“I’ll pick him up after work on Friday,” I say. She acknowledges me with another nod but her gaze never leaves the spot on the floor she is boring a hole into. I close her apartment door behind me and make my way out to my truck.

It’ll always be like this with Angie. Even giving her what she wants, us, won’t change the person she truly is. She’s a bitch by nature and I’m tied to her for the rest of my life. But I don’t care how she treats me. She can spew all her poison at me and I’ll f**king take it. She gave me my son. And he’s the only thing that matters.

Chapter Ten

Mia

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I direct toward my best friend who is currently rummaging through my clothes. For my date, no, friendly hang out with Ben and Nolan, I pick a pair of skinny jeans and a white tank top. I think this is very appropriate for going to a medieval dinner show as friends, but Tessa has other ideas. Articles of clothing are getting hurled into the air as she stays hidden in the closet I’m occupying for the summer. I step behind her and start grabbing clothes out of the air. “Do you mind? You’re going to be ironing all these after you pick them up.” I chuck the handful of clothes I’ve managed to catch onto my bed.

Tessa emerges from the closet with my teeny tiny jean skirt and a tube top. “Strip. You package yourself up in this hot little number, and I guarantee my brother will be unwrapping you with his teeth later on tonight.”

My best friend has a one track mind. A very dirty one track mind.

I snatch the hot little number that I am definitely not wearing out of her hands. “This is not a date so there won’t be any unwrapping going on.” I toss the outfit onto the bed and continue brushing my hair in front of the mirror. “I told you, we’re hanging out as friends. There’s no need for me to be wearing anything revealing.”

She plops down on the bed, sighing dramatically because this is Tessa we’re talking about. “Who the hell goes from a night of unbelievable nine inch pu**y humming sex to hanging out as friends? Did you both hit a large rock when you jumped off those cliffs last weekend? Is your brain currently swelling and causing you to act like a complete idiot?”

I pin half of my hair up before I turn and look at her. “I’m just now getting used to the idea of not hating Ben for the rest of my life. Do you have any idea how dead set I was on that game plan? I was close to having a voo-doo doll made of him.”

“And now you two have bumped uglies, and you’re just going to pretend that you didn’t.”

I grunt my frustration and shoot her a stern nook. “No one’s pretending anything. He asked me to give him a chance and I’m giving it to him. As friends. It would be really shitty of me not to.” I turn back around and continue messing with my hair. There’s no way I could ever pretend that Ben and I didn’t share that one night together. If it was possible to forget, I would’ve forgotten about it already. Lord knows I didn’t want to be reliving it every night alone in my bed. That memory was sticking around permanently. And what a memory.

“I don’t see why you can’t give him a chance while he’s between your legs. You’d at least get some relief if he was f**king you into the friend zone.”

“Pwincess Mia!” Nolan’s husky voice comes echoing down the hallway.

“Hold on one second!” I snap my head around toward a grinning Tessa. “I really hope your nephew didn’t hear that,” I scold her, but she merely shrugs her shoulders in response. I grab my phone and stick it into my pocket, stepping in front of the mirror one last time. My hair is definitely not behaving, doing this weird curl thing at the bottom that I am so not digging. And of course, the more I mess with it, the worse it gets. I grumble my irritation under my breath.

“Mmm mmm,” Tessa teases. “Just friends my ass.”

I ignore her and apply some lip gloss. “What’s up with you and Luke? Are you two serious?”

She rolls over onto her back, moaning playfully. “Luke is fun. Really fun. Tie me up and own my body fun.”

I should be shocked by that description, but I’m not. Tessa is into anything involving men. Especially when it involves fun stuff. “But not serious fun?”

“I don’t know. I like him and he likes me. I don’t need anything more than that.” We meet each other’s eyes in the mirror. She wants to tell me more, I can tell, but decides against it and gives me a sly smile instead. “How many condoms will you be taking with you tonight?”

“You are ridiculous.” I flip her off over my shoulder, walking down the hallway and into the living room. Nolan is swinging his sword in the air behind the sofa, slaying invisible enemies, but my eyes don’t linger on him. They can’t. Not when he is in the room. All my focus is magnetically pulled in the direction of Ben who is leaning against the counter. He straightens when he sees me, melting me with his smile that beams like a thousand watt bulb. If I was wearing heels right now, I definitely would’ve stumbled.

“Hey,” he says, twirling his keys on his finger. It’s so casual, like any normal greeting between friends, but his greeting makes my spine tingle and my toes curl. God, how does he do that? How does he turn a simple hey into so much more than that? I feel that hey settle between my legs and root itself there permanently.

“Hey,” I reply, trying to sound as sure and steady with this whole friendship thing as he does. However, my hey comes out broken and weak, giving away my anxiety. Although, even if I wouldn’t have spoken, I’m sure my body language would be displaying my nervousness for all to see. I am completely rigid and the conversation with Tessa that just transpired moments ago is playing on loop in my mind.