by Fiona Archer
“Yeah, Dom,” Brittany said. “You apologized, but never said why.”
“I couldn’t exactly explain myself when I was running to the bathroom every five minutes. And thanks to you, I didn’t get to go to prom with either of you.”
She tilted her head and pulled a finger down her cheek in a single, mocking tear. “Aw, poor Dom.”
“Quit stalling,” Smurf said. “Fess up.”
I huffed a final sigh. “Brittany—” I paused, looking up into her big, brown eyes. “The reason I asked both you and Nicole to prom was because I was certain I’d need a backup. I was positive that one of you would say no to me. Or that you would change your mind after you said yes and find a much cooler date. I felt like I needed the reinforcements.”
I left out the fact that she was actually the backup, and I had been waiting all of senior year for Nicole to be single so I could ask her out. She seemed to buy the excuse, her eyes softening and the corners of her mouth tilting into a smile. It was a half-truth, but nonetheless, I hoped the guys would let me get away with it. All together, they said, “Nope!” at the same time into my earpiece.
Goddammit. I cleared my throat, sneaking a glance at the camera. “Fine,” I muttered quietly to the guys. Then, with another deep breath, I looked back to Brittany. “And…because the week of prom, you came to school with an enormous pimple on your nose. That same week, Nicole and Ryder broke up. I’d been trying to ask out Nicole all year, and her break up, combined with your pimple…” My words faded and I knew how shallow I sounded. What a shitty light that painted me in. I winced, waiting for her response.
Even though I felt bad about hurting Brittany, I didn’t feel bad for asking Cole out. She’d been my best friend since we were four. Watching her get dumped right there in the hallway of Midway High was awful. But even with that breakup, Cole never went for more than a week our senior year without someone asking her out. I knew if I didn’t act fast, the moment would slip through my fingers. And without thinking, I went next door to Cole’s house that day after school and asked her to prom, which was only a couple days away, figuring I’d sort out the shit with Brittany later.
Knight in shining armor, I was not.
Brittany’s smile dropped, her mouth dipping into a firm line. “Are you fucking serious?” she asked. “Because I had a pimple?”
That, and I was madly in love with Cole. But even after all these years, I was not about to admit that on national television. “Shh, Brittany! The children,” I said, joking and gesturing at the group of kids surrounding us. My other ex-girlfriends, the mothers to those children, glared daggers at me, crossing their arms and shaking their heads.
“That’s even more shallow than I expected…” Brittany said.
“…even from you,” Margot, another one of my ex-girlfriends, chimed in from the peanut gallery.
Even from me? What the hell did that mean? I wasn’t a shallow guy…okay, I knew how that story looked, trust me. But I was seventeen and an idiot. I had grown up a nerd—I’d been into D&D and theater and improv and comic books. Then, my sophomore year, something weird happened. I made friends with the cool kids. And I had no idea how to be cool while not being a dick. But I wasn’t that way anymore, and I hated myself for some of the shit I pulled when I was a teenager. I was a different man now, not that Brittany would believe that.
“I know,” I said. “I’m so sorry.” And I meant that apology with every ounce of sincerity I had.
Her frown lifted into a soft smile, and she nodded.
“You know what? It’s fine, Dom. It was a long time ago, and I forgive you. We were just kids.”
I sighed in relief. Yeah, it had been a decade ago, but that wasn’t a guarantee that she wasn’t going to still be pissed or hurt. I’d seen people hold grudges about way less for way longer. I gave a triumphant grin to the hidden camera and quirked an eyebrow. “Does that mean I don’t have to drink the breast milk?”
Her smile spread wider, curving wickedly toward her eyes. “Oh no…you still have to drink my milk.”
Brittany passed me the cup, and I groaned. It was warm. Why the hell was it warm? Did it literally just get pumped from her body minutes ago? “But you said you forgave me!” I pulled the glass under my nose and sniffed, my stomach roiling.
“I do forgive you. But this is going to be too funny. And…just because I forgive you doesn’t mean she does.”
