by J. S. Cooper
Chapter Three
Nate
I watched Dylan as he walked over to Janie to tell her something and I could feel myself growing angry again. I was going to have to have a word with him. He needed to back the fuck off. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever thought he was good enough for Janie. He was a dog. She didn’t need a player like him in her life. And for him to think she would share a room with him. Was he crazy? My blood had boiled when I’d seen him put his arm around her waist. What was he thinking? And what was she thinking to allow it. She’d even smiled at him. Encouraging him. I’d have to speak to Janie again. She really had no clue with guys. She was always going after the wrong guys. I didn’t know why Anabel didn’t say anything to her. It was almost like she was encouraging Janie. I’d been shocked and happy when Janie had called me to tell me that she wanted to go on vacation together. Granted, I hadn’t been happy when she’d said she wanted Anabel and Dylan to come as well. I mean Anabel was understandable, but Dylan?
“So, I was thinking I should grab the bedroom.” Dylan’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Sorry what?” I blinked at him, I had been totally spaced out. I hadn’t noticed him walking over to me.
“Well if Janie wants to hook up, we’re going to need a room. Unless Anabel is down as well. Then we can have a threesome.” He almost cackled in glee. “And then we can all share the same bed in their room.”
“What?” My voice was angry.
“Sorry, I’m not down for a devil’s threesome dude.” He punched me in the arm and I grabbed his fist and squeezed.
“Listen to me now and listen to me good.” I leaned toward him as I squeezed his fist. “Stay away from Janie. You hear me? You are not having the bedroom and you are not hooking up with Janie. Ever.”
“Excuse me.” Dylan’s expression changed and he glared at me as he yanked his fist away from me. “Who the hell do you think you are, Nate?”
“I’m the guy that’s telling you to stay away from Janie.”
“She’s not yours,” Dylan said. “You have no claim on her, dude.”
“She will never be yours. So just stay away.”
“Are you frigging joking with me right now?” He searched my face to see if I was joking and I just continued glaring at him. “Okay, so this doesn’t seem like a joke.” He took a step away from me. “You can have the room, dude, but me and Janie are going to do whatever we want.”
“That’s what you think,” I mumbled under my breath.” I grabbed my suitcase and Janie’s and moved into one of the bedrooms and dropped them on the ground.
“Nate, me and Anabel are sleeping in the other room.” Janie’s voice followed me into the bedroom. Her hair looked wavy around her shoulders and her brown eyes were bright. “Can you take my bag into the other room, please?” I just stared at her for a few seconds trying to think of what to say. I wanted to tell her that she was sleeping in my room. That I didn’t trust that Dylan wasn’t going to try and do something to her or with her. But I knew I couldn’t voice those opinions. I knew that on one hand I was overstepping my boundaries. She wasn’t a kid. I couldn’t tell her what to do. I knew that. I just couldn’t stop myself from being overprotective toward her. I didn’t understand why she kept making such bad decisions. She was like my little sister. Your little sister that you like to kiss? A devil inside of my head questioned me and I ignored my inner voice. I didn’t want to think about that aspect. I didn’t want to think about how I wanted Janie in my bed for more than just protection. There was a selfish part to it as well. I wanted to feel her warm body next to mine. I just didn’t want to admit that part.
“Sure,” I said finally and picked up her suitcase. “Let me take it to the other room.” I then grinned at her. “What did you pack, girl? This is heavy.”
“Just a billion swimsuits.” She grinned back at me and walked closer to me. “Oh and guess what?”
“What?” I said, looking at her suspiciously.
“I brought some sex dice and some toys.”
‘What?” I almost shouted as I dropped her suitcase and stood still. I glared at her. “You brought what?”
“I’m joking, Nate.” She started laughing and shook her head. “Though even if I wasn’t, there would be no need for you to give me such a disapproving look.”
“Janie, I swear, you deserve to be smacked.” I pointed my finger at her. “I should put you over my lap and spank you.”
“You’d like that too much, pervert.” She winked at me and then giggled. “Now come on, bring me my suitcase, butler. I want to change. I’m way too hot.”
“I’ll say,” I muttered under my breath as I picked up her suitcase again. “But wait, you never told me what the ‘guess what’ was about? Unless it was just your silly joke?”
“No.” She looked back at me. “I brought a chess board with me.”
“Really?” I grinned at her. “Trying to appeal to my nerdy side huh?”
“You know it.” She laughed. “By the way, does Dylan play chess?” she asked me innocently and I could feel my body growing warm again.
“Don’t know and don’t care,” I said as I dropped her suitcase off in the other bedroom and turned around. “I’m going to go and check my laptop. I think I have a few work emails I need to respond to.”
“Okay,” she said without looking at me and I just walked back out of the room, once again feeling annoyed. I sure hoped the whole trip was not going to be like this. When I’d initially asked Janie if she wanted to go on a trip with me, it had seemed like a good idea. A fun time to be had by both of us. We’d lie around in the sun and strengthen our friendship and have some fun. However now, now I didn’t know what I’d been thinking. Why had I really wanted us to go on vacation together and did I want to think about it too hard now?
