by Emilia Finn
When the call rings out my chest pulls tight, my hands balling into fists, my thoughts flashing to worst case scenarios. If Wayne and Shirley even looked at her, if they came within five-hundred feet of her, I’ll kill them.
Iz knows me; she never ignores my calls. Never.
Just as I press my thumb down to call again, I look up when she comes blowing through my front door. Her beautiful long hair sways with her movements, her book bag weighing down her left shoulder.
“Relax Jon, I’m here.”
I walk toward her, taking her bag from her shoulder and dropping it on the floor near the couch. I look her over head to toe. She’s unhurt, she’s not missing any limbs. She has her thumbs. No excuses not to text. “Where were you?”
“Relax.” She hugs me quickly, pressing her head beneath my chin and squeezing me with her toned arms. “I was walking down from the bus stop. I was two minutes away so figured I’d just wait to talk to you.”
“Don’t wait, Sissy.”
“Sorry. I’m here now, and yeah, I can sleep at Aido’s. Or maybe Jim’s. I’ll call him--”
“Jim’s at Kit’s house tonight.”
Izzy’s eyes snap back, putting two feet between us and glaring at me. “Who’s Kit?”
My eyes narrow. “Bobby’s date. Why?”
“Ohhh, Kit. Yeah, gotcha. I saw her at the gym.”
“Yeah, her.”
“So why’s Jim staying at hers?”
“Jack needs a babysitter.”
“Jack her brother?” Iz laughs, her posture relaxing as she wanders to her book bag and piles a couple text books on my coffee table, then a novel thicker than any of the Harry Potters on top. “Jack’s no baby. He’s a giant.”
“Well, apparently he’s a giant trouble maker and needs supervision while B gets laid.”
“Gross.” Iz punches me in the arm, her knuckles lethal and on point. She’s been fighting since Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid offered to pay for our training fees when we were kids. I was about eight when I started, then when Iz turned five she was in too. I wanted to be noble and decline their offer, but I really wanted it. I really wanted to know how to fight. It was a life skill I felt was important to know at the time. “I really don’t need to know about Beebee’s sex life. Speaking of, I don’t want to know why you need me out tonight either. But it’s fine. I’ll stay at Aiden’s.”
“Thanks Sissy. But my thing, it’s not like that.”
Iz throws her hand up to silence me. “I really don’t want to know, but just so you know, this is inconvenient. The Outlander season finale is on tonight and Aiden probably won’t want to watch it.”
“I can’t blame him, it sounds lame. Pretty boys in skirts--”
“You should give it a go. There’s a lot of cool fighting and stuff.”
“Is it romantic? Is it a love story, Sissy?” At her nod I consider my point made. “I’m not watching some fairy romance.”
Iz walks toward the hallway with a smug shoulder shrug. “You’re missing out. Claire’s hot too. I’m getting changed then I’ll get out of your way.”
“You want me to call Aiden, or you want to take my truck?”
“It’s okay. I’ll just take a bus.”
“Sissy.” I call out and wait for her to pop her head back around the corner. “Truck or Aiden?”
She sighs, exasperated with my protective ways. “Call Aiden.”
~*~
I open the door to my glamorous Sunshine, dressed in sexy jeans and heels despite the fact we’re just watching TV and eating Chinese – that I still haven’t ordered.
Pretty damn glad I put jeans on instead of sweats.
“Hey.”
She walks through the open door, catching me by surprise as she wraps her arms around my hips and rests her face on my chest. “Hey.”
I bring my arms down instinctively to hold her against me. “Hey…”
“Best friends hug, right? That’s cool?”
Well shit, me and Bobby don’t hug and he’s the only best friend I’ve ever had, but I’ll start hugging him if that’s what it takes to keep Casey’s hugs too. “Best friends can hug. Definitely.” I bend my neck and rest my face lightly on the top of her head, taking the moment before she pulls away.
She smells like a cinnamon donut.
