Page 49 of Floored (Frenched 3)
“Ahem, yes he did. But no, we didn’t.” I gave them an angelic expression, as if it had been my choice not to bang.
“You didn’t? Why not?” Coco looked confused.
“I told you. Just friends.” Thank God I had a poker face. I was lying through my teeth.
“He came over late last night to be just friends with you?” Mia asked.
I shrugged. “Apparently. I mean, I don’t know exactly what was on his mind because he’s not really good at telling me what he’s thinking unless it’s A, dirty, or B, how wrong he is for me.”
“He looks like that and he talks dirty?” Mia fanned herself.
“Yes.” My face got hotter. “But there was no dirty talk last night. There was no nothing. Not even a hug.” Damn him.
“Why not?” Coco asked. “You can hug a friend.”
“For one thing, he left after I fell asleep on the couch. For another, he has issues with gestures of physical affection unless they’re sexual. When he says goodbye, he just walks out, even if we were naked like an hour before.”
“Weird.” Mia shook her head, then sighed. “Too bad. I thought you two made a cute couple, in a sort of opposites-attract kind of way.”
“Me too,” confessed Coco.
“Nope, sorry.” Avoiding their eyes, I picked up my coffee cup from the dresser and headed back down the stairs. There would be no cute couple.
#
Coco and I ended up getting out the front door without Lucas noticing us, and we said goodbye out on the street, whispering quickly about a baby shower and promising to talk more soon. While my car warmed up, I looked out the window at Mia and Lucas’s townhouse. Was she telling him now? I smiled. What an amazing moment in life, to tell someone he’s going to be a father. I wondered if I’d ever experience anything like it. I wanted children, eventually, but I had no idea when that eventually would take place. I wasn’t like Mia, who knew she wanted to have kids before she turned thirty. Coco and Nick would probably have kids soon, too. Their kids would be able to play when we all got together.
Then I frowned, picturing myself as the lonely spinster aunt, coming to parties with toys and spinach dip but no significant other.
No, stop that. You’ll be the fun, crazy aunt that all the kids adore. They’ll beg to have you babysit and sleep over and take them places. Then you can drop them off when you’re done with them and go home to your nice, quiet townhouse. You can drink wine for dinner, watch what you want on TV, and sleep in.
That wouldn’t be lonely at all, would it?
I put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb. I could travel too—I could go anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted. Plenty of people traveled by themselves. Look at Mia, going to Paris all alone and meeting the love of her life when she least expected it!
That was the thing about being free—your life still had so much possibility. So I didn’t need to fret about my relationship status or envy my friends their happy life milestones. I still had possibility.
And if possibility had a pair of handcuffs and a magic tongue, all the better.
After successfully battling the urge to call Charlie after Thanksgiving weekend, I was thrilled when he texted me the first Monday in December, asking if I wanted to meet for coffee the next morning.
We met at the Starbucks by me at ten thirty, just after I taught an adult ballet class and before he had to be at work. When I saw him waiting for me near the entrance, my heartbeat quickened, which I decided was a sexual reaction rather than an emotional one. Of course, I refrained from hugging him hello, although I wanted to. It annoyed me how much I wanted to.
We ordered drinks and found a table by the window. “You could have woken me to say goodbye on Friday night, silly,” I said.
Charlie grinned as he shrugged out of his coat. “I tried, I swear. You were out cold.”
“Really?” I wrinkled my nose. “Sorry. I am kind of a heavy sleeper, I guess.”
“Back or stomach?”
I tilted my head, confused. “What?”
“Do you like to sleep on your back or stomach?”
“Oh. Neither. I’m a side sleeper. And I have this body pillow thing I like to hug.”
Charlie thought that was funny.
