Hi my Peeps! Welcome back to my blog! I'm so sorry I've been so out of touch with you all and that I won't be publishing anything for you this year! It really sucks! I've got a lot going on in my personal life that has taken up so much of my time; I hope you understand and will stick with me. I promise, Jane's story is coming!! In the meantime, this Christmas I'd like to gift you all with the first two chapters of her story. :)
They say there are two sides to a story, but what about in the case of a love triangle?
*****
Flashback
Not a Meet-Cute
How much longer? I should be home, writing my English
paper! Jane grumbled inwardly, shifting her tired throbbing feet, while
leaning up against the crowded bar. Going out tonight with her two best
friends, Mary and Sarah, to celebrate Mary’s twenty-first birthday sounded like
fun hours earlier, before she remembered she had a paper to write that she’d
been putting off. She snuck another glance at the occupied table behind her,
eager to snag it once its occupants made the mistake of walking away.
“You might be waiting all night for that one to free up.”
Jane swiveled to her left in search of the owner of the sexy
male voice. So sexy, she thought as she took in the hottie before her.
“Alex,” he offered his hand in greeting.
Jane stared at the hottie’s proffered hand before replying.
“Jane,” she shouted over the music, taking his hand.
He held on a little longer than she expected and she
swallowed down, her nerves suddenly racing through her veins. God, he’s hot!
She mused, sucking in her stomach, hoping it wasn’t pudging out like
it had been lately. She was definitely getting a gym membership come Monday.
Alex leaned in and she mimicked his move. His cheek brushed hers sending a
quiver down her spine. The faint hint of stubble made her want to hum
appreciatively, but she held back and bit down on her lip instead.
“Are you here alone?” he asked, then pulled back to look
into her round brown eyes.
She shook her head, staring back into his crystal blue eyes,
then leaned back in, making sure to touch his cheek again. “My friends are
dancing. I needed to give my feet a break,” she confessed sheepishly.
He looked down at her heel-clad feet and nodded,
understandingly.
“The best cure for that is another drink. What’re you
having?”
“Oh. Um,” she looked down at her watered down rum and coke.
She’d never been much of a drinker. In fact,
she was introduced to this concoction from Mary. It was the only alcoholic
drink she knew about besides beer, which she hated. “Rum and coke.”
While he flagged down the bartender and ordered more drinks,
she appraised him from top to bottom. He looked a little out of place for this
kind of nightclub, dressed in gray slacks, a soft blue oxford shirt and brown
leather dress shoes. He looked like he
belonged at work on a casual dress day. Even so, he still looked hot in his
work-appropriate attire. She licked her lips when he reached for the drinks,
the movement pulling his rolled up sleeves tighter around taut muscular arms.
She definitely needed to get laid, she decided.
“Thanks,” she said, quickly pulling her eyes up to meet his
when he turned to her.
He smiled, revealing perfect white teeth, and clinked his
glass with hers before taking a sip, never taking his eyes off hers. It made
her nervous and a little shy. Tucking a strand of wavy brown hair behind her
ear, she dropped her gaze and took another sip. He chuckled to himself and
leaned into her space again.
“So, what do you do, Jane?”
Who asked questions like that in a club? She wanted to chuckle at his lack of finesse, but refrained,
afraid she’d come off as a giggling idiot instead.
“I’m a student,” she answered into his ear.
His question made her laugh.
He pulled back, his eyes taking her in completely. A simple
smile tugged at his lips. She bunched her brows in return, unsure of his sudden
scrutiny.
Wow! She mused. He was very formal and stiff; this
was definitely not where he belonged. But he was nice, and cute, so she decided
to let it slide.
“That’s an actual major?”
She let out a small laugh and nodded.
“What does someone need a degree in library science for?”
“Um, well, in my case, I want to open a used bookstore and, so, I thought having a degree in being a
librarian will somehow make me more…credible.”
“So, what do you do?” she asked.
He straightened, as if he was very proud of what he was
about to reveal. It made her stand up a little straighter too.
“I’m a mergers and acquisitions lawyer.”
His tone and entire demeanor changed. She could tell this
was clearly a great accomplishment for him. It made him all the more
attractive, she decided. They went on like that, back and forth, getting to know each other
with the occasional laugh. As the minutes passed, Jane found herself liking him
more and more. Then a familiar song, “Buttons” by the Pussycat Dolls, Sarah’s
recent musical obsession, blared through the club and Jane smiled to herself.