***
The living room in the apartment was huge and nicely decorated with two big wicker couches and some small chairs. However, the highlight of the apartment was the huge balcony that overlooked the two pools in the complex and the ocean. From our balcony we could see the sand and the pier, and it was beautiful.
“This is so calming, isn’t it?” Janie said as she came out onto the balcony in a short white dress. I tried not to notice how it clung to her curves.
“It’s a gorgeous view and a gorgeous night.” I nodded in agreement. “You missed the sunset.”
“I know.” She made a face. “But I can catch it tomorrow night. Was it really beautiful?”
“Yes,” I said and then nodded toward the ocean. “Are you hungry? There’s a restaurant on the pier that has some good jerk chicken and beers.”
“You know I don’t drink beer, but I could have some cocktails.” She laughed. “Shall we see if Dylan and Anabel are hungry as well?”
“Sure.” I nodded and then as she walked away I mumbled under my breath, “They don’t need to join us for everything that we do.” Though I was glad she didn’t hear me. I didn’t want her to think that I wasn’t happy with the other two being here. I stood up staring at the waves for a few seconds and then walked back inside. Janie was saying something to Dylan and it was annoying the shit out of me how she was lightly touching his arm. “Are you guys ready?” I snapped. “I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, they’re coming.” Janie turned around and looked at me with a slight frown. “Hey, can I ask you something?” she said and headed over to me.
“Sure?” I said. “What’s up?” I looked down at her as she grabbed my wrist.
“Follow me,” she said and pulled me toward my bedroom. She closed the door behind me as we walked in.
“Ooh, are we about to do something kinky?” I grinned at her and winked as I stepped toward her and put my hands on her waist.
“Nate, what are you doing?” She almost jumped as I pulled her toward me. “Nate.” Her voice sounded breathy as I moved my face down toward her. “We need to talk.”
“Do we really?” I asked as I moved my lips close to hers. So close that if s
he moved just an inch forward we’d be kissing. “I can think of other things to do.”
“Are you mad at me?” She blinked up at me. “What’s up with all your mood swings? I can barely keep up with you.”
“What are you talking about?” I stared into her wide questioning brown eyes. “Why would you think I’m mad at you?”
“You keep going back and forth between happy to see me and angry at me,” she said with another frown. “I don’t know what to think.”
“I am not angry with you, Janie,” I said softly, and took a step back. I grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the bed and sat down. “I’ve already told you that I think Dylan is bad news and I don’t know why you still seem to be throwing yourself at him. You can do better.”
“Oh my God, Nate.” She rolled her eyes. “I can see and date who I want. If I want to have some fun with Dylan that’s my business.”
“I already told you that if you’re looking to hook up, I could help you out,” I said, my throat feeling surprisingly itchy as I spoke. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“Wow, thanks Nate. So glad you would go out of your way to help me out in that way.”
“We’ve already had sex.” I winked at her. “It wasn’t so bad.”
“You’re such a pig.” She punched me in the arm. “I can’t believe you would say that to me.”
“What? It’s true. We have had sex.” I shrugged.
“That was years ago.” Her face was bright red.
“Well not really.” I grinned. “We nearly hooked up the other night as well.”
“We’re not talking about that.”
“Why not? If it wasn’t for my big mouth it definitely would have gone down.”
“Nate, really?” She gasped. “We’re not talking about this.”
“We don’t have to talk. I told you that already.” I licked my lips and leaned toward her. “There are other things I’d rather be doing.”
“Are you ever serious?” She jumped up off of the bed. “I wanted to have a serious conversation with you.”
“Everything is fine, Janie. I’m sorry if you think I’ve been moody. You’re right. You’re an adult. You can make whatever mistakes you want to make.” I jumped up as well. “Shall we head out now?”
“Yeah.” She just looked at me and shook her head. “Let’s go.” She headed out of the bedroom and I just stood there for a few minutes watching her. I could feel my stomach churning slightly as I thought about our conversation. She’d been upset with me. I knew that. I knew I’d been slightly moody, but only because I was mad at myself as well. I didn’t want to talk to her about what I was thinking. Janie always overanalyzed everything. I couldn’t tell her that I’d been having dreams about her ever since that night. I didn’t want to tell her that I’d try to convince Dylan to back out of the trip at the last moment. I didn’t tell her that I was confused about what was going on between us.
Chapter Four
Janie
“Dinner was so delicious.” I faked a smile at Anabel as we walked back to the apartment. I felt uneasy and didn’t quite know how to express how I felt. Dinner had been weird. Nate had spent most of the evening ignoring all of us and pounding beers. I also noticed that he’d flirted with the waitress and another tourist that had been sitting at the table next to us. Anabel and Dylan had gotten into a long boring discussion related to North Korea and some treaty I’d never heard of. I felt so guilty that I was so ignorant that I’d tried to change the subject. It had worked and Dylan had started talking to me, but neither Anabel or Nate had looked pleased that all of Dylan’s attention had turned to me. I’d thought Anabel would have been happy that I seemed to be getting under Nate’s skin, but she hadn’t returned any of my smiles at the table. “Didn’t you think so?”
