Love Thy Neighbor (Friend-Zoned)(60)

Unable to move, I stand where I am at the counter. Pie forgotten and with stinging eyes, I ask, “Tatiana’s gonna have a brother or sister?”

Tina smiles. “Yeah, honey. She is. I’m just past six weeks. We were going to wait til eight to tell you all.”

Lowering my head, I cry silently. Happiness can be overwhelming that way. Sometimes you feel so full of it that you could just burst and happiness would fly out everywhere. Tina comes over to me and wraps her arms around me. We stay that way for a while. When I finally get myself together, I shriek, “Today is awesome!”

We all laugh, talk and eat pie. Turning to Tina, I utter, “Nik must’ve been on you like syrup on pancakes if he got you pregnant that quick.”

Looking pissed, she puts her hand on her hip. “I know, right? I told him we needed to use protection but he was all,” Putting on her best deep Nik voice, “Nah, baby. You’re breastfeeding. We don’t need to use a thing. It’ll be okay.” Her eyes widen and she continues, “The ass already knew he was knocking me up! Wasn’t even surprised when I told him I was pregnant. Just flashed me the damn dimple.” Smiling to herself, she looks over to us and admits, “It’s a magical dimple. It makes me do things I normally wouldn’t want to.”

Laughing our asses off at her silliness, I tell myself that even though I can’t have kids, I will stop being bitter about it. And surprisingly, I feel lighter.

Today is going to be a good one.





Chapter Nineteen

Sleep talking kills





Coming home to the apartment, I’ll admit I’m nervous as f*ck. I’m still awaiting some form of retribution from Asher for this morning’s mixed breakfast chaos.

Stepping into the door, I flip on the light and look around through narrowed eyes. Everything looks okay, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure, so I tiptoe through the apartment, past the kitchen and down the hall into my room. Nothing there either.

That’s weird. Surely I haven’t won. Ghost wouldn’t allow that.

Yes, Ghost wouldn’t but would Asher? I’m not sure. Perhaps. He’s always been gentlemanly when he’s here what with letting me suck his cock and all. A knock at the door sounds and I jump into a wrestling stance. My heart beats a mile a minute and my legs wobble.

Holy crap, that scared me.

“Nat, open up.” Shit. That’s Asher.

Feet don’t fail me now.

Wait? What the hell is he doing at the front door? Now I’m convinced something’s not right. I walk over to the door and yell though it, “What do you want, butthead?”

He chuckles, “Open the door.”

Leaning back on the door, I check my nails and state, “No.”

Silence then, “Why not?”

I turn to the door and poke it as if I would be poking Ash’s chest. I snap, “I smell something fishy here! Why didn’t you just break in like you always do?”

Silence then, “I thought it might make your highness mad seeing as she kicked me out yesterday morning.”

This is quite possibly a reasonable answer. Still unsure, I ask, “What do you want?”

He answers, “I brought you a gift.”

No way! Retreat! It’s a trap!

I don’t say a word. I’m sure this is some joke. I yell out, “Is this some kind of joke?”

He says, “Nope. I got you. You got me. We’re even, so if you got any more pranks up your sleeve, call ‘em off. I don’t wanna spend another morning scraping f*ckin’ pancakes off the ceiling.”

I can’t help the chuckle that breaks free. I tell him through my chuckles, “Okay. Well, leave it at the door then.”

He utters, “I really wanted to show you how to use it, but…okay.”

Listening through the door, I hear his apartment door close. Still uncertain if this is a trick, I open the door, snatch up the small white box and slam the door shut in record time. I narrow my eyes at the box and turn it every which way to get a better look at it. The packaging gives nothing away.

What if you open the box and there are bugs in it?

The bastard! I put my ear to the box and shake it. Doesn’t sound like there are bugs in it. Doesn’t sound like there is anything in it. The box is light as a feather. I sigh at myself as my curiosity gets the better of me and I open it hesitantly. There’s a small vile of orange colored liquid in the very center. On closer inspection, the vial has Chinese writing on it. Considering I don’t speak or know any Chinese, this doesn’t help me. I have no idea what I’m looking at.

Just as I pick up my cell phone to text Ash, the phone chimes in my hand. It’s a message from Asher and I chuckle because I forgot I changed his name in my phone to ASSer. I open it and it contains a link to a website. I click the link and see a picture of the exact vial I have in my hands. I scroll down and read the information. The vial contains an old Chinese remedy which is used as massage oil.

Scrunching my face, I hold the vial close to my nose and sniff. It smells sweet like vanilla.

There isn’t enough oil in the vial to have a full body massage. There’s barely enough in there to massage a foot. I read on and when I get to the part that describes the vials contents as intimate pleasure oil, my eyes widen in interest.

Oh, it’s that kind of oil!