She knew what was inevitably coming. One of the bartenders grabbed a
microphone, jumped up on the bar and invited anyone brave enough to jump up and
dance with her. Jane was definitely not one of the brave ones, but she knew who
was. She searched the throngs of people and laughed when she saw Mary pull
Sarah up onto the bar. Sarah was shy at first, but then loosened up. Jane
laughed at the sight and turned to Alex. Her smile faded when she saw the look
in his eyes and the object of his transfixion. It was Mary, her best friend.
She wasn’t surprised. Maybe a little hurt, but not surprised. Mary always drew
attention. How could she not? She was gorgeous with her alabaster skin, onyx
hair and gem blue eyes, not to mention a smile that was so contagious it was
impossible to not smile back. Jane swallowed, cleared her throat and watched
for Alex’s reaction. He barely registered her presence—just as she expected.
Without a word, she slipped away.
Jane looked around at the bookstore then back at the ledger.
She chewed on the end of her pencil and tried to think positive thoughts. The
bookstore was not doing well. If she didn’t come up with a plan—soon—she’d be
forced to close. The thought brought a frown to her face and a pinch in her
chest.
She loved the bookstore. It was hers; her own little piece
of heaven. She worked so hard to get it, to have her dreams realized only to
possibly have them ripped from her before she even got the chance to fully
enjoy it. Her family thought she was crazy for wanting to open up a used
bookstore, but she didn’t care. She’d loved books since she was a kid. Getting
lost in the pages filled with fantasy and imagination, then in her teens and
now as an adult, romance called to her and held her captive.
A sigh escaped her lips. She had to come up with a plan.
Maybe she could host book parties after hours and charge a cover? But who would
show? The sound of a customer clearing his throat pulled Jane’s attention. A
smile spread across her lips.
“Hey!” Jane greeted Alex.
She scanned the space behind him, searching for Mary. Her
gaze traveled back to him, her brows dipped low in question.
“Oh,” she replied, awkwardly.
In the four years Mary and Alex had been married, Jane
hadn’t seen Alex without Mary at his side. Of course, that would be because
every time they saw each other it was for an occasion involving one of her best
friends, Sarah or Mary. There was no reason to see him apart from his other
half. Making this sudden change in routine a little more than strange.
Jane waited for Alex to explain his abrupt,
out-of-character, appearance. He shifted from foot to foot, his hands tucked
into his pockets. He was clearly nervous. He turned, taking in the empty
bookstore.
“It’s pretty dead in here,” he blurted out.
Jane pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Yeah…it’s…it’s been a little slow,” she confessed. Clearing
her throat, Jane decided to address the question clouding the atmosphere. “Uh,
not to sound rude, but…why are you here?” He looked
up at her, caught off guard, obviously forgetting how direct she could be.
“It’s just that you’ve never been here without Mary,” Jane clarified.
Alex cleared his throat and looked up at her, looking
completely vulnerable. Without warning, or any sense at all, Jane’s heart
tugged. An actual pang pierced her
chest and she was momentarily breathless. Before her face could give her away,
she regained control over her emotions and stared back at him, waiting for his
response.
“Would you like to go to dinner?” he blurted again.
Jane’s brows pinched and her lips pulled into a quizzical
side-smirk.
Alex shifted his feet and let out a nervous chuckle.
“Sorry, that didn’t come out right. Let me try that again. I
need some help—with Mary—and I couldn’t think of anyone better to ask than
you.”
“Yeah, and I thought, I haven’t eaten, and if you’re still
here at nine at night, then maybe you’d like to have some dinner…while we
talked.” He hesitated. “So, do you?”
Jane looked around the empty bookstore and frowned. She
could definitely use the distraction.
She closed the ledger with a little more force than
necessary, grabbed her keys and walked out with Alex.
Twenty minutes later they walked back into the bookstore
with takeout in their hands.
“I should’ve remembered how busy it gets around here on
Friday nights,” Jane grumbled apologetically, leading Alex to the other side of her
desk.
“That’s alright. This might be better. No one else is
around, just us.”
