Page 21 of Somebody To Love

“Oh no, no, no, no!”

Grabbing her pillow, she flung herself back on the bed, smothering her face with soft goose downy feathers. “Please tell me I don’t have the hots for BJ.”

Again, her empty apartment didn’t answer. Not a problem. She didn’t need an answer. She knew the answer. No. No, she did not have the hots for her best friend. This was all her mind’s way of working out this strange situation. Sure, Bravo Jackson was one hot stud muffin. Ripped and handsome with his sharp jawline, sexy beard, and those blue eyes as bright as the midday sky. And, okay, he was probably the only man in a hundred miles who could pull off the man bun.

Denver was hipster central, and being less than an hour away, Kismet got plenty of hipster overflow. But no one could pull off the man bun like BJ. His long waves always held the body and motion of a shampoo commercial. Damn irritating how her best friend had such luscious locks when her pathetic red strands hung like a rag mop two years past its prime. She’d hate him for it. If she didn’t secretly fantasize about running her fingers through his shoulder length hair to see if it was as luxurious as it seemed.

But he was her friend. Her best friend. And best friends did not dream about bumping naughty parts with each other. Or, at least, she didn’t.

Not much.

Not a lot.

Not more than a few times a year.

Okay, so she’d thought about BJ sexually. What woman who was attracted to men wouldn’t? But that didn’t mean she would risk their friendship by going there. Nuh uh. No way. He meant too much to her to throw it all away on a night of good sex.

Psssshhhh. More like a night of phenomenal sex.

No arguing with herself there. She had absolutely zero doubt in her mind that sex with BJ would be off the charts. Something she could in no way handle. Which was why she preferred to keep their relationship strictly friendly. No benefits.

Liar.

“Buzz off!” she muttered to her stupid, horny self.

She valued BJ’s friendship, and she would not do anything, anything, to screw it up. She didn’t have many friends…okay she had almost zero friends beyond him. To risk losing him over a few passionate nights in the sack was non-negotiable.

And it would only be a few nights. She wasn’t silly enough to think a woman like her could keep his attention. She’d seen the women he’d dated in the past. Bubbly, funny, sexy. She couldn’t hold a candle to them. Beat them in a game of trivia or an SAT test, maybe, but compete with them socially?

“You took all the brains, and I got the personality and looks. That’s why I need you to do this report for me.”

Her sister’s favorite excuse when she wanted Penny to do her homework. Yeah, she knew she was socially inept. She was an autistic woman living in an allistic world. People reminded her she was different every day. No one got her weird humor or understood how she could spend hours staring at a computer screen coding instead of posting on social media. Just because she didn’t fit in with the neurotypicals of the world didn’t mean anything.

Then why haven’t you had a date in over a year?

“Harsh, brain. I thought we were in this together.”

When she was once again treated to the silence of her home, she pushed back the covers and headed to the bathroom to get ready for her day. Pushing the dream far, far into the back corners of her mind, she hurried through her morning routine and headed out the door less than an hour later.

Her first stop of the day was Blithe Boutiques.

“Good morning, ladies,” she called out as she entered the quaint little shop. The tiny bell above the door announced her arrival.

“Good morning, dear,” Olive’s chipper voice called out. “How are you today? Would you like some hot tea?”

She smiled at Olive. The old woman loved her hot tea. Normally she’d pass as she preferred iced tea to hot, but this September was blowing in with a chill that threatened a long, hard winter. “Thank you. I’d love some.”

“Apple? Tea?”

“Hot overpriced weed water?” The elder Blithe scoffed. “I’ll stick to plain old tap, thank you very much.”

Olive sighed, her smile tightening. “It’s not weeds, it’s herbs.”

“Same thing.”

Penny ignored the sisters’ bickering. Everyone knew the old biddies loved each other, even if they were exact opposites. She took her laptop out of her shoulder bag and sat at the small table in the corner covered in lace doilies.

“I have the new design for your site. I think you’re really going to like it. I added the wish list feature you requested.”

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