I watched with disappointment as Baz pulled out of my driveway. But I had asked him to teach me, and if he thought this was the best option for tonight then I had to trust him. Although, his little comment about anticipation made me think about teaching him a thing or two back about waiting and wanting. Something for me to ponder more between now and tomorrow.

I locked up and headed to the kitchen to grab a drink and noticed it was after 11:00pm. I never got back to Harper earlier, damn. I could only imagine how many texts would be waiting for me when I turned my phone back on. I had no clue where the day had gone.

I take that back, I knew exactly how the time had flown by, and I had enjoyed every single second of it. I headed towards my room to get ready for bed. I couldn’t stop smiling as I brushed my teeth. I had succeeded in talking Baz into being my Mr. Right Now. More than that, I was still on cloud nine from all the feelings he had helped me find. The fact that I could feel still shocked me. I finally felt like I could relate to the characters in a romance novel.

I stared hard at my reflection. Had my taste in men been that poor for the past seven years? I washed my faced as my mind did some time-travel. I thought back over the men of my past and continually landed on Steve as to where all the problems began.

It would be good to talk to Dr. Williams on Tuesday. She had always helped me work through my issues. Although, maybe I didn’t really need her help now. Of course, since this was only a right now situation, it would be good to talk about everything with her. Maybe Baz had helped fix me. I stripped off my clothes, turned on my phone and climbed into bed.

Six texts, all from Harper.

1:17pm Dying to hear about last night and brunch, call or text me.

2:59pm Waiting impatiently… Did you forget about me?

5:12pm Seriously, you did say brunch earlier, right?

7:36pm Ok, beeotch, now I’m even more intrigued.

9:23pm I can’t focus on my book now because I am too preoccupied wondering what happened to you.

11:01pm Your phone must be off because I am not getting a delivered notice on any of my texts. What’re you doing that you had to turn your phone off, hmmm? I don’t care how late it is, text me when you get this! If I don’t answer, it’s because the anticipation killed me.

Leave it to Harper to be so drama-queenish. Laughing, I glanced at the clock, 11:34pm. I started typing.

“Just got back from a late-night dinner, you up?”

Instantly the bubbles appeared. “I was ready to put out an amber alert! Good thing I knew you were with Baz… You were with Baz, weren’t you?”

“Yes, Mom. I was with Baz,” I laughed as I typed out my response.

“Very funny! Tell me everything.”

Where did I begin? I mean, I usually shared everything with Harper, but weren’t some of these things supposed to be private? I couldn’t fathom sharing some of the things we’d done. I didn’t want to hear all of the details about her and Eli. As I sat there contemplating I saw more bubbles pop up.

“Why aren’t you typing anything??? Don’t make me drive over there to get the scoop!” I laughed again at her antics. She was so pushy, but that was part of what I loved about her.

Before I could respond, I got another one, “Grabbing my keys and heading to the car now.”

“Don’t you have to work tomorrow?” I typed out quickly, looking for an out. As much as I thought Harper was joking about heading to the car, I wouldn’t put it past her to do just that. She was an administrative assistant at a law firm, which she told me was a fancy title for a secretary, and she worked from 8:00am until 4:00pm Monday-Friday. I know how much she hated having to get up Monday morning and go to work.

“Yes, but someone kept me waiting all day and now I’m wide awake and can’t sleep. Going to bed would be pointless.”

“How about if we meet up tomorrow and I’ll fill you in then? I just climbed into bed myself, and I am exhausted.” I wasn’t brushing her off exactly, but a good night sleep would give me time to figure out how much to share.

“Fine.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow. I promise. And for the record I didn’t forget about you today. I was just too busy to turn on the phone. ;) ”

“Tease. I’m assuming you had a good outcome since you didn’t call me cursing or in tears. I’ll hold on to that til tomorrow. Night, chicky <3 “

“Night <3” I text back. I set my phone down and it chimed again. I laughed as I grabbed it, wondering what she wanted to pester me about now, but was pleasantly surprised to see it was a text from Baz.

“Just wanted to make sure you knew I was thinking about you. Sleep well, sweet dreams, precious.”