“Is it that bad?” Jane questioned, suddenly alarmed. Her
thoughts flipped through the worst possible scenarios. A strange, guilty
feeling crept up. Maybe she should be discussing this with Mary instead.
Alex didn’t respond right away and Jane grew more wary by
the second. It is bad, she thought to herself. Quickly, she sifted
through the best, diplomatic responses she could come up with. In no way was
she going to betray Mary by taking sides before she had the chance to hear her
out.
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Alex finally spoke, pushing the
shrimp pot stickers around the cardboard carton in his hand.
Closing the carton, Alex put it down and picked up the
bottle of wine they grabbed last minute and poured some into the coffee mugs
Jane pulled out from under her desk. He took a sip and stared into Jane’s
concerned eyes.
“We’ve been arguing a lot lately. I’ve been insanely busy
with work and I think it’s finally getting to her. She’s stopped waiting up for
me at night. She’s gone almost every weekend. She’s completely turned off to
me. I get it, I do. She’s angry. But what am I supposed to do? I can’t make
partner taking it easy. I have to put in the hours. She claimed to understand
this in the beginning of our relationship. I just don’t understand what’s
changed.”
Jane nodded, knowingly. Mary had confessed as much during
their last Sunday brunch. It was no secret Alex had become a bit of a workaholic
within the last year. Mary suddenly had more time to hang out with Sarah and
Jane, even her weekend Sedona trips became more frequent with the extra time
she’s had on her hands. It infuriated Sarah, but Jane saw nothing to complain
about. He’s providing for his family, how could she find fault in that?
He dropped his head, his gaze searching the wine as if the
answer to his problem was just swimming around in it. Reaching out, she took
his hand and stared into his troubled blue eyes.
“It’s going to be okay. It’ll all work itself out. She loves
you, Alex. And I know you love her. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”
It wasn’t exactly the answer he came for, but it was the
best Jane could do. She refused to get involved in anyone else’s relationship
by giving advice on what to do. She could only offer her support.
Alex gave her a small smile and squeezed her hand. It sent
shivers up her arm. Despite the fact that their meeting led to him choosing and
marrying Mary, Jane still felt an attraction to him she tried to force away every time she laid eyes on him. Touching him weakened her efforts in
every way. It was crazy and a horrible betrayal, even if she was the only one
to know about it.
Alex, none-the-wiser to her true feelings, dropped her hand
and rubbed her arms in an effort to warm her. The gesture caught her off guard
and her breath caught in her throat and her
body stiffened. It was quick and Alex
dropped his hands then pushed her mug closer to her.
“Have some wine. It’ll warm you up.”
Needing the red tonic for an entirely different reason, Jane
took a drink, eager to calm her nerves. She blamed the sudden intensity in her
emotions to PMS and took another drink. Her muscles slowly began to relax and
she breathed a sigh of relief before drinking some more wine. Alex smiled and
lifted his mug to clink with hers.
Two bottles of wine later, Alex and Jane were relaxed and
consumed in a spell of laughter on the hardwood floor.
“You can’t be serious!” Alex exclaimed.
Jane nodded enthusiastically, laughing harder as tears
rolled down her cheeks.
“So he grabs your butt, and you just let him?”
“What was I supposed to do? Push him away? It would have
given us away and those bitches would have
made fun of him even more.”
Alex shrugged and raised his mug. “Bookstore girl to the
rescue! Saving young eighteen-year olds from ridicule and snobby bitches.”
They laughed and clinked mugs.
“He kissed me,” she confessed in a soft voice.
“He kissed you, too! Lucky dog! Was it any good?” he asked
playfully.
Jane thought about the moment the eighteen-year old loner
surprised her and stole a kiss. She put her hand out into the space between
them, palm down, and wobbled it from side to side.
“No way!” Alex cried out.
“Okay, the kiss was a little too wet for my liking,” she
confessed, eliciting a cringe from Alex. “But, his moves… I imagine he will be
very smooth with the ladies in time.”
“Maybe I need to learn these amazing moves.”
“Well, he comes in on Tuesdays, maybe you can stop by and
he’ll give you a couple lessons!”
“Tuesday! That’s four days from now. I need lessons now.”
Jane shrugged, sipping the last of her wine. Suddenly, she
jumped to her feet and turned in the direction of the romance section of her
bookstore.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked, chuckling at Jane as she
stumbled towards the bookcases.