“You going out later?” I ask, eying her beautiful made up face, her sexy jeans and floating top.
“Nope.” She steps away from me, walking into my living room and looking everywhere at once. “Not going anywhere.”
“Why so dressed up?”
She turns back to me, looking down her body. She slaps her hands on her thighs then she meets my gaze again. “This is just me. These are my casual clothes.”
“You wear heels around the house?”
“Not my house. But I’m not at my house right now.”
“You wanna take them off? Get comfortable? I could probably rip a pair of sweats in half. You could use one leg.”
She flashes her glare at me, reminding me she’s got issues with teasing, but lets it go again quickly. “No, I don’t want your stinky sweats. This is fine.”
“But won’t you be uncomfortable?” I don’t know why I’m arguing this. She looks amazing, she literally feels good to look at, but I just hate the idea that she might be uncomfortable in my home.
“I’m comfortable when I feel like I look good. This is comfortable for me.”
Well, she definitely looks good. Do best friends touch each other’s butts?
“Alright, your decision. Want a beer?”
“Yeah.” She smiles gently and I feel my chest bounce uncomfortably. “Thank you. Can I look around?”
I walk toward the kitchen, but I look over my shoulder as she walks across my living room. “Yeah. Look at anything you want. I’ll call in our order then I’ll give you a tour.”
“Alright.” She stands in front of my main bookshelf, looking up high and I smile as she gazes at my hardcover set of Harry Potter books.
“Do you have any allergies? Dislikes?”
“Nah, I’m easy,” she mumbles as she pulls down a Lord of the Rings paperback, flipping it over in her hand before replacing it.
I walk back toward her, holding out a beer as she distractedly takes it and continues studying my shelf. I guess she likes books too.
I leave her to it for a minute and I walk back to the kitchen to place the order for food. I order enough for a family of five, but I want to give her variety and a reason to pop her jeans button and get comfortable. Nothing will go to waste. Plus, I have money now. I want shoes? I buy shoes. I want to feed a pretty girl? I’m going to feed a pretty girl. This is the exact freedom I dreamed of for so long.
“So what do you wanna watch?”
I slump down onto my couch after closing the door behind the delivery guy, and I place the bags of food on the coffee table. I’d already grabbed forks earlier, and the bags are packed full of napkins and chopsticks.
“Do you watch Outlander? Season finale is on tonight.”
“No,” I chuckle at my sister and Casey’s ridiculousness. “I don’t do romances, nor do I watch dudes prance around in skirts. Wanna watch Star Wars?”
“Star Wars?” Casey’s lips twitch. This is a test, and if she answers wrong, this friendship is over. Doomed from the start. “Which one?”
“Episode one, of course.”
“Of course,” she laughs. “Alright, sure. We can watch Star Wars. You’re lucky I’m recording Outlander at home.”
I roll my eyes. “Wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“Don’t judge me, Leo.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” I take the container of chicken and ginger stuff and I peel the lid off. We both suck in the aromas then she giggles at our synchronized starvation. “You like chicken?”
She shakes her head morosely. “A real best friend would know the answer to that. Kit knows if I like chicken.”
“We’ve only been best friends for about twenty-three hou
rs. Give me time.”
“Do you think we’ll ever be such good besties that you’ll buy me tampons if I need them?”
“I know you’re testing me,” I knock her shoulder with mine, eliciting a soft snort. “But I have a sister. I’ve bought tampons before. You’re gonna have to try harder.”
Casey ‘tsks’ as she lifts the chopsticks and the chicken dish. “I’ll think of something better next time.”
I grab the remote and flick the TV on, switching over to the blu-ray player. It just so happens the disk we need is already loaded, so I start it up, hitting play and Casey and I lean back into the cushions and get comfortable.
The soundtrack that is possibly the most relaxing sound in the whole world thrums through my sound system, but for the first time ever, I find myself not watching the screen. Instead I watch Casey as she hoovers the chicken. Note: Casey likes chicken and ginger. I watch the way she smiles softly as Anakin asks Padme if she’s an angel, then as she bites her lip when they meet again ten years later.
