“Pipe, let me in.”
“No. Go away, Ash, please.”
I can’t do it. I cannot look at Ashton and see the disappointment in her eyes. I just made out with her brother. With Bentley Sullivan. That’s not even the problem. The problem is that I’m not sorry. I’ve waited my entire life for that moment. Blame the whiskey, blame the fact that my boyfriend has been cheating on me, blame it on the fucking rain. I don’t care. It was fantastic, and lord help me but I want to do it again.
The moment he started flirting with me I knew he had no idea who I was. That stung a little, but when I realized this was my only opportunity for a moment as someone other than his little sister’s best friend, I took it. And fuck me if it wasn’t worth every minute I’m going to spend lying to my best friend telling her it was awful.
His lips are like soft caramels I felt myself melting into. The moment his tongue touched mine I could feel it all the way to my toes. Of course, it took an excellent detour in my panties along the way. I feel something on my foot and look down.
“What are you doing, Ashton?”
“Well, if you aren’t going to let me in, I’m going to just crawl on this disgusting bathroom floor and under the stall door to get to you. It’s really gross down here, I’m going to need to talk to Taylor about this. Eww, is that pee?”
I open the stall door and laugh at the ridiculousness of this moment.
“I don’t think its pee; this is the women’s restroom. Get up, that’s gross,” I say as I tug at her hands to pull her up. I see the sympathy in her eyes and realize I maybe had one too many shots tonight as I burst into tears.
Ash gathers me in her arms and is rubbing my back as she tries to reassure me that she’ll deal with her asshole brother and make sure he never pulls a stunt like that again. For some reason this sets me off even more. Of course, she thinks it is because I’m upset about Tony, upset Ben just gave me the best kiss of my life, and I’m drunk. She’s got one thing right – I’m drunk.
“Ash, I need to go home. I’m sorry. I’ll get a cab and I’ll call you in the morning.”
“I understand. Let me walk you out and make sure you’re okay.”
We stop by the bar to grab my phone and Taylor lets us know he already called a cab for me. I attempt to open the compartment on my phone case that holds my debit card when Taylor waves me off from paying. I let Ash guide me out of the bar and say a little prayer I won’t see Ben along the way. The wait for my cab is minimal and once I’m inside Ashton heads back in to work and I head home.
Bentley Sullivan. Even thinking his name makes me touch my lips. I cannot believe the direction this night took. I went to Country Road because Tony was, is, a cheating bastard and I needed my best friend and booze. I never expected to have one of my teenage fantasies come true. Then real life resurfaced and now I find myself drunk in the back of a cab driven by the man who used to be the crosswalk attendant when we were kids regaling me with stories of his own drunken nights. Fabulous.
Mr. Denning pulls up to my apartment and argues with me over the fare before I agree to keep the money and take my mom for coffee instead. I wave goodbye and make my way up the stairs, sobering up a little with each step. I unlock my door and feel my phone vibrate in my hand. Once I make it in the door, lock the door behind me, and toss off my shoes I allow myself to look at the phone. It’s a text from Tony. Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment because I open the text.
Tony: What the fuck Piper!
As soon as my eyes finish reading his text I glance up to see what he’s talking about. Someone sent him the picture of Ben and me kissing with a comment. Oh shit, that’s funny. I grab a bottle of water from the fridge before I head to my bed and throw myself down on it. I can’t stop laughing. The idea of Tony receiving that text is more than I can handle. Imagining his face when he opened the picture throws me into a bigger fit of giggles.
I click on the picture so that it fills my screen and my heart flutters. Seeing the kiss sends my lips tingling at the memory. I’ve kissed my share of guys, not a boat load or anything but enough, and thought they were good kisses. But, I was wrong. Those kisses, in fact all the kisses before Bentley Sullivan, were mediocre at best.
This time in response to Tony’s text I power off my phone and crawl under the covers, not even bothering to change my clothes. I fall asleep to the memories of Ben’s voice, his hands on my face, and his soft lips. I’ll deal with the repercussions tomorrow.
Tomorrow is minutes after I fall asleep, or so it seems. I am jarred awake by a banging on my door. I glance at the clock to see it’s eight in the morning. Shit, I missed boot camp. This can’t have come as a surprise to Ash considering my state when she put me in the cab. I throw back the covers and slowly make my way to the front door. I open the door to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and a greasy bag of goodness.
“You are a goddess,” I say to Ash as she pushes past me and straight to my small living space. I live in a small apartment so I have very little furniture, but have managed to make it homey and mine.