“Getting you some help. Dillon isn’t here to give you
lessons, so the greats will just have to do.”
“Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield
Park, pretty much all of Austen’s novels,” Jane laughed.
“No time for reading, remember.”
She scoffed. Who didn’t have time to read? It was almost
sacrilegious to utter the phrase in a bookstore, the church of thought and imagination.
She turned to scold him and nearly jumped out of her skin when his ringing
phone pierced the silence.
“Hey, baby.” He spoke into the phone in a hushed voice, a
stark contrast to the boisterous tone he just used to joke with her only
seconds before. “Yeah, I’ll be heading home in a little bit. Have a safe trip
tomorrow… I love you too.”
His words smacked into Jane like a ton of bricks. What was
she doing? Her wine-induced stupor was quickly fading and she looked at her
watch. It was a quarter after one in the morning. She hadn’t done anything
wrong, so why did she feel a sick turning in her stomach? She pushed the book
back onto the bookcase and hurried over to her desk.
“Mary calling to say goodnight,” he explained.
She shook her head, not wanting, or needing, an explanation.
She grabbed her purse and keys.
“Are we ending the night already?” he asked, sounding a
little deflated.
He looked at his watch and nodded. He grabbed the empty wine
bottles and tossed them into the recycle bin. He looked around for a place to
wash the mugs, but only saw the bathrooms on the other side of the bookstore.
“Don’t worry about these,” she said, taking them from him
and putting them down on her desk. “I’ll clean them in the morning. Let’s just
get out of here.”
“Hey, is everything okay?” he asked, sensing the sudden
change in her demeanor.
“I’m just tired,” she lied.
“Of course. I’m sorry I stayed so late.”
She was instantly upset with herself for making him feel
like he had to apologize. It was her fault. She should have had more control of
the night, but that was something she could dwell on later. Pulling her lips
into a smile, she shook her head at him.
“Don’t be, it was fun. I just hope I helped you a little.”
“Like you said, it’ll work itself out.”
What She Doesn’t Know
Listening to Mary talk about Alex’s lack of presence in
their marriage, Jane resisted the instinct to groan in exasperation. Mary was
concerned that she wasn’t enough for Alex anymore and Jane couldn’t wrap her
mind around Mary’s reasoning. She’d had dinner one night a week with him for
the past two months, talking and laughing like they were old friends. Him
making time for that one night was
enough for her to feel like their friendship was important to him. Mary got him
every day and night, maybe not at the
times that she preferred, but he was still there, loving her every day, working
hard to give her the life she took for granted. How could that not be enough?
“Last night was the third night in a row this week that he
had to stay late at the office! I called to ask him if he’d be okay with me
taking him dinner and he said someone in the office had already ordered
takeout. So, naturally, I waited to see if he’d invite me over anyway. And
nothing. Just dead silence.”
Mary wiped at a stray tear and looked away from her friends.
Jane felt like a ton of bricks suddenly took up residence in
her stomach. She rubbed at an old scar on her forefinger with her thumb and
warred with her conscience. Alex was having dinner with her last night. They
parted ways somewhere close to midnight.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, in that part of her that
she filed away the things she wasn’t ready to face, she knew it wasn’t possible
that they could have their time together and Mary know about it. Now, that
truth was staring her in the face. She couldn’t ignore it any longer. She
looked from Sarah to Mary, their conversation still going while Jane sat in her
shame. She had to say something… But what? How? When? Now is not the right time, she told herself. Telling Mary that she
was partly to blame for Alex’s lack of presence in their marriage now would be
the worst thing she could do for all involved. But she couldn’t wait too long.
The longer she waited the worse it would sound when she finally came out with
it.
Damn Alex for doing
this to me! To us! What was he thinking lying to Mary? She paused on that
thought. What was he thinking? She
thought of her own attraction for him. Could
he possibly feel the same way? She let that question linger and race
through her veins. It was the only logical explanation. Her breath caught and,
unthinking, she stabbed her finger with her thumbnail. They had to stop seeing
each other. Nothing about their meeting up was friendly anymore. Maybe it never
was.
“That crappy jerk is cheating, Mary! I just know it,” Sarah
seethed.