“Quit watching me.”
I smile at her sexy smirk in profile. “Sorry.”
“You know this is a romance, right?”
My brows pull tight. “What’s a romance?”
“Ani and Padme.”
“No. Don’t ruin this for me.”
“Whatever,” she laughs, setting the empty dinner cartons on the table then leaning back beside me again. She shuffles closer so our sides lean against each other, then she kicks her heels off with the toe of her other foot, moving the shoes aside and perching her tiny polished feet on the table.
I smirk. There she is. “Comfortable?”
“Mmmhmm.” Casey takes my arm closest to her and she lays it across her lap as she studies my ink. Her fingers graze my forearm, tracing the patterns and I concentrate on my breathing, trying to control my body’s reaction to breaking out in goose bumps at her soft touch.
“I like these.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmhm. They look good on you.”
I sigh internally at her praise. I don’t care what kind of benefits we did or didn’t agree to, I want her to like what she sees. “Do you have any?”
Casey shakes her head softly. “Nah, I’m a bit scared actually.” She smiles. “I want some, but I’m chicken. Kit has a few and she said she’d hold my hand, but I haven’t done it yet.”
“I’ll go with you if you ever decide to do it. It doesn’t really hurt that much.”
Casey’s eyes meet mine. “You would?”
“Sure. I’ll hold your hand and distract you. You’ll hardly notice they’re doing it. What would you get done?”
She shrugs as her eyes drop back to my arm. “I dunno yet, but it’d have to be important. Something I’d want to keep forever.”
I nod. “Good plan. Where would you get it?”
She shrugs again. “Dunno. Maybe my ribs. I think tattoos there on girls is sexy.”
I’d have to agree. I think a tattoo on Casey’s ribs would be sexy as hell. “We’ll do it whenever you’re ready, Sunshine. I’ll make sure I’m there for you.”
Her eyes meet mine again and I find pure mischief dancing in them. “That’s what best friends are for, right?”
I smile as I flex my hand discreetly. “Right.”
Despite this movie lasting well over two hours, I find myself dreading the ending credits. About an hour in, Casey’s warm body turned soft and pliant and slumped into my side comfortably, so I rearranged us and threw my arm over her shoulder.
It didn’t even feel awkward when she threw her arm across my lap. It just felt perfect. It felt comfortable. It felt right.
Despite my willing it otherwise, the movie eventually ended and for the first time ever, I’d hardly paid any attention.
Not ready for her to go home, not ready to say goodnight yet, I jump up quickly to put the next movie in, not giving her the opportunity to decide otherwise.
In my absence and to my disappointment, she shuffled along to the end of the couch. I wasn’t finished touching her.
“Do I smell?”
Shaking her head softly, Casey pats her lap as she watches me watch her. “Come here.”
When I don’t move, confused about her request, she leans across and pulls my shirt toward her until my head rests in her lap.
“You can rest on me.”
This is better. So much better.
I rearrange my broad shoulders, uncaring if they’re bent at an awkward angle to make this work. I’m not moving away. I resist the urge to kiss her thigh, since it’s right there. “Am I squishing you?”
“You’ve got a big fat head, especially with all those books you’ve read, but no Jon Hart, you aren’t squishing me.”
Her hand comes down to rest on my head, her nails softly scratching my hair and I have to bite my lip before I start purring.
“Rest, Leo. I’ve got your back.”
I snuggle in, closing my eyes almost immediately, dozing off to Scottish voices and fairy music replacing Star Wars.
Nine
Tink
Just Once, Padme
“Hey.” I let myself through Jon’s front door using the key he gave me a couple weeks ago and I wander into his living room. He’s slumped on his couch as he channel surfs, but as I walk in, he throws the remote down and stands up.
As has become tradition now, he takes me in his arms, holding me tight as my ear rests against his strong beating heart and we both sigh, letting go of our days worries and just holding the other up.