I felt my insides get all gooey and melty. I chewed my lip as I thought about how to respond, then started typing, “Thanks for agreeing to help me out. I really appreciate it.”, but I started deleting before I hit send. That sounded so impersonal, and after everything that happened in the past 24 hours this situation was anything but impersonal. In fact, I had gotten more personal with him than I had with anyone else, ever.

“Sweet dreams back at cha,” was what I settled on.

I plugged my phone into the charger and turned the ringer off, making sure the alarm was off as well. Today had been a long day, and I planned to sleep until my body told me it was time to wake up. My sheets still smelled like Baz and I snuggled deeper into them. I ran my hands over my body as I thought about the way he had touched me earlier. I was a little sore, but overall, I felt amazing. Exhausted, but amazing. I flicked off my lamp. I was still thinking about my four orgasms from earlier as I quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

I woke up well rested. That was probably the best night’s sleep I’d had in forever. I stretched as I lay there staring at the ceiling. A smile instantly lit up my face. I reached for my phone and turned it back on. 10:19am. I couldn’t believe I had slept for almost 11 hours. On the flip side, I must’ve needed it because I felt fantastic, like I was ready to take on the world. I headed to the bathroom and used the facilities, then brushed my teeth and made my way to the kitchen. I didn’t even need coffee this morning. I grabbed a glass of water from the fridge and headed into my office to start work on Katy and Aaron’s photos.

I got lost in my editing, hours flew by and it was nearly 4:00pm. The grumbling in my stomach told me I needed a quick lunch break. I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich and headed back to my office with it and another big glass of ice water. Just as I walked in I heard my phone ringing. I set my food down and ran to the other room to grab it.

Harper.

I smiled, she was relentless.

“Hey, girly!”

“You’re killing me here! I’ve been waiting for over 24 hours, and that’s how you answer the phone?” Her voice came through loud and impatient.

“Hmmm, I guess I should have started with, I’m no longer a virgin and we had earthshaking sex.”

“No way! You slept with Baz? Already?” She asked incredulously.

“No,” I laughed. “But it seemed like that’s what you were expecting me to say, so I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“You truly are an evil woman, you know that? So, tell me. What did happen?” I could hear music playing in the background when she paused, it sounded like she was driving.

I started with Saturday night, and the party. How I taunted him with possibly finding a Mr. Right Now at the party and then about our tournament of games and how I won. Just as I was about to get to the good stuff, I heard a knock at the door. “Hang on a sec, someone is knocking at my door.”

I looked through the peephole to see a man with a large vase of flowers, fuchsia star gazers lilies, poppies and gerber daisies in a multitude of colors and some of the most gorgeous rainbow colored roses that I had ever seen.

“Gemma Montgomery?” The man asked when I opened the door.

“Yes, that’s me.” I smiled like a lunatic as I looked at the vase in his hands.

“Can you sign here please?” He handed me a clipboard and pointed to an X.

“Sure thing.” I signed where he indicated and swapped the clipboard for the vase in his hands. “Wow, these are gorgeous.”

“I’ll tell the florist you said so. Have a great day.” With that he turned and walked back to his truck, while I went back inside with my flowers and closed the door. I hadn’t read the card yet, but knew they had to be from Bastian.

“Hello?” Harpers voice came through the phone that I had forgotten I was cradling between my shoulder and ear just as I was setting them down on my kitchen counter. “Did I hear you saying something was gorgeous?”

“Yeah, flowers. I just got a ridiculously gorgeous vase of flowers.” I grabbed the card when another knock sounded at my door, I shoved it in my pocket.

“Hang on again. Apparently, I have another visitor,” I mumbled as I walked to the door again. This time I opened it without looking and Harper stood there holding a bottle of wine. I looked at the phone and then at my best friend and disconnected the line.

“I wanted to see these flowers in person,” she laughed. “Plus, since I didn’t hear from you for most of yesterday I figured things had gone well with you and Baz, so I bought wine to celebrate.” She thrust the bottle forward into my hands as she came in.

“And what if I hadn’t called because things were awful and I was crying because I had made an utter fool of myself?” I smirked at her as I glanced down at the bottle. Malbec, my favorite.

“Then this would’ve been a drown-your-sorrows bottle of wine. But you already told me how most of Saturday night went. Now I just need to hear about yesterday, and I figured we could have a few glasses while you told me all about it.”