Jane’s head snapped up and she felt completely sick.
“No. No. He wouldn’t do that, Sarah. He’s just…” Mary
inhaled sharply and continued in a tight voice. “He’s really busy…trying to
impress his father…and make partner.”
Sarah looked to Jane for support. Two months ago she might
have given it, but in this moment, as realization was setting in, she couldn’t
bring herself to do more than shrug.
Jane paced the once again empty bookstore, waiting for Alex
to get there. She decided she’d tell him what she knew before she went to Mary.
There were things to get in order, questions that needed answering. She didn’t
have all the facts and she couldn’t go to Mary with anything less. If she was
going to be honest with one of her best friends, she had to do it right, and
tell her everything.
She rubbed her scar with her thumbnail thinking of that
word: everything.
What exactly did that entail? Feelings shared? And if so, what
did that mean for them?
“What are you thinking, you fool? It means nothing. He’s married!” she reprimanded herself out
loud.
The door to the bookstore opened. The bright Arizona sun
burst through, splintering around Alex’s silhouette, making him glow. She
swallowed down her awe and bit down to control her fickle emotions. As the door
closed behind him, the indoor lights illuminated his face and his brilliant
smile. In his hands he held rolled up paper that looked curiously like
blueprints and a tote bag filled with wine and some deliciously smelling pasta
dinners. Her mouth salivated instantly. She swallowed down and forced herself
to focus. She was going to get to the point and send him packing!
“Hey,” he greeted her, his voice like silk sliding across
her skin as he dipped in and kissed her on the cheek.
His lips passed hers, his hot breath feathering into her
mouth. The intimate gesture almost broke her resolve. Stabbing her finger with
her thumbnail, she brought herself through the sudden haze he cast over her.
This was not some damn romance novel, she reminded herself!
She opened her mouth to confront him, but he beat her to
speaking.
He set down the rolled up papers, which were in fact
blueprints, on a rectangle desk. These were not just any blueprints, but
blueprints of a bookstore. The parameters were identical to her bookstore, but
the layout and details were not. What were these? Her face bunched in
confusion, all other questions forgotten, she looked up at Alex, puzzled.
“I have a buddy who helped us build our new offices out
here, and I asked him to draw these up.”
His smile fell. It wasn’t that Jane wasn’t touched by the
gesture, she was, but she had to know why he did it. Her gut told her it was all
connected, but she had to hear it for herself. She waited for his answer,
peering up at him, her insides anxious and curious at the same time.
Alex cleared his throat and tugged at his collar uneasily.
“Well, for one, this.” He waved his hand out at the vacant
bookstore. “It’s completely dead in here. And it shouldn’t be.”
His voice softened and Jane’s heart fluttered. He sounded
like he actually cared. He must if he went through the trouble of having
blueprints drawn up. Still, she had questions.
“I want to help,” Alex continued, unaware of Jane’s
inner-struggle. “It’s what friends do, right?”
She slowly nodded her head, chewing on his words. It was the
open in this conversation she needed.
“Mhmm,” she murmured. “Friends would do this.” She paused
and looked up at him again, her eyes squinting. “That’s what we are, right,
Alex?” He looked at her, puzzled. “Just friends.”
A nervous chuckle filtered from his lips.
“Uh…yeah. Are you feeling alright?”
“It’s just… Why did you lie to Mary about having dinner with
me the other night? And all the other nights?”
Jane’s blunt question was a slap in the face. Alex’s
surprise was obvious. He cleared his throat and shifted under her pointed gaze.
She held her breath and waited to see if he’d feed her a lie as well. She couldn’t
decide if she wanted him to or not. If he did, it’d make her decision to end
whatever this is without a second glance. If he didn’t… If he didn’t, that
would make it a little more difficult to push him back where he belongs, but
not impossible. The facts would be what she’d rely on to do what needs to be
done.
Alex swallowed down and tugged at his collar again before
speaking.
“In truth, I didn’t think she’d understand. We’ve got this
rule, no alone-time with friends of the opposite sex.”
Jane nodded, remembering Mary telling her about this rule. She thought it was grossly
controlling of him. Standing in the quiet, empty bookstore, inches apart, after
two months of what were essentially dates, Jane’s opinion was quickly changed.