“Yeah, it was okay.” She nodded, her expression blank, her mind obviously a million miles away.
“What’s going on, Anabel?” I asked her as we were walked behind the guys. “You barely spoke all night.”
“Nothing is wrong.” She shrugged. “I’m just tired.”
“I noticed you talking to Dylan,” I said softly, trying to hide my annoyance at the obvious lie. “Do you like him?”
“What? Of course not.” Her face swung to mine, her expression passionate. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Not that you even want him, but whatever. He’s yours.” She looked away from me and started walking faster, so that she was ahead of me.
“He’s not mine.” I sighed as I picked up my pace to keep up with her. “You know that.”
“No, Janie. I don’t know that. I don’t think you know that either. It seems to me that you don’t really know what you want.” She glanced over at me. “You say you’re here to get Nate because you love him, but you still seem to want to have Dylan all over you.”
“What?” I exclaimed, almost too loudly. Was she joking? She knew I didn’t really want Dylan. That this was part of the plan to make Nate jealous and man up. “What is going on here? Have I entered the twilight zone? Why are you and Nate both being funny?” I grabbed her arm.
“Maybe it’s not me and Nate that have the problem, Janie. Maybe it’s you,” she sputtered as she pulled away from me.
“Wow.” My jaw dropped at her words. I’d never seen Anabel like this. Never. And we’d been through a lot. Yet, she had never spoken to me like this. So exasperated and so annoyed with me. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I don’t mean to be a burden.”
“You’re not a burden.” Anabel’s face crumpled. “Look I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”
“If this has to do with Dylan. It’s okay. I saw you guys kind of flirting,” I said softly, once again trying to broach the subject.
“He was flirting with you as well,” she snapped. “And what does it matter anyway? We’re here for you. So you can finally get over, Nate. Or get him to realize he has feelings for you if he can ever pull his head out of his ass.” She was almost shouting. “Anyways, whatever, whichever guy you end up with will be fine, I’m sure.”
“Wow, tell me how you really feel,” I said feeling sad. “I didn’t mean to make this all about me, Anabel.”
“You’re not.” She sighed. “Look I’m sorry. I need a drink.” She gave me a small smile. “And I think I’m about to get my period. You know how my pms goes.”
“Yeah.” I nodded and gave her a small smile back, but for some reason that didn’t comfort me. Anabel was really upset and it was my fault. Maybe I was a selfish friend. Maybe I was too immature. When was the last time we’d really focused on Anabel and her love life? I’d always thought it was because she was too mature and had her act together. But maybe it was because we were always focused on me and my hair-brained schemes. At least that was how it had always been in college. I’d fall for some guy and convince Anabel to help me get him in some way. Anabel had been a good sport throughout all of this, but maybe she was having her own issues. Maybe she wanted love as well. “If you like Dylan, you can go for him you know. I don’t mind,” I said softly and I watched as she just shook her head at me and then ran up to the guys.
***
“Shall we play a game?” Anabel threw her head back and started laughing. I stared at her in shock. I’d never seen her this drunk or loud.
“What sort of game?” I asked her suspiciously, hoping she wasn’t going to say spin the bottle or kiss or dare.
“I don’t know. What do you want to play, Janie? Chess?” She started laughing even louder. “Did you know that Janie pretended to like chess in college so she could meet Nate?” She turned to Dylan with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I didn’t know that.” He shook his head and looked over at me. “But I’d like to know more.”
“Oh, I will tell you everything,” Anabel said. “Janie saw Nate one day in the library and decided she just had to have him. She thought he was so cute.”
“Anabel.” I stared at her, my voice high. “No one wants to hear this story.”
“I want to hear this s
tory,” Nate said with a grin as he lightly touched my leg. We were sitting next to each other on one of the couches and he was awfully close to me. “I’ve never heard this story.”
“Nate.” I made a face at him. “You know I pretended to like chess.”
“Yes, I knew that part, but I didn’t know the rest.”
“You don’t need to know the rest.” I could feel my face growing red. This was more embarrassing than I thought it was going to be.
“Aw, come on Janie.” Anabel grinned. “He deserves to know everything. Plus, it was ages ago. You’ve grown up now.”
“Wait a minute.” Dylan put a hand up. “You guys used to be an item?” He looked back and forth between me and Nate and something suddenly clicked in his mind and he started laughing. “I thought I was screwed up, but you guys, wow, you guys take the cake.”
“Huh?” I asked him in confusion.
“Nothing.” He looked chagrined and he just stared at Nate. “Dude, you’re fucked-up.”
“Why is he fucked-up?” I asked wanting to know what he was thinking about and talking about.
“You’ll find out.” He laughed and then turned back to Anabel. “But please, please finish this story.”
“There’s not really that much to say.” Anabel looked at me sheepishly and mouthed I’m sorry. I just shrugged at her. What was I going to say now?
“Basically, I had the hots for him and lied about how good I was at chess and joined the chess club,” I said quickly. “And voila, that’s the story.”
“Somehow I think there’s more to the story than that, but I’m not going to push it,” Dylan said and then he jumped up. “Anyone want another beer?”