late, you should probably get to bed,” he commented.
“Uh huh,” I agreed, but I was little drunk off his kisses and not really paying attention. I also was trying to see if he was going to kiss me again. Couldn’t he tell that I wanted him to kiss me like that all tender and tentative again? And then rip all my clothes off? Why weren’t we naked yet?
“D?” he asked.
“Hmm?”
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Fine. Just tired.”
“You should get some sleep.”
I shrugged. “I don’t really sleep.”
“Since when?” he asked.
“Forever? I’ve never been a good sleeper. You probably want to go back to your own bed, you’ve got a game tomorrow.”