I swallowed, my grip tightening around the warm glass of breast milk.
From the behind a curtain, Nicole entered the film set. Cole Peters. The girl who had been my best friend and neighbor for years. The girl who, from the ages of four to seventeen, had been a tomboy, usually sporting a baseball hat and skinned knees. The girl I’d proven myself to be a Grade-A ass to. But that’s the thing about assholes…usually, you don’t realize you’re being one. Or, if you do realize it, you feel weirdly justified. I had just assumed we had drifted apart after I started hanging out with my new friends in high school. It wasn’t until she came strolling in on the first day of classes our senior year, strutting her new, very non-tomboy look and flipping her hair over her (cold) shoulder as she passed by me, that I realized I’d been a dick to her.
That whole year, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. It couldn’t be my Cole. Her gangly, long legs from childhood shifted, meeting the subtle curve of her hips and ass. Her braces disappeared and left in their wake a gorgeous set of pearly white teeth. Her frizzy ponytail smoothed into sleek, blonde waves. And her once pudgy, ruddy cheeks thinned and now had a sexy flush.
I realized what an idiot I had been. Which made me feel like a shallow idiot because, like all those silly movies, all it had taken was a stupid makeover for me to realize how fucking gorgeous she was—and what I’d been missing all those years.
Suddenly, every damn guy in our class wanted her. And not only was I the last in line, but she seemed to get satisfaction out of flaunting each boyfriend in front of me.
Until prom. A whole year of her giving me the cold shoulder, but she finally thawed when I showed up at her house after Ryder dumped her with twelve long stemmed roses in one hand and chocolate covered cashews that spelled out—Prom?
The timeline was just all fucked up because I had already asked Brittany. I had meant to come clean to both of them…I really did. But the longer I waited, the harder it was.
Not that any of it mattered at all. I ended up cancelling on Nicole last minute since I was practically shitting my pants, thanks to Brittany’s Ex-Lax/breast milk combo. True to Cole form, she was more concerned with me being sick than with missing prom. She offered to skip prom and watch movies with me all night…but honestly? I didn’t want her seeing me like that. Running to the bathroom every five minutes wasn’t exactly the sexiest thing. So I convinced her to go to prom with her girlfriends.
Biggest mistake of my life. Because that’s where she ran into Brittany, who told her everything.
“Cole,” I whispered, my limbs feeling numb and tingly as I stared at her. I hadn’t seen her in years, and she was looking more gorgeous than ever.
“Drink up, Dom,” Cole said, her eyes burning into mine. Unlike Brittany, she didn’t sport a smile. Not even a little. She scowled, those blue eyes colder than an iceberg, and crossed her arms, leaning her weight into one hip. Slung over her shoulder was a large handbag, and a small, fluffy head popped out the top with a bark.
I blinked in surprise. “You brought Holly?” I asked out loud, shocked to see her dog here on set…let alone alive. Holly and Gregory had been mortal enemies our senior year of high school… Holly would chase my cat all through the neighborhood, terrorizing him.
“Of course,” Cole said, giving her small dog a scratch between the ears. “She goes everywhere with me. Now, quit stalling…drink up.”
I took a deep breath and held the glass out, saluting Cole and Brittany. Then, squeezing my eyes shut, I tipped my head back and brought the cup to my lips. Downing the warm, thick liquid like a shot, I swall
owed as fast as I could. A heavy exhale escaped my lips, and my stomach turned as I breathed through it. “That wasn’t so bad,” I said after gaining my composure. Only I spoke too soon. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was so thick, or the concept that it was milk from a human, or maybe just the warmth, but everything I had just swallowed came racing back up my throat. I lunged for the nearest waste basket and emptied my stomach while behind me, I could hear Cole’s soft, wicked chuckle.
* * * *
Nicole
I stood to the side watching as the crew rushed over to Dom after the director yelled cut. Television was weird. Television production was weirder. And I wasn’t really sure how I felt about any of it. These were grown men doing silly pranks on camera to each other, strangers, and their celebrity friends. I don’t think any of us back in high school would have guessed the four Murphy brothers would become so famous—but almost right out of college, Josh, the oldest brother, landed an acting gig on a sitcom and in a few films, and the rest was history.