“How could you do this, Alex? Why? Do you have any idea the
kind of position you’ve put me in?” Jane demanded.
Alex grabbed onto her arms to calm her.
“I know. I’m sorry. For keeping this a secret, and lying
about it, I am sorry, but there’s nothing else we have to be sorry for, Jane.
We’ve done nothing wrong. We’re just two friends, who sought each other out
when we both needed someone to be there like no one else could. Right?”
He searched her eyes, waiting for her to agree with him.
Jane gazed back, suddenly unsure. She hadn't realize it earlier, but he was
right. She’d needed a friend like him lately. Neither one of her best friends
knew about how badly the bookstore had gotten nor did they know about her
recent short-lived romance with the d-bag from her gym. They couldn’t be
blamed, though. Sarah was a new mom of one year now and Mary was consumed with
her work. And trying to keep the spark in
her marriage, her conscience reminded her wryly.
The reminder was like a splash of ice-cold water, snapping
Jane back into her rational state of mind. She stepped out of Alex’s reach and
wrapped her arms around herself. Alex’s expression fell instantly. He nodded,
knowingly, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He took a few steps back and
set his jaw in a hard line.
“Look it over,” he told her, tilting his chin toward the
blueprints. “Let me know if you want his contact information.”
Jane thought he wanted to sound detached and unaffected, but
she heard disappointment and maybe even some injured feelings? The thought
tugged at her heart. She wanted so badly to stop him. To tell him he was right.
That he was what she needed lately
and that she was incredibly grateful for his friendship and insanely thoughtful
gesture. But it was also her friendship with Mary that stopped her.
Hours later, Jane couldn’t stop thinking about Alex and his
blueprints. She’d looked them over after he left. The design was perfect. He’d
thought of every detail. His idea for a live music section of the bookstore
would guarantee new customers. She remembered the small post-it note next to
the proposed coffee bar: Espresso machine
on me. She smiled to herself, a warm buzz floating through her body. “It’s what friends do, right?” His words
echoed in her thoughts. Yes, it is what friends do. It’s definitely what Sarah
or Mary would do if they knew how badly the bookstore was doing. Not including
the last month, and whatever might have been going on between Alex and her,
Alex was a friend. With that she
reached for her phone lying next to her on the bed and text him.
Hi. I thought about it and I would like the contact information for
your friend. She paused and wondered if thanking him for the time and
thought he’d put into the prints would be asking for trouble. She rubbed the
scar on her finger. If she kept questioning everything she’d normally do, then
they’d never be just friends. She had to stop overthinking her actions and
treat him like she would before things got questionable. She would treat him
like a friend. Thank you, btw, for doing this. You thought of just about everything.
She paused again, this time for a split second before remembering her decision.
She added a thumb-up emoticon, instead of a smiling one, and pressed send.
He responded almost immediately. What are you doing? Want to grab
some coffee? We should talk.
She looked at the time on her phone. It was a little after
eleven. She breathed in deep and threw herself onto her back. This is what got
them into this mess. She had to say no. She might be trying to treat him as she
would any other friend, but there was still a line where their friendship was
concerned and if she continued to meet up with him, especially knowing that it
was in secret, she’d be knowingly crossing that line. Pushing out a frustrated
breath, she brought her phone up to turn him down.
Please. The one-word text flashed at her, lighting up her
darkened room. In the four years she’d known Alex, she’d always known him to be
somewhat of a prideful man. Please
was probably not a word he used often. And he was using it for her. The thought
muddled all her rationality. How could she turn him down now?
She couldn’t. Okay. Meet you at Cassie’s in 20.
He replied with a smiley emoticon. The stupid smiling yellow
face made her stomach flip. She rolled her eyes at herself and threw the covers
off her. She flipped the lights on and panicked when she saw her reflection in
the vanity mirror across from her bed. Her hair looked like a tumbleweed of
curls atop her head and stray strands were falling out. Her scrubbed-clean face
looked a little pale and the bags under eyes were more visible without
concealer. She pulled her hair down and sprayed a little salt spray to fluff
her hair into sexy—no! Not sexy, just plain old beachy waves. She dabbed on
some tinted moisturizer, a little mascara and a lip stain. It was summer in
Arizona, there was no way she was putting on a whole face of makeup. Plus,
that’s not what friends would do for each other. That was reserved for dates
and new boyfriends only, both of which Alex was not. Jane checked her weather
app on her phone. It was eleven at night and the temperature outside was still
in the hot nineties. With a groan, she grabbed her jean shorts and a simple
teal tank top. Getting dressed up was also reserved for dates and boyfriends.