“Yes, well that is always the case, but today I have to say I’m in agreement. You look like death and smell like you slept in a bed of whiskey.” Offering me a smirk, she hands me a coffee and a bag that is already sporting grease stains from the piece of heaven I know waits for me. A breakfast burrito from Rosa’s.
“Please tell me this is the meat lover’s,” I mutter as I stuff my face with the deliciousness.
“Of course. I know you and what you need after whiskey. I’ll give you a minute to devour that burrito and maybe shower before we talk about my brother’s attack on your poor mouth.”
I guess it was wishful thinking to assume Ash would let this go. I take another bite of my burrito before rolling it back up and putting it in the bag. I set the bag in the fridge and head toward the bathroom. I recognize I haven’t responded and I’m sure Ash will think it is because I’m upset about the kiss. The reality of it all is that I need to get my game face on. There is no way I can tell her it wasn’t an attack. That I welcomed it and wouldn’t turn down an opportunity for it to happen again. Ash is a lot of things, but I know for a fact she wouldn’t be okay with me having a thing for her brother.
I turn on the water and strip off last night’s clothes. As soon as the water hits my skin I feel the tingles everywhere. I stand under the hotter-than-normal water for a few minutes before slipping in my shower routine. Once I am sufficiently free of last night’s ick and the lingering smell of whiskey I towel off and wipe the mirror of the steam.
Looking back at me is a tired girl who is losing herself in these loser guys she’s been dating. I shake off the pitiful thoughts as quickly as I let them surface. I brush my teeth – twice. And manage to feel more human by the time I put on some lounge wear and grab my phone off my nightstand. I make my way out to the living room and plug my phone in before powering it up.
Ash is in the kitchenette washing my dishes. That girl cannot go a day without cleaning something. It’s almost compulsive but beneficial to those she loves. My phone is just powered up when she flops herself on the couch next to me and my phone starts going off with every type of alert available. Text messages, voicemail, e-mail notification, and private messages. I groan as I start with text messages. Three more from Tony, two from Ash this morning, and one from an unknown number.
I delete all of Tony’s without reading them. I laugh at Ash’s texts and hit her with the pillow.
“Really? I’m the asswipe for missing boot camp? You are the bartender that got me drunk!”
We are both laughing as she grabs the remote to turn on the TV and I click on the unknown number.
Unknown: I stole your number from Ash’s phone. Don’t be mad. I wanted to make sure you’re ok.
I don’t have to know who the number belongs to; I know it’s Ben. I sneak a peek to Ash and make sure she’s distracted before I respond.
Me: I have a horrible hangover but I’m okay. Ash brought me Rosa’s, all is well. Thanks for checking on me.
Learning from last night’s crapfest of texts, I turn the sound off my phone so any response doesn’t send an alert and set my phone down. Deep inside, okay not so deep just pretty much on the surface, I am giddy that he found my number. But, hos before bros and all that.
Ash and I spend the next few hours just watching television and taking the occasional cat nap. By mid-day I can feel the tension mounting and am bracing myself for the moment Ash hits me with the Ben confrontation. When she gets up to use the restroom, I grab my phone to check for texts. I see a few more from Tony – delete. Then I notice three from the unknown number, which I quickly change from “unknown” to “B,” then click on the text icon.
Ben: Rosa’s. Jealous. I just had a bowl of cereal and wheat toast. Not even a comparison.
2 minutes later:
Ben: I should be sorry about last night but I’m not.
Ben: Sorry about that. Pretend this never happened.
Of course he’s sorry. No matter how far I’ve come I’m still Piper Lawrence, frizzy-haired chubby best friend of Ben’s little sister. Regardless of how much time has passed and how much we’ve aged, he is still Bentley Sullivan and completely and utterly unattainable. But, for a brief moment, I allow myself an opportunity to imagine a life where a Bentley Sullivan wants more than a bar kiss with a Piper Lawrence. I grant myself that daydream knowing good and well it’ll never happen.
“What has you looking all dreamy?”
I’m startled by Ashton’s voice as she throws herself on the couch next to me and tosses me a water.
“Nothing,” I say, shaking my head. “Just a one of those hot guys with a cat meme. You know hot guys don’t have cats. I’m bored and could stand getting out of here, how about it?”
“Uh sure, but a quick talk? First, how are you holding up with this Tony bullshit? My offer still stands to cut off his balls.”
I smile and nudge Ash with my foot. “Ha-ha, I think we should leave his balls alone. Oh my God! Do you thinking he’s been having sex with the girls he finds on that site? What if … what if he has a disease?” The last part comes out almost a whisper. I hadn’t thought about that. Crap.
