Page 69 of Friends With Benefits

“The rest of your life is a long time,” Mitch said cautiously. “You can’t know that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. That never happens.”

“It does happen!” She scrambled out of the bed, pulling the sheet with her. She stood there staring at him.That never happens?Obviously he didn’t picture the two of them together for long. When he said nothing, her heart contracted sharply as if it were actually breaking. “No,” she whispered again.

After another long moment heavy with unspoken disappointment and sorrow, Kerri turned to look for her clothes, almost blind with grief. She felt around and almost by touch alone found her underwear. She set it aside and pulled on her jeans and T-shirt, stuffed the panties in her pocket. Her hands shook so much she almost couldn’t button her jeans.

“Kerri, what are you doing?” Mitch asked, his voice pleading. “Don’t go.”

She snorted. “You expect me tostay?” Her throat ached and her stomach tightened painfully. She shoved her feet into her flip flops and stumbled out of the bedroom. She found her purse and dug for her keys. Shit. She had no way to get home.

She grabbed his keys off the table near his front door and slammed out. She hurried to his SUV, in a panic that he would follow her and try to stop her, almost unable to get the key into the ignition with her trembling hands. The engine roared as she started it and put it in gear, just as Mitch emerged from the front door, having pulled on a pair of boxers. He stood there as she squealed out of his driveway and up the street.

She had no idea how she’d get his vehicle back to him. All she knew was she couldn’t stay there a second longer after he dropped that bombshell on her.

Only it wasn’t a bombshell. It was something she’d always known, and she was embarrassed and humiliated that she had wrongly assumed his feelings about marriage would change now they were in love.

It was insulting. Debasing. Killer painful.

She drove recklessly home through the dark streets, thankful that there was little traffic as tears blurred her vision.

At home, she stumbled into her bedroom and fell on the bed, sobbing with huge, aching sobs that racked her body until she fell asleep, emotionally exhausted.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mitch watched Kerri peel out in his vehicle and shoved a hand into his hair, holding the back of his head. His gut cramped. Shit.

He rubbed his face as he stood there, leaning against the doorframe, watching the red taillights disappear. Maybe he could have handled that better. He knew that was a sensitive topic. But, he defended himself, she also knew he had no intention of ever getting married. Why on earth would she think he would change his mind?

He shut the door as he moved back into his dark, silent house, even emptier without Kerri there. Lately, if she wasn’t at his place, he was at hers. He was getting used to her being around all the time.

He dropped down onto his couch, knees spread, hands hanging down between them, head bowed. The last thing he’d ever wanted to do was hurt Kerri. He almost groaned with the pain of having hurt her. He sat up and rubbed his chest, peered at the ceiling.

Maybe she’d get over it. He’d go over tomorrow to get his vehicle and talk to her. She’d be less emotional and they’d be able to talk about it rationally. There was no reason they couldn’t go on just as they had been. Things were great. Maybe they could even move in together at some point. He might be okay with that, even though admittedly that wasn’t a far cry from marriage.

But it was different. The expectations were less, there was no anticipation that living together would be forever, setting them up for a spectacular, hostile failure.

***

“They’ve all been using it!” Sela put her hands on Kerri’s desk and leaned toward her, her face flushed and eyes flashing.

Kerri leaned back in her chair and watched her sister numbly.

“All of them? All the massage therapists?” she clarified.

“Yes! And apparently it came from you! I cannot believe this. Why the hell would you do something like that behind my back?”

The secret massage oil was out. Kerri sighed, but after what had happened with Mitch on the weekend, it was hard to get too worked up about massage oil.

“It’s really not that big a deal, Sela,” she said dully. “Chill.”

Sela’s face reddened even more and she straightened, clenching her hands into fists at her side. “Chill! Kerri, you are way too laid back. I don’t know how you run a business like that. You can’t just do things like that…what if someone had some kind of horrible allergic reaction? We can’t be using products without making sure they’re safe and tested.”

“Has anybody had a reaction?”

“Well, no. But they could have.”

“The products are all natural botanical ingredients, pure and simple and safe,” Kerri told her sister. “Not only that, I didn’t actually intend for your massage therapists to use them on clients. I gave some oil to Amanda once to try on herself. I didn’t know she was going to start using it here.”

“But you kept giving it to her!”

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