Page 18 of No Summer Hotter than You

“Hey, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to drag you into that mess. But thanks for helping me get out of it. She was a bit too persistent,” he said. His light eyes quickly searched mine, nervously. “Is everything all right?”

“I—I—” I answered, meekly. “Yeah, it’s just?—”

Anthony reached out to me and rubbed soothing circles into my shoulder. We had never been much of the touchy type of friends. In all the years I had known him, I think we had only truly hugged three or four times before my accident. The hug we shared after that incident was the longest and tightest we’ve ever hugged one another. So, the simple physical touch from him sent waves of shivers down my spine. It felt nice to be in his embrace then and now.

“Are you getting sick? Why are you shivering?” he asked, immediately putting the back of his other hand on my forehead.

As Anthony fussed over me for those mere seconds, I couldn’t deny how happy I felt, and that made me worried. What if this stupid little crush grew stronger and more intense? What if I couldn’t bring myself to let these feelings go?

I swallowed thickly. “I wanted to tell you I’ll say yes,” I said.

“Yes to what?” he asked.

“To be your fake girlfriend,” I whispered.

While I could wallow in my what ifs, I had the perfect opportunity to burn all that I felt for him into cinder and ash. Then never look back.

Or fall dangerously deeper for him.

Before I could even see the way his eyes lit up, he immediately pulled me into a tight embrace. With my face buried between his pecs, I shakily let out a breath with my heart beating out of my chest.

I was going to be my best friend’s fake girlfriend.

CHAPTER 7

anthony

I was so fucking happy I was even humming, which I never did. I caught myself doing that as I put extra care into making Shoua’s iced coffee. I was so grateful last night when I came home from the brewery that I made a special vanilla syrup for her coffee. I’m still not sure what the hell it was.

Shoua agreed to be my fake girlfriend.

She didn’t know this, but I found some real vanilla pods at the farmers market we went to Thursday night. I had been wanting to try out different things to make her usual vanilla hazelnut lattes better, so I figured the vanilla pods might do the trick. I wasn’t much of a cook, but when it came to making homemade specialty coffee syrups, I was the man, and I made one just for her.

“Good morning!” I grinned as I spotted her in her kitchen.

I came through the back door this morning instead of the front. I typically wouldn’t walk over to Shoua’s place this early in the morning over the weekend, but we needed to map out the details and boundaries of this fake relationship. Although I was fine with verbal agreement, Shoua was insistent on a written one. It was Saturday, and we needed to get our shit together before Evelyn and Kelvin got here in the afternoon.

“Morning,” she grumbled, blinking sleepily at me.

Just as I was about to hand her the coffee, I immediately noticed something different. I set my drink down and reached out to take her hand in mine.

“When did you get your nails done?” I asked.

I glanced at her shimmery, long, baby pink manicured nails and then at her matching pedicured toes. I was certain she didn’t have these last night when we went out to the brewery.

“You noticed the nails?” she asked, surprised. She quickly swiped her drink out of my hand and took a long blissful sip.

I grinned. “I notice everything about you, Shoua. And I’m sure these nails weren’t on your fingers last night.”

“I woke up early and did it myself,” she answered casually. “Like it?”

I’ve had enough girlfriends to know that it could easily take hours to get nails done. I laughed as I drew over the butterfly she put on her middle finger nail. It’d honestly be cute as fuck cute if she flipped Evelyn and Kelvin off with her pink nails and little butterfly. But she wouldn’t. Shoua was always too kind and forgiving.

“I love it,” I said, letting go of her hand.

“Thanks.” She flashed me a small smile and then walked over to her dining table where a legal pad and pen sat. She was all set and ready.

“Hurry up, Anthony. We don’t have all day,” Shoua said, sipping her drink away. “By the way, the coffee’s better than usual today. Did you do something different to it?”

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