Maybe if I hadn’t known them each so well from our childhood, I would have found the show funny. Maybe if I hadn’t been madly in love with Dom for years, waiting and waiting for him to notice me as more than ‘one of the guys,’ I would have found the episodes where they made him hit on women in Victoria’s Secret hilarious. Maybe the episode where Dom had to kiss Josh’s famous buddy Matt’s grandmother on the lips would have made me laugh if I hadn’t seen that exact same face of disgust when I leaned in to kiss him when we were fourteen and playing spin the bottle.
But somewhere in my twenty-seven years of knowing these guys, I had lost my taste for pranks.
So then why are you here? a little voice echoed in my head.
Because I wanted to see Dom again. I wanted to be in the same room with him once more and show just how fine I was without him. What I didn’t expect to see was the regret in his velvet brown eyes. I didn’t expect him to go stiff and stare at me like I was something lost and precious that he’d only just rediscovered.
And I really didn’t expect it to send a bolt of desire surging up my body, resonating in the center of my heart. A heart that I had long thought a solid wall had been built around, especially where Dom was concerned.
It was a mistake coming here, that much was obvious. As all Dom’s ex-girlfriends rushed toward him, crowding him and laughing, I backed away. I’d always found it pretty easy to disappear in a crowd of people. As I slowly retreated from the scene, I bumped into something—or rather, someone behind me. Callahan, Dom’s twin brother, stood towering behind me.
“You’re not even going to say bye to him?”
I gulped, clutching the strap of my bag, holding Holly tighter. Even though Dom and Cal were twins, there were a lot of differences between them. “He seems a bit occupied over there.”
Across from us, Dom was kneeling in a middle of a circle that all the kids had formed around him. He took turns giving them high fives and fist bumps.
“That’s a shame. I’m pretty sure you’re the one person here he actually wants to talk to.”
An hour ago, I would have told Cal he was crazy. That Dom and I had nothing to say to each other after all this time. But with what I’d seen in his eyes? I wasn’t so sure anymore. I’d always had a soft spot where Dom was concerned that not even years of holding a grudge could harden. “I—uh, have to get going anyway.”
Cal sighed but nodded. “The crew moved your jacket and stuff into another trailer. Come on, I’ll bring you there.” He tugged his phone free and fired off a text as he led me around to the back of the building. The walk took several minutes, and when we arrived at a small trailer, we were on the other end of the soundstage. “Here you go, Cole.”
I looked around, noticing we weren’t that far from where we had started…and had taken a real long, roundabout way of getting to this trailer. “Didn’t we film right over there?” I pointed beyond my shoulder to the edge of the water.
“Yeah, but to get here, we would have had to pass right by Dom. I assumed you wanted to avoid that, right?”
I nodded. “Right…”
“Just so you know… Dom’s not the only one who misses you. We were friends too, and I’m sorry we all lost touch.”
I nodded. I had missed the Murphy brothers too. Even little Smurf, who was annoying more often than not when we were kids.
Cal tapped the door of the trailer. “Well, try not to be a stranger, okay?”
I climbed the three steps to the door as Cal turned and walked away. When I swung the door open, I found Dom sitting on a couch in the middle of the trailer, elbows leaning on his knees in that same casual way he did when we were just kids. Dark hair peppered his strong forearms, and his biceps pushed against the thread count of his button-up shirt. He looked so similar to his old high school self…and yet different. More mature. My gaze cut across the familiar angular jaw that was now dusted with dark stubble and the occasional shimmer of silver. His full, soft lips now had a couple of creases framing them, and those eyes—those deep, piercing brown eyes that had been the star of more than one embarrassing fantasy in my life—had only gotten better with age.
I glanced at Cal, who winked at me over his shoulder as he sauntered away. Bastard. I should’ve known…the Murphy brothers always look out for each other first.
