The Magnolia Chronicles: Adventures in Modern Dating(24)

"Hello, Miss Magnolia," he said, propping his hands on his lean hips. "Didn't think I'd see you twice in twelve hours."

"What?" Rob glanced between me and this unwelcome guest.

"Ben," I gritted out, tilting my neck to glare up at my noisy neighbor.

"Who the fuck is Ben?" Rob asked.

Ben glanced to my date. "Who the fuck is this guy?"





Chapter Twelve





My date was furious.

Not gonna lie…it was pretty hot.

I mean, I didn't like guys with anger problems. I didn't need any toxic masculinity in my life, thank you kindly. But this didn't feel like an anger problem to me. It felt like my noisy neighbor boy interrupting an otherwise lovely date and making things peculiar with the suggestion I saw him late last night.

Yeah, I saw him. Technically, he saw a lot more of me than I did of him but that was beside the point. We weren't together last night. He was disturbing the peace and I was the concerned citizen who'd shut up him and his tile saw.

And promised to help him with his remodeling efforts over the weekend.

Jesus Lord, I strolled into some real special situations, didn't I?

"Magnolia," Rob said, a sharp edge in his voice that raised goose bumps on my arms. The best goose bumps. Interesting goose bumps. I could get on board with goose bumps like these. Maybe not right now, in the middle of Flour, but at some point in the potentially naked future. "You know this guy?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," Ben added with a flippant wave toward Rob. I swiveled my gaze toward him and damn, that t-shirt worked. The hoodie he wore last night, it hid all the goods. "Who's the suit?"

"All right, listen," I started, holding both hands up. "I'm having lunch with Rob. He's a—a friend of mine."

"I'd say we're past the point of friends," Rob argued, his brow creasing. This boy. He couldn't talk about anything more than no-strings sex but went all prickly porcupine at the suggestion of mere friendship. So damn prickly. "After everything we've shared and everything you've—ahem—seen."

Still holding my hands up, I shot him a withering glare. "Don't you worry, sweetheart. One of the many wonderful things about me is that I don't forget." He started to argue but I shook my head, saying, "Hush now. I'm talking."

"Can't wait to hear this." Ben crossed his arms—my god, how did anyone get forearms that ropey?—over his chest and rocked back on his heels. For real though, those forearms were straight out of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

"And as for this one," I said, tipping my head toward Ben. "This is the guy who's flipping the house across the street from me." I caught Rob's steely glare. "I told you about that. Remember?"

"I think so," he murmured, busy sizing Ben up.

If I wasn't truly annoyed about this interruption and my brain's inability to process while Ben's bare forearms and Rob's chest were in the picture, I would've enjoyed this moment. I would've sat back, thrilled that two men were metaphorically fighting over who got to piss the circle around me.

Moments like these didn't happen to me. I was the chubby friend, the weird friend, the friend with the hot (or so I was told) brothers. I was always the friend. Never the one everyone wanted.

"What I didn't tell you is that he's been working through the night and waking the dead with his tile saw," I continued.

Rob's glare softened as he blinked at me. "You should've told me about that. I would've—"

"Nope," I interrupted. "I had it under control."

Rob blinked at me again. "I can't decide if that's infuriating or fucking awesome."

"We're going with awesome," I said, glancing back to Ben.

"I'd say infuriating," Ben murmured.

"You would," I replied. "You've been going hard for the past month but you're doing a shit job of it." I pointed at Ben while catching Rob's eye. "I went across the street in the middle of the night—"

"Infuriating," Rob muttered.

"And politely asked him to suspend the home improvement games for a bit," I continued, ignoring Rob as he tossed his hands up and shook his head.

Ben pivoted to face Rob. "Dude. She unplugged my saw and then yelled at me about how to work on a house for ten minutes," Ben said. "There was nothing polite about it. It was actually very indecent."

"That's how I roll, buddy," I replied. This time, he got the withering glare. "And if you want me to help you with your projects, you'll—"

Rob's chair screeched against the floor as he pushed to his feet. "You're helping him?"

If there was anyone in this bakery who wasn't engrossed in our conversation, they were in it now. Goddamn, I did not want to be the subject of another live-tweeted date.

"Yes," I replied, as calm and even as possible. Even if I wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up and sit the hell down. "It drives me crazy when virgin flippers do shoddy work and then sell houses that are basically duct-taped together."

"I'm no virgin," Ben announced, tipping his chin up at me.