Page 14 of Reclaiming Love

Melissa’s cheeks heated. She didn’t want to discuss any of this—and yet she wondered how Heather would react if she were in Melissa’s shoes, when he filmed her half undressed.

Maybe Heather would rise to the occasion.

Maybe Heather would consider it foreplay.

Maybe Melissa was the one with the problem.

“I bet he’s great in bed. He is, isn’t he?” Heather asked as Matt started to walk back with their drinks.

“Stop it,” Melissa hissed, seeing Matt return.

“So you’re the friend I keep hearing about?” Matt said, as he placed their drinks on the table and sat down.

“I am that friend,” replied Heather. “Thanks for the drink.”

Matt shrugged. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All good, I hope.” Heather twirled an unruly bleached lock of curls around her finger.

“I told him we’ve known each other for years,” said Melissa.

“Yeah, so you keep saying.” He barely glanced at her.

Heather looked at Melissa for an unsure moment. “We went to college together and then we ended up wanting to work in the city and we were lucky enough to find Diana and her beautiful condo.”

“Lucky? How’s that?” Matt shuffled his body closer towards Melissa.

“She’s hardly ever there,” replied Melissa, and then wondered if she’d already told him that before. “It feels as though the place is ours.” And Diana didn’t charge them sky high rent either. They put it down to her taking them on because they were two girls, and they seemed decent by her standards, no mad parties or a different boyfriend coming over each week.

“We’re near to downtown,” said Heather.

“So there is no excuse for you not to get to the gym each morning, is there?” he said, turning to Melissa.

The bloody gym. They always ended up talking about the gym and his workouts. Matt leaned in and squeezed her thigh. She couldn’t tell if he’d meant that in his usual snide, sarcastic way or if he was being nice to her.

She felt the heat of Heather’s quick glance at her. “She’s loving the workouts,” said Heather, and Melissa knew exactly which types of workouts she was talking about. She looked daggers at her friend.

“Hard to tell with her. She rolls through the doors late most days,” said Matt tightly.

“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.” Melissa sipped her drink and gave him a hard stare.

“She’s a new and improved Mel. We’ll get there yet,” Matt announced smugly, not reacting to her comment. He seemed to be taking credit for her results.

Heather came to her rescue. “Melissa doesn’t need any improvement. She’s perfect exactly the way she is.”

“I never said she wasn’t perfect. All things can be improved.”

“And you’re saying that because you’ve done a lot of improvement work on yourself, have you?” Heather stared him down.

“Come on, guys.” Melissa tried to intervene, to nip it in the bud, before it became any bigger.

“Nothing wrong with working out. You should try it sometime.” His expression was cool as he glared back at Heather.

“I like breaking out in a sweat every now and then, but using the gym isn’t my preferred route.” Heather welcomed the challenge, and Melissa could see by the way her friend’s eyes flashed and the slight wobble in her voice that she was getting angrier the longer she spoke to Matt.

“Do you guys want to hang out here or shall we get something to eat?” Melissa said, though she knew Matt would want to go home and cook his carefully constructed dietary protein meal.

But they ignored her, and continued to lock horns. Melissa tuned out of the conversation and left them to their verbal sparring. She tuned into the noise around them instead. Casting her glance around the bar, she wondered what it would be like to meet that coffee shop guy—for she had no other way to label him—in a place like this. What would they talk about?

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