Perched on the back of his sofa was his cat, Gregory, who mewled as soon as he saw us. I quirked a brow at the cat. Did he remember us, too? Remember how Holly used to chase him out of our yard after he stalked her from the bushes and pounced on her. My dog might have looked like the bully back then, but she was simply defending herself.
I felt Holly’s body wiggle from within my bag, her stare dead set on Gregory.
I sighed audibly and rolled my eyes, shifting Holly to my other arm. “I take it my jacket is not in this trailer, then?”
A smirk tilted on Dom’s face as he slowly stood. “You were seriously going to leave without saying goodbye? I drank breast milk for you.”
“You drank breast milk for fifty thousand dollars an episode.”
Reaching up, I tucked my long, blond hair behind my ear. An old nervous habit. And judging from the way Dom’s eyes followed the movement and his smirk kicked higher, he remembered my old tick. “Well, you got me there. How you been, Cole?”
Drawing in a shallow breath, I stepped deeper into the trailer and let the door shut behind me as I refocused my thoughts. I guessed we were doing this now—for real doing this. This conversation I’d had in my head a million and one times was finally happening, and yet none of the rehearsed monologues seemed right in this moment.
“I’m…fine. My mom said you bought your parents a home in Palm Springs?”
Dom tilted his head, his eyes narrowing in on me, and I shifted beneath the scrutiny of his gaze. What the hell did I have to be uneasy about? He was the one who should be squirming, not me. Not after all this time. I rounded my shoulders back, standing taller.
“I did…we all chipped in for it. The least we could do for all the shit they put up with, having us four as sons.”
I snorted, tilting my chin higher. “Then what the hell do I get for dealing with your asses for seventeen years?”
His brow arched over the deep chocolate brown of his iris. “If I’d thought for a second that a home in Palm Springs was all it would take to win you back, I’d have already done it.”
I laughed at that, and even though it sounded a bit creaky in my own ears, it felt good. Dom could always make me laugh. It was probably the first reason I fell in love with him way back when I was fourteen and he barely looked at me. “And yet…you never even tried,” I joked in return.
He took a step forward, shaking his head. His eyes flicked briefly to my mouth, lingering there a moment too long for me to have imagined it. Heat spiked through my body, pebbling my nipples, and a shiver rocked down my spine. Again, from only a look. Damn, I was in trouble. “Oh, that’s not true and you know it. I apologized to you every day f
or a year. That whole summer, I desperately tried to get you to talk to me. Every time I came home from college, yours was the first doorbell I rang. After two years of trying to reconnect with you, I gave up. Not because I wanted to, but because I was afraid I was harassing you.”
I pressed my lips tightly together and cleared my throat. “I meant…you never even tried to buy me a home in Palm Springs,” I clarified. “It was a joke. I was kidding.” Heat rushed to my cheeks as Holly wiggled again in my arms. “Do you mind if I set her down?” I asked.
He nodded—just once. “As long as she doesn’t charge at my cat.”
That spike of anger was back, like a branding iron pressed inside my belly, I heated. “She won’t…as long as your cat doesn’t stalk her.”
“Well, let’s find out,” Dom said.
I set Holly down on the ground and as she hopped out of the bag, Gregory jumped down from the couch, cautiously approaching. They went nose to nose, each hesitating… nervous… before Holly kissed Gregory with a long lick on the side of his face. Gregory purred and rubbed his head against Holly’s chin.
“Well, damn,” Dom said. “I guess they missed each other.”
The searing heat in my gut melted into a gooey warmth and I swallowed a lump stuck in the back of my throat. If our dog and cat could make up…what the hell was I holding onto?
“I know you tried to apologize when we were in high school and college,” I admitted. “I just couldn’t accept your apology back then.” God, how did I explain this without making myself look like a desperate loser? “Accepting your apology meant letting you back into my life, and I couldn’t do that. Not when I was so desperately trying to move on from loving you—”
“Loving me?” Dom cut me off, his jaw going slack with a stunned expression, and I winced, wanting to clap a hand over my stupid mouth. Why? Why did I have to bring the L-word into this?