“Give me a few minutes to save my work and grab my sandwich and some glasses.”

“You go do your stuff, I’ll grab the glasses,” she took the wine from my hands and headed into my kitchen as I turned towards the office. I headed to the office, closed up shop on my computer and pulled the card from my pocket.

I clutched it to my chest for a moment, smiling, and basked in the sweetness of it all. Then I set it on my desk and reminded myself this is a Right Now situation. Don’t let yourself get more involved than the moment allows. I grabbed my food and my water glass and headed back to the living room.

She was getting comfortable on my couch when I came back in. Now just looking at the couch made me think of Baz again and smile.

“Those flowers are gorgeous!”

“Aren’t they?! Baz sent them,” I smiled broadly.

“I figured,” she cocked her head knowingly at me. “So, Saturday night. You told me about the tournament and how you won.” She was opening the wine as she waited for me to continue.

“Right, so I basically told him that for winning I wanted him to be my Mr. Right Now, that I wanted him to teach me how to be a Ms. Right Now and live in the moment. I had been drinking fairly heavily, but I knew what I was saying. You and I had even discussed the possibility earlier. Anyways, I kissed him, or he kissed me, I’m not sure which now, but it was amazing. And I mean ah-maz-ing. He’s a really good kisser. And, Harp, I actually felt something. In fact, I felt a lot of somethings. Like, it was explosive. But then, afterwards, things got weird and he was all worried about crossing a line and me drinking too much. So, when he took me home, he said we’d talk about it ‘tomorrow’ when I was sober.” I used my air quotes, then took another bite and swallowed before I continued.

“I told him that night when he took me home that I wasn’t going to change my mind, but he still wanted to make sure I was certain. So, yesterday when he came, I dressed up in a school girl costume and told him I wanted to be his star pupil and that I still wanted this. I told him we could put a month long timeline on it so he’d see I was serious about the no strings attached thing. And well, to make a long story short, he accepted my proposal.” I was looking at the couch and smiling again when I finished.

“Wow! A school girl costume? Go Gem! Wait, what’s that smile about?” She nodded to me as she set my now full wine glass down in front of me.

“Nothing really. We just made out on the couch too.” I sat next to her and stuffed the last bite of my sandwich in my mouth to stop from giving too many details.

She laughed at me, “Sounds like you did a lot of making out.”

“We did. He’s such a good kisser. Is this weird? That I’m talking about Baz in like a sexual way? This is weird, isn’t it?” I took a nervous gulp of my water.

“Absolutely not. Baz is hot, and you’ve had a mini-crush on him for the longest,” she held up her hand to stop me as I started to protest. “I know you never really thought about it that way until the other day, but hindsight is always 20/20. If I wasn’t so in love with Eli, I might look at Baz that way too,” she wiggled her brows at me. “So, is that all that happened? Just some making out?”

“Well, um,” I stammered.

“I knew it! You’re holding back. What else?” She waited expectantly.

“Shit, I don’t know how this works. I’ve never had more to share really before. Um, so I guess in baseball terms,” this analogy again, but it was the least graphic description I could give, “We made it to third base.” I bit my lip to stop more information from sliding out of my mouth.

“Woot woot! There’s my girl! Let that inner ho out! You know what they say, a lady in the street but a freak in the bed. Don’t forget that, and make sure to live it as truth! Did you get off?” She was so direct.

“Harper!” I laughed.

“What? That’s a totally valid question. You said before yourself that you’d never, ah, had one with anyone else before. Plus, you want to make sure he knows what he’s doing and if you rounded third you should’ve gotten off. Nobody likes to be left with a blue bean.” I looked at her like she was crazy. “It’s the equivalent of blue balls, and that’s totally a thing for women,” she was nodding knowingly at me.

“Let me put it this way, there were no blue beans or balls in the vicinity, for the entire day…” I trailed off, letting her take it in.

She handed me my wine glass and held up her own. “This definitely calls for a toast! To my best friend, who is finally coming into her own and finding a spark of fun in the process. Cheers!”

“Cheers!” We clinked our glasses and sipped.

“So, when do you think you’ll do the deed?”

I nearly choked on my wine as I looked back up at her. “You’re so tactful,” I laughed.

