The Friendship List(36)

Keith glanced at his. Yup, still three-quarters full.

“You’re just in a bad place,” he told her, wondering how the drink would hit her in the next few minutes, not to mention in the morning. “You need to give yourself credit for all you’ve accomplished.” He stiffened as an uncomfortable thought occurred to him. “You were Lissa’s age when you got pregnant and had Cooper.”

“I was. Seventeen. Did you know there was some song in the 1970s about being seventeen? I heard it a few times. It was sad.”

“You’re starting to not make sense.” He eyed her drink. “How much did you eat at dinner?”

“Not much. I can’t eat when I’m upset.” Tears filled her eyes. “I love Cooper so much.”

He stared at the tears. Ellen was crying? She never cried. He’d seen her angry, frustrated, sad and bone weary but she’d never once cried. He didn’t like seeing it now. He had to make it stop.

He searched frantically for a distraction. Could he offer to buy her something? Take her somewhere?

A single tear rolled down her cheek, nearly sending him to his knees.

“I’ll help,” he blurted.

She reached for her glass only to put it down when she saw it was empty. “Help with what?”

The server appeared with a second cosmo. Ellen exchanged glasses with her and took a big sip before looking at him expectantly.

“The list. I’ll help. Give advice, go with you when you sing karaoke, whatever.”

Not with the sex, though, he told himself. Ellen was his friend. Friends didn’t do that with each other. Sex had a way of changing things and he liked what he had with Ellen just as it was.

“You can’t help me with a smoky eye,” she murmured.

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a makeup thing and it’s hard. I’ve tried like three times and I look ridiculous. Maybe my eyes are the wrong shape. Does that make a difference? It’s all so wrong. Guys just have to put on a suit and they look great. Of course Unity has to wear a dress without a bra, which, frankly, I don’t see happening.”

She wasn’t making any sense. He eyed the half-finished drink. She couldn’t be feeling hers yet, could she?

“Maybe we should get you back to your room,” he told her.

She nodded and gulped the rest of her drink. “Okay.” When she stood, she wobbled a bit. “I feel funny.”

“I’ll bet. Can you wait a sec? I have to pay for the drinks.”

She plopped back in her chair and reached for his half-finished drink. Before he could stop her, she’d downed that as well.

“You’re going to have a hangover in the morning.”

She smiled. “I’ve never had a hangover. I’ve never done a lot of things.”

Like sex.

The thought came out of nowhere and he didn’t like that one bit. No sex, he told himself as he walked over to their server and quickly paid the bill. Zero sex, at least with Ellen. He wasn’t going there. Nope. Not him. No way.

He got her to her feet and guided her toward the elevators. As they went up to their floor, he said, “Promise me you’ll stay in your room tonight.”

She frowned. “Where else would I go?”

“I’m not sure, but you’re acting wild.”

Instead of looking chagrined, she beamed at him. “Wild? I like that. Wild!”

When the doors opened, he grabbed her by her elbow and eased her toward her room. When they were there, she looked at him expectantly. He dug in her purse for the key and opened the door. She stepped inside before turning back to him.

For one insane second, he had the impossible idea of simply following her inside, taking her in his arms and demonstrating what she’d been missing. He found himself wanting to kiss her and touch her and show her that an orgasm with someone else could be even better than one she had by herself.

The visuals shocked the hell out of him, but not nearly as much as the rush of need and hunger. Not just I want to get laid hunger, but a specific burn for the woman in front of him. What was up with that?

Before he could bolt, or figure out a way to go back in time forty minutes and not go into the bar, Ellen smiled, raised herself up on tiptoe, kissed him on the mouth, grabbed the key, then turned away.

“Night.”

As he tried to gather his senses and maybe pick his jaw up off the floor, she walked toward the bed, stepping out of her sandals.

She reached a hand behind her and began pulling down the zipper of her dress. Keith held in a yelp as he quickly stepped into the hallway and shut the door. As he made his way to his room, he wondered how everything had gone so incredibly wrong, so incredibly fast and what he was supposed to do now.



ten


Unity had not thought through her day with Thaddeus. Not the skydiving part—she’d gone onto the website and it looked fun and interesting. No, that would be easy—it was the being with a man thing that had her rattled.

She couldn’t figure out why Thaddeus had called her in the first place. Or what he was thinking. Or, honestly, remember what he looked like, which was why she was pacing and nervous before he’d even arrived.

She’d nearly canceled every hour since they set up the date, um, appointment. Each time she stopped herself. She knew that even though she was never going to get over Stuart, she needed to learn how to behave more normally. She needed to stop hiding and have something close to a life. This was the very first step.