Page 32 of Dating Mr. Right A Collection
She shakes her head. “I know you hate it, but it’s going to be fine. YouTube is giving you and Ally some great placement, and since I’m sort of your manager, I also appointed myself chief decorator. That means you’re going to suck it up, like a big boy.”
I sigh in an exaggerated fashion. I can’t stay irked at Macy. “Well, since it’s YouTube . . .”
YouTube has been good to my sister and me since we formed our duo and began producing online videos of popular mash-ups of songs. Since we were young kids, Ally and I have duetted, and I sure don’t mind the way the income supplements my day job at an ad agency.
“Fine,” I admit grudgingly. “As long as I don’t have to wear a red shirt or cupid hat.”
“Oh please, I know you hate all that. We’re only going to make you sing.” She takes a beat, shoots me a playful look, and says, “Vrooge.”
“What?”
“You’re Vrooge. Valentine Scrooge.”
“Wow, that is harsh.”
She shrugs coyly. “If the name fits.”
“Then I will wear it with pride, because I am definitely Valentine Scrooge.”
The trouble is this Vrooge is crazy for a woman he can’t have.
No wonder Vrooges are grumpy fuckers.
2
Macy
“He has no voliday spirit. Simply none,” I tell my friend Olivia as I sort through a display rack at Eden.
“Some men are like that,” she says nonchalantly, checking out a drawerful of satin underthings at the lingerie boutique in Chelsea. She loves to shop here, and she’s positively addicted to sexy garments. Maybe because her husband is addicted to them too, and when he sees her in them, he can’t resist, or so she tells me. It’s not as if I’ve witnessed his helplessness before her feminine charms.
She likes his inability to resist.
“But Kirby’s truly against the entire concept.” I frown, stopping my hunt for just the right sexy number. “It kind of makes me sad.”
Olivia tuts. “Macy, Valentine’s Day is not everything.”
“Of course it’s not everything. But it is a fun, festive holiday. I love it. I always have.”
Olivia shoots me a look with cool blue eyes. “True. You used to make me valentine cards back in school.”
“I baked you cookies too. And I tied bows around them. Admit it. I’m all kinds of awesome.”
“You are thoroughly fabulous. But so what if he doesn’t like it? It’s just another day.”
I shake my head vigorously. “Oh no, it’s not.”
“Look, I do enjoy flowers from my hubby, and a big old basket of chocolate, but it’s a made-up day.”
I shake my head, correcting, “It’s a day made up of fabulousness. Plus, I don’t think you so much enjoy the chocolate. You work off the chocolate horizontally, don’t you?”
She shrugs knowingly. “Perhaps we do.”
“So if your hubs likes it, and Ally’s friend Miller likes it, I can convince Kirby to like it.”
“I don’t know. From what you tell me, Kirby’s a committed bachelor and a committed Valentine’s Day hater.”
My optimism rules the day though. “That’s just because he hasn’t experienced the Macy Valentine Treatment. I know deep down that Kirby Zimmerman could learn to love it.”
Olivia continues her hunt, assessing lacy boy shorts now. “Ooh, these are hot,” she says, showing me a black pair with a tiny white bow.
I pant like a dog. “So sexy.”
“I’m getting them.”
“See! You try to deny you like Valentine’s Day, and here you are buying lingerie to seduce your husband.”
She smiles like she has a dirty little secret. “Studies show that sex on Valentine’s Day can deliver multiple orgasms.”
I grab the black panties from her. “Gimme them. I want more than one O. Wait, I haven’t even had a single O from a man in a while. I won’t be greedy. I’ll happily take just one, thank you very much.” I give her back the panties, and return to the rack of red teddies, sexy tanks, and racy bras that boost boobs in ways that will drive a man wild.
I’d like to drive Kirby wild.
There’s only one issue.
Yes, he’s my good friend Ally’s brother, but Ally doesn’t care about that. She’s not one of those “don’t touch my brother” girls.
The issue with Kirby is our friendship.
He’s committed to it, and has said as much many times over. I love him madly as a friend too, and working with him, planning the videos, then grabbing a cup of coffee and gabbing about everything and nothing has been fantastic. He’s funny, smart, and has just enough of a grump in him that my happy side wants to convert him to the light.
I’m completely devoted to our friendship.
But I’m devoted to something else as well.
Having more of that man. Every time I look into those bright blue eyes, each time I take in the cut of his jaw with his perma five o’clock stubble, or catch a glimpse of his ink-covered arms, I want more than friendship.
