I dropped my phone and wallet to the floor, scooping my hands up her back and over her flesh, pushing her into the wall as I opened my mouth, deepening that kiss. It was all I had wanted to do last night. It took everything I had within myself not to lift her, caveman style into my arms and carry her back up to that bed where we’d spend the night before completely chaste, sleeping beside each other.
Her hands raked through my hair, tugging and pulling me harder, firmer against her mouth, and as we parted from the kiss, her lips lingered on my chin dimple.
Her breath was heavy and caused her breasts to push against my chest with each heaving inhale-exhale.
“Friends don’t kiss,” I whispered.
“You just said we’re not friends anymore.” I followed the line of her throat as she swallowed. “And I had to know what you tasted like before you left.”
I groaned and let my forehead fall to hers. “You’re insane, you know that?”
She grinned. “It’s one of my best qualities.”
I tore myself away from her, out of her arms, turning toward the door. At first, I startled because the door was open and I didn’t remember opening it. Only after that, did I register a person standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips smirking at us. Tanja. From Chloe’s bachelorette party.
She said nothing, but her eyebrows lifted, disappearing behind dark, fringed bangs.
I cleared my throat, shouldering past Tanja. “Goodbye, Chloe.”
“Bye, Liam.”
I winced with her goodbye. Two words never sounded so bitter from sweeter lips.
3 Chloe
“Well, well, well…” Tanja shut the door behind her, but not before peeking at Liam through my window as he slipped into his car and backed out of my driveway. “I was coming over to check on you this morning… but maybe you’re not as heartbroken as I thought?”
I gave my best friend a pointed look. We’d known each other since freshman year of undergrad at UNH. If people thought I was a wild child, then they clearly had never met Tanja Wilson. She put all of us to shame. She loved attention. Loved the spotlight. And even though she was desperate to be an actress, she only moved to New York for six months before giving up and coming back home to New Hampshire. Though she never said it, I got the impression she much preferred to be a big fish in a small pond.
“My fiancé has been cheating on me. For years. Yes, I am heart-broken.”
Tanja winced and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Did you know?” I asked, crossing deeper into my kitchen and pouring myself another mug of coffee.
Tanja shook her head. “Of course not! I mean… there were times I suspected. But I didn’t know.”
I pulled a second mug out of the cabinet and poured her a cup, too, leaving room for the two creams and two sugars she always added. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
She snorted as she pulled the half-and-half out of the fridge. “Are you kidding? I saw how you bit your sister’s head off every time she insinuated that Dan might not be ‘working’ until 9:00 p.m. as a dentist in a small town.” She shrugged, pouring a dollop of cream into both our mugs. “I figured if you weren’t listening to your sister, there was no way you’d listen to me.”
I took a slow sip of coffee. Was that true? Would I have ignored Tanja completely? Maybe… But also, maybe with a second perspective, I could have better seen what was right under my nose. I shook my head. “My sister was so jaded by Brad, I just didn’t think she could see clearly. If I had known the rest of my friends noticed the warning signs, too, maybe I could have—”
Tanja dropped her mug heavily down against my marble counter and held her hand up, halting the conversation. “Stop right there. Because I can see where this is going. We are not going to let Dr. Douchebag cause a fight between us, okay? He is the one you’re mad at. He deserves your anger. Not me.”
I swallowed and blinked back the pricking tears that burned against the edges of my eyes. “You’re right.” I fell heavily onto one of the bar stools and closed my eyes against the onslaught of tears. “Anyway, that kiss you saw… it wasn’t… anything.”
“It looked like something.”
“It was a goodbye kiss. Liam was so sweet last night and then our siblings just broke up. I think it’s the nail in the coffin on whether we could ever date, or probably even be friends, if my sister and his brother are at odds.”
Tanja’s face twisted. “Who in their right mind would want to be friends with an Evans brother? The Evans boys are for fucking, not friending.”
I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes. “Liam is … really great. He’s thoughtful and sweet and funny.” I chuckled remembering his hatred of When Harry Met Sally. “And frankly… I’m a mess. If I dated him, I’d probably ruin him. Ruin us.”
“Ahh, yes,” Tanja said, blowing the steam from the top of her coffee. “Tasmanian Chloe strikes again. Too bad, though. Not only is he hot in that quiet, brooding way—but I bet if you two dated, Elaina and Neil would be forced to make up. They’d have to talk it out and would probably make up from whatever stupid fight they had.”
Hmmm. I narrowed my eyes, looking at my sister’s text again. She didn’t say why they broke up. But I just couldn’t imagine Neil pulling a stunt like Brad or Dan. If he did, then he certainly didn’t deserve a second chance. But if Tanja was right and it was a stupid misunderstanding… maybe she was onto something?
“If Liam and I were friends, they’d eventually have to see each other.”
“Exactly.” Tanja snapped, pointing at me. “Granted,
