My curiosity runs free as I root around in the garden all afternoon.
I work until I get a text from Penny.
Penny: On my way
Penny: Had some coupons! Picked up groceries
That last one has me laughing. Don’t let my cousin’s sleek, sexy exterior fool you—the girl is the Coupon Queen. She could serve Thanksgiving dinner to an entire army platoon on 15 dollars.
I quickly cut a bunch of flowers for the dinner table then go inside for a quick shower. Just around 5:30, her car squeezes into the driveway behind mine. From my bedroom window, I see her in a cute denim sundress, strutting toward the door with an overflowing grocery bag of her own. She lets herself in. Lexi and her sister, Jessa, aren’t far behind in their little crop tops and jeans, with dessert and red wine in hand.
When I find myself spending far too much time in the mirror fiddling with my top knot and lipgloss, I scold myself internally with a forceful reminder that Jude isn’t looking at me like that. I hurry into a tank top and some yoga pants.
I meet my girls in the kitchen. But the wine and groceries have been abandoned on the counter while my friends stare out the back window with rapt attention.
Lexi’s got a hip propped on the window frame of the breakfast nook as she shovels Ben & Jerry’s into her face.
Jessa is kneeling on the padded bench beside her, face pressed up to the window like a kid at an aquatic park. “Is that an eight-pack?” she breathes.
Penny pokes her head into the window frame to verify. “…Two, three, four, five. Yep, eight-pack,” she announces.
I pad across the room to see what all the fuss is about. One look into the backyard and my mouth goes dry. My new roomie is sitting on a bench under the oak tree in all his flushed, sweaty, shirtless glory, doing some kind of leg exercise.
My brain starts doing that thing again. The thing where Jude’s movements decelerate into slow-mo and smooth 1980s porno music starts playing in the background…
Jude stands and drops his head back to squirt a neon blue liquid from his water bottle into his mouth. Some of the sports drink sprays onto his neck and chest and glides down over his golden skin. His eyes close as he rakes his long fingers through his hair. And there’s that massive dick print again.
Penny and Jessa gasp in harmony.
Penny shoulders Lexi out of the way to get a closer look. My cousin is head-over-heels in love with Walker Kingston. If I had to guess, I’d bet she’s imagining Walker in a similar state of undress as she watches his younger brother. She glances at Lexi hopefully. “Those things are genetic, right?” She motions discreetly at Jude’s junk.
A mouth-splitting grin comes to Lexi’s face. She drops into a chair and crosses her ankles on top of the kitchen table. “Yup!” she announces smugly as she scrapes the bottom of her ice cream tub and licks the spoon.
Rolling my eyes, I smack Lexi’s knee. “Get your feet off my table.”
Lexi's waist is the size of a Sharpie pen. She can eat that tub of ice cream, wash it down with half a bottle of red wine, have three cannolis and a slice of cheesecake and still walk out of here looking tight and toned in her cute crop top and size two jeans. Meanwhile, I gain a pound each time I make eye contact with a cake.
I turn to Penny and Jessa. “Don’t we have a meal to prepare?”
“Give me a second.” Ever the boy-crazed optimist, Jessa excitedly shoos me away. “It’s an eight-pack. I have no clue when I’ll be lucky enough to see another one of those. In real life. I need a minute to absorb all the hotness.” She makes a scooping motion in the air, like she’s sweeping up all the hotness and splashing it into her own face.
“This is really silly. Grown women going bananas over some muscles.” I glance back at Jude and his eight-pack. “And who needs all those abs anyway?!”
Jude wipes his forehead with a towel and now, he’s trudging toward the house as he pulls a T-shirt on. My friends scatter.
Penny and Jessa assume positions in the kitchen, dutifully unpacking grocery bags and pulling cookware from the cabinets. Like they didn’t spend the last ten minutes objectifying and molesting the unsuspecting man with their eyes.
Jude enters the room and he looks a little taken aback to find four guilty-looking women staring back at him. In an instant, his stage-worthy smile—complete with the damn dimples—pops onto his face. “Hello, ladies.”
A chorus of breathy ‘hello’s ring out around the room. Penny throws a glance at me, checking for my reaction to see if I’m okay. I give her a subtle nod.
Lexi introduces Jude to her sister and Jessa’s cheeks are salsa-red the whole time. Jude remembers Penny from back in the day so they take a quick second to catch up with each other as she sets a pot on the stove. Me? I mostly stay silent, blending in with the furniture, the way I tend to do whenever I’m in a crowd. Growing up, I was always the shy one and even as an adult, I still struggle with my introverted tendencies. Probably something to do with being an only child.
Jude makes small talk with the girls for a while. Despite his jokes and banter, I can see it on his face—he’s in pain. When he just can’t bare it anymore, he grabs some ice cubes from the freezer before excusing himself to go take care of his knee. He forces a normal gait as he goes.
When he leaves the room, I quickly take control of the conversation, launching into a discussion about Penny’s new promotion. The three of us dog pile her for a congratulatory hug and she giggles as she shrugs us off.
“Guys, I’ve been working at the Frosty Pitcher forever now. Getting the manager position