“Hey there, Sunshine.”
I smile into his shirt. “Hey there, Leo.” I step back from him, dropping my bag to the floor then we both slump back onto the couch. It’s movie night, like we do every night that I don’t have to work at the club. On the nights I do work, it’s not uncommon to find him sitting at the bar and being my lion.
My tips haven’t declined, but the number of men openly flirting with me steadily has. I don’t even mind. The men coming in to flirt with the bartenders are usually married and have wives sitting at home anyway.
“You ready for Episode Two?”
“Definitely.” I smile mischievously. “It’s time for Ani and Padme to kiss.”
Jon groans. “Stop trying to ruin this for me.” His voice is gruff as he throws his arm over my shoulder and pulls me into his side. “This isn’t a romance, so stop trying to make it one.”
“It is what it is, Jon. Let me ogle Anakin and you can gawk at Padme’s sexy back. It’s a mutually beneficial movie. Everyone’s happy.”
“Mmhmm,” he grunts unhappily as he hits the play button.
This has steadily become our thing. When I’m not working, I come here or he comes to my apartment. We watch movies or we binge watch Game of Thrones and we eat. He hasn’t given in to Outlander yet, but that’s fine, because each night after he passes out with his head in my lap, I switch over to the DVR and I watch while I play with his hair.
Somehow, most mornings I wake up in his bed, more often than not with our legs tangled and a dribble line running from my mouth onto his sexy chest, but it’s all innocent. We haven’t had sex. We’re just a couple friends that really enjoy each other’s company.
I still feel that same vulnerability in him that I felt from the first day we met. There’s a boy inside this man’s body, something has happened to him, he’s been hurt and he’s using me, us, as an opportunity to just… be.
I’m okay with that, because he helps me relax too. I’ve been in this man’s house most days, alone in his bed, for the better part of a month, and we haven’t had sex. He’s been a perfect gentleman, and I’ve had neither a one night stand nor have I entered another two year time bomb.
We’re happy as best friends, just like he promised.
“How was your day?”
“Shh, the music is starting.”
Jon chuckles as he squeezes my shoulder. “We’ve seen it a hundred times, you know what happens.”
“You nev
er talk during your scenes. Just when the love stuff happens.”
“What can I say, the love stuff bores me. How was your day?”
I sigh. He’s not going to let this go. “My day was fine. Hung out with Kit for a bit. Hung out with Izzy a bit. Cleaned my apartment.”
“You and Sissy hang out without me?”
I turn to look at his furrowed brow. “Yeah. She’s cool. She’s actually cooler than you.”
He rolls his eyes and looks back to the screen. “Whatever.”
I let the silence hang for a minute, letting the familiar sounds on the television soothe us, but I have to know. He seems more attached today, more protective. He seems like he needs a chance to decompress. “Jon?”
He lifts his chin, silently acknowledging me.
“How are you feeling?”
Jon’s face tips down to mine again and I look up. His plump lips sit above my forehead and I resist the urge to lean forward.
“Feeling about what?”
“About what happened with Timm’s and Kit.” I was front row and center last week, watching on as Jon physically held Kit behind him when Timm’s was going crazy at the gym. When Jon shielded her from his vitriol. When Aiden hit Timms. “And about your other best friend moving in with his girlfriend.”
“Timm’s is a fucking tool and he won’t be coming back to our gym again.” Jon’s voice is harsh, his arm squeezing tight as his heart rate spikes under my cheek. “He’s lucky we didn’t kill him. And the other thing,” He shrugs. “If B is happy, then I’m happy. Kit makes him happy.” Jon smiles softly. “Yeah, I’m cool with it.”
“And you say the romance stuff bores you,” I scoff. “Your best friend is practically married.”
Jon chuckles. “I honestly didn’t think he’d ever settle down, but I knew that if he did, he’d fall hard. I’m not surprised; his mom and dad had the best love in the whole world. Can’t say he’s much different than his Dad like that.”