“Oh, Piper, I don’t know. He’s obviously a lying bastard so we should probably get you to the clinic. Sorry, babe. I know its borderline inappropriate but I kind of told you. Remember how Tony was in high school? He was a total man-whore.” I offer her a raised brow and begin to reply. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she says as she waves her hand in the air dismissively. “He’s not a good guy. Remember what a dick he was to Ben?”
I do remember. I hated the way Tony was toward Ben. Even though Ashton and I were only in school a year at the same time as Ben and Tony, I knew enough from spending my free time at the Sullivan’s’ that the rivalry between Tony and Ben was epic. Competitive by nature, the guys were always competing for a starting position. The rivalry only intensified when Ben and his high school sweetheart, Claire, were nominated for homecoming king and queen every year. Tony hated all of the attention good-guy Ben received. I have to give Tony some credit though, while he was obviously not putting my feelings first when he was off canoodling with girls from that dating site, he never said one negative thing about Ben while were together. He knows how important the Sullivan family is to me. Plus, I think he was a little scared of Ashton and didn’t want to piss her off by talking smack about her brother.
So, yes, I certainly remember. “And?” I ask. She looks at me, confused. “You said first, which implies there are more points to make.”
“I hate when you get all teachery on me. Fine, and my brother shouldn’t have kissed you like that and I’m sorry. I know how disgusting that must have been. I’ll have a talk with him and make sure that never happens again. God, what a jerk. I swear, that’s what he gets for hanging out with Jameson Strauss. Talk about man-whore. That guy is disgusting and I bet his dick falls off one day.”
I do love when Ashton gets riled up about Jameson. That girl has been crushing on Jameson about as long as I’ve crushed on Bentley. Jameson has never seen Ash as anything other than Ben’s little sister and it drives her nuts. When we were in high school and Ben was gone, Ash hoped that was her chance at putting the moves on Jameson, but he rejected her at every turn. Personally, I think that Jameson hasn’t given Ash the time of day because he may actually like her. Ashton is challenging and that is something Jameson doesn’t experience often. No, Jameson usually has girls flinging their panties at him like he’s a rock god. Which, by the way, he isn’t. If there is one thing Jameson Strauss lacks, it’s a singing voice. But, like she said, man-whore. I don’t think there’s a girl in this town Jameson hasn’t spent time with.
“Umm, well…” Do I dare say anything? “So, maybe it wasn’t so bad,” I say rapidly as I stand up and slide my feet into a pair of flip-flops and head toward the door.
“Whoa. What now? It wasn’t so bad? Do you mean you liked it? You liked kissing my brother?” The squeak in her voice stops me and I turn toward her. Her eyes are so big they look like little green saucers and her mouth is formed into some sort of grimace that is slightly laced with exasperation and very laced with horror.
“What? No, of course not. I didn’t like kissing your brother.” I see the tension leave her face and eventually her shoulders. Relief. I see relief in her previously shocked eyes. I don’t dare tell Ashton that I actually loved kissing her brother. That a kiss from Bentley Sullivan set my soul on fire as easily as it triggered something in my lady parts I’ve never experienced. Yeah, it’s probably best I keep that to myself.
“I just mean, well, it wasn’t awful. So, you know, don’t make a big deal about it, okay? Let it go. It was a drunken night. I just found out about Tony and he just moved back. Hey, maybe someone saw and word will get back to Tony I moved on or something. You should be thanking your brother!”
I know Ashton Marie Sullivan better than I probably know myself. I know when she’s assessing and in this moment her assessment is about to blow my nonchalant attitude out of the water. I offer her a raised brow and a slight smirk to show I’m not taking this kissing thing too serious. She smiles and heads my way.
“Thank goodness, because that shit cannot happen again. It not only grossed me out, causing me to have really bad dreams about you and my brother making babies, but it’s just bad news. It was just wrong on so many levels.” She dramatically shudders as she walks passed me and heads down the stairs. I love that girl, but now I can’t get that visual out of my mind as I lock the door. Before I turn toward the stairs my phone vibrates.
Ben: I’ve thought about it. I’m not sorry. Can we meet?
How do I respond to this and not completely ruin my friendship with Ashton? I shouldn’t respond. I should let it go. It’s true what I said to Ashton, it was just a kiss. Bentley doesn’t know the depth of my childhood crush. He probably just wants to clear the air so it’s not awkward. Nothing major is brewing; this is just friends. Totally just friends. Friends meet for coffee.
Me: Come by my place tonight. 8pm
Ben: Can’t wait. 8pm
Sometimes a girl has to throw caution to the wind and hope the wind doesn’t blow her away.