“Whatever you say. The only thing I know is that you like Ben, and he likes you, but you are both dancing around the fact like you are trained dancers in The Nutcracker. You need to get on that shit,” she says with a laugh and a hand clap to accentuate her point. “Before someone else does,” she finishes ominously.
Yep, it’s official. I hate how right she is.
I sink off the recliner and sit on the floor, pressing a pillow over my face and uprooting Danger, who gives a little yelp and trots off down the hallway. He’s done with our shenanigans. I hear him paw at the door, and a moment later, Ben opens it, softly murmuring to him and pretty much lighting me on fire with the sweet sounds. I lean back where I’m sitting and remove the pillow from my face. I have a clear view down the hallway as he picks up Danger, cradling him to his chest.
Oh my gosh. I think my panties have melted.
This is bad. So bad.
I glance up to see Andi still smirking at me, and I groan.
“Okay, you’re right. But I’m wildly inexperienced. Like, wildly,” I stress.
She narrows her eyes at me and purses her lips. “How inexperienced are we talking?”
She leans forward, looking very interested, and I instantly regret telling her anything. Or alluding to anything.
“I mean, not a lot. I’ve done … stuff.”
“Stuff? What kind of stuff?”
“Never mind. Let’s just drop it,” I say.
I drag the pillow back up, but Andi leans down and grabs it, holding it out of my reach.
“Nope, no can do. You said it, and now, you have to live with the consequences. What kind of inexperienced are we dealing with?”
“I’m-not-sexually-experienced,” I groan.
“Speak up, woman. This is serious,” Andi growls.
“I’m not, um … sexually experienced, I guess you could say. Meaning I’ve never, um … had sex.” My voice gets high-pitched at the end, and I know my face is the color of a freshly painted fire engine.
“Is that a question or a statement?” Andi raises one eyebrow.
“A statement.” I punctuate the sentence with a curt nod and a sigh.
“Are you telling me, you’re a virgin?”
“I’m not, not telling you I’m a virgin,” I squeak out, and she starts laughing.
“This is gold. No, really. This is great,” she says between bouts of laughter as if I said the funniest thing she’d heard in ages. “Just come out and say it. There’s no shame in being a—”
“Shut up.” My eyes go wide when I hear Ben’s door open down the hall.
Andi only laughs harder, and I contemplate opening my front door and shoving her outside, locking her out of my life forever. But, no, she’s my only friend here, as she so subtly pointed out earlier.
I need better taste in friends.
I go quiet, and Andi continues laughing as Ben walks into the room, heading straight for the kitchen, where he pulls something out of the fridge and pops it into the microwave. I’m silently praying for the floor to open up and swallow me because in my worst nightmares, I see Andi spilling my big secret to Ben out of trying to do you a solid, sis, and then I would be exposed for the child I am, prompting Ben to never look at me the same way again.
“Either of y’all hungry?” Ben’s deep voice cuts through the tension brewing inside my body, and I jerk a little.
“Nah, I’ve got to run,” Andi says, standing and stretching a little, her amused expression focused on me. “This isn’t over.”
“This is so over,” I say, and she only winks in answer.
Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead, rings through my head, and I resist the urge to slap my palm against my forehead. Gah, I’m such an idiot.
“What’s not over?” Ben’s face appears around the partition, and he stops to look at both of us.
I can only imagine what we look like. Andi’s face says that she has a juicy secret to tell, and my face says, Tell him, and I will murder you, Breaking Bad–style, and then I’ll find a barrel to dump your body in.
“Nothing,” we say together.
Andi gathers her purse and phone. I walk her to the door, and she gives me a small hug before leaving, letting me finally breathe again once it’s shut behind her.
“Nothing,” I tell him again as I turn to face him, finding his intense, dark gaze still on me as he chews on whatever he has in his bowl.
He gives me a nod before heading back toward his room, Danger flitting in and out from between his feet, hoping for a bite before the door closes with a thud.
I sigh and lean back against the front door, rolling my eyes toward the ceiling as I try to convince myself to make the first move. But true to myself, I’m a weenie, and I stay plastered to the door, content to stay the course and one day be a forty-year-old virgin.
15 Ben
I need a break, some time to just let loose. Now that I have sexual tension greeting me at home and the impending visit from Pepper’s parents, I make plans to meet the guys for dinner. This is the first time we’ve all had a shift off at the same time since we played basketball together.
I figure it’s a good time for us to get together and catch up since everyone has wives and families that keep them busy. Everyone but me. It’s not that I envy them, but I guess, in a way, I do. I envy their stable environment.
They don’t have gambling-addicted brothers leeching off them, and they go home to loving wives at night. I go home to my room and usually have a rousing good date with my right hand before slipping