Slipping on plain tan sandals she grabbed her phone, keys and purse then left.
“Ooh! Going out for a booty call?” her older sister, Rosie,
called out to her.
She was swinging with her nephew in her arms on their
parent’s front porch. Sometimes Jane wondered what she was thinking letting her
parents buy her the house next door to them. But then she remembered the
failing bookstore.
“Not everyone is like you, Rose,” she teased.
Rosie was the wild-child of the family. It was no secret
that in her youth, before she married Michael, she would sneak out at night to
meet up with him.
“Give my baby boy a kiss from his Tia,” Jane told her with a
smile.
She got in her car before Rosie could ask any other
questions and drove away.
“Booty call!” she muttered to herself.
This was absolutely not a booty call. Two friends of the
opposite sex meeting up after eleven o’clock at night did not mean it was some
sort of sordid tryst.
Pulling into the parking lot of Cassie’s Confections, a
sweet little cafe Jane and Alex had met up after one of his late nights at
work. She remembered the night as if it was ingrained into her brain. It was
their third time meeting up and Alex had called her asking her what she was
doing before inviting her here. It was barely eight at night and sadly she was
already at home in her jammies, pigging out on popcorn and binge-watching Downton Abby.
She dropped her head onto her steering wheel and
concentrated on breathing. She shouldn’t be here. She was up against that
boundary and she just couldn’t bring herself to cross it. A knock on her window
made her jump and screech with her hands up in a defensive block. Something she’d
picked up in her boxing class. Alex was outside the window looking apologetic
and at the same time trying to hide a laugh. Embarrassed, Jane dropped her
hands and laughed at herself.
“I’m so sorry,” he apologized when she opened her door.
He helped her step out and Jane looked up at him, an
embarrassed smile spread across her lips. His eyes were not on her eyes, but
just below, on her pressed together breasts. A natural male-reaction she told
herself. Still, she let go of his hand and pulled herself upright. She
should’ve grabbed a t-shirt instead. Too late now, she would just have to be
careful. She did not want to give him the wrong idea.
“Thanks for meeting me. I know we left things…unclear
today.”
“Well, I just want to…I don’t know.” He stopped walking and
faced her. “Jane, I don’t want lose your friendship.”
His words, the sincerity she was so sure she heard in his
voice, rocked her to her core.
“What about Mary?” she brought herself to ask.
Alex reached out, taking her hand in his. The action felt a
little too intimate for friends, but Jane didn’t move or pull her hand away.
Instead, she froze, too afraid of her own actions while the tingles in her body
overtook her. Her younger, impressionable self from when they’d first met was
awakened, along with those Jane-Austen-like giddy emotions she thought she
buried a long time ago.
“I just think telling her will only bring out her distrust,
and possibly even anger at you. I don’t want that. You don’t deserve that.
Besides, I like the way things are, as they are right now. Don’t you? We’re
just friends, Jane. We’ve done nothing wrong, and I know neither of us intends
to, right? So, let’s just keep this between us.” Stepping in closer, he looked
into Jane’s eyes. “I’ve enjoyed spending time with you, and it isn’t hurting
anyone. In fact, these few times we’ve met up, they’ve helped me so much.” He
paused, gazing at her expectantly. “We can try this for a little while if
that’s better. I can tell when a friend is in need. I want to help you with the
bookstore. If you want to stop meeting up after that’s finished then we can.
Deal?”
Once again, the adolescent part of Jane was warmed by his
desire to help her with the bookstore. He
did just admit that their friendship actually helped him, she rationalized.
He was also a friend in need, how could she refuse him when he was so willing
to help her? It was weak reasoning, but she didn’t care. She was already in too
deep. As if Alex could read her thoughts he laced their fingers and walked them
into the café.
*****
Thank you all so much for stopping by and reading what I hope was a very enticing sneak peek! Please, hang in there and stick with me, I promise I'm trying extra hard to get this story out to you!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and an amazing 2016! :)
~Melissa