“What? That’s the next logical question.” She cocked her head and held her hands up in a what gives motion.

“I’m not sure.” I admitted. “I would’ve yesterday, but Baz threw on the brakes and said we should wait a little bit. My thoughts are that if we only have a month, we should get to it. I want to. I feel things with him, physically, that I’ve never felt before. Like ever. And, as my best friend, I trust him to show me how to be casual with everything.”

“I have a feeling it’ll be easier for him to keep it casual. He’s a guy and he’s had a lot of practice.” She reached over and touched my hand. “Just be careful, Gem. Remember, this started because Geoff mentioned he thought you were in love with Baz. You know how that song “No Promises” by Cheat Codes goes, about just be careful, love ain’t simple. It’s so true. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Believe me, I’m going into this with my eyes wide opened. I plan to remind myself daily that this is a temporary situation. That way, when it’s over, I’ll be ok. I won’t let myself get caught up in it.” She looked at me skeptically. “I’ll be ok. I want this. I know what I’m doing.”

“I know you’re a grown adult woman, who is going to make her own decisions, but I want you to know that with sex it’s easier for men to remain unattached emotionally than it is for women…” she was shaking her head at me and looking at the ground. “I just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into.”

“It’s all good, Harp. And it’s Baz. We even discussed ending it early if one of us felt like it might hurt our friendship. We put some, ah, rules in place. Besides you, Baz is my best friend. I won’t do anything that would cause me to lose that friendship.”

“Ok, if you say so. Then I’m all for you letting your freak flag fly!” She started cracking up.

“You’re such a dork,” my own laughter joined hers.

“I know, but that’s why you love me,” she was smiling as she took another sip of her wine.

“Yes, it is.” I sipped from my own glass.

“So, what’s next? Are you going to see him tonight?” She leaned back into the couch and pulled her feet up, cross-legged.

“I was planning on seeing him tonight, but last night he mentioned he was ‘teaching me anticipation’, so I’m thinking about turning the tables and giving him a healthy dose of anticipation right back.” I smiled thinking about how hard he was when I got out of the car last night.

“Aren’t you seeing Dr. Williams tomorrow?” When I nodded she continued, “What do you think she’ll say about your decision? You are going to tell her, right?”

“Yeah, I plan on telling her. But honestly, it’s not like I’m looking for her permission to do adult things. I think she’ll be happy for my breakthrough. At least, I consider it a breakthrough.”

“Well, I will say you look happier than I’ve seen you in a really long time. So, this arrangement, as you put it, seems to agree with you.” She truly looked like she meant it.

“Thank you,” I couldn’t stop smiling. “I feel so alive again!” I hugged my arms around myself and shrugged with excitement. “It’s been such a long time. And, Baz is just Mr. Right Now. But I definitely have renewed hope that this means I’ll be able to have the whole enchilada with some man someday. So, enough about my weekend. What did you guys end up doing, besides having marathon sex Saturday morning.”

She put a finger to her temple like she was thinking, “Hmmm, let me think, we shagged some more yesterday, and then I sat around and waited for my best friend in the world to call and share her weekend with me,” she finished, cocking her head sideways.

“Ugh, I’m sorry! I was too busy to cum to the phone,” I laughed. “Pun fully intended!”

We finished the bottle of wine and chatted a while more. She told me about her work day and the hellacious woman she had to deal with on the phone. Hours had passed by the time we had finally gotten all caught up. She glanced at her watch, then got up to leave.

“I better run. Eli will be waiting for dinner. I have no clue what I am making either. Maybe I’ll stop and grab a rotisserie chicken from grocery store on the way home. Those always make for a quick dinner. Let me know how it goes tonight and tomorrow with Dr. Williams.” She was slipping her shoes back on.

“I will. Thanks for stopping by,” I leaned in to hug her goodbye.

“Of course, what else are overbearing, best friends for?” She placed a hand over her heart in mock sincerity and laughed, then waved over her shoulder as she made her way to the car.

I waved back. God, I loved her. I was so blessed to have her in my life. I knew she had some really valid points about Baz and this situation too. I just needed to make sure I kept things light between us. Maybe a night off was a good idea. I’d show him a thing or two about anticipation. Plus, if I got most of my work done today, I could play a little more this week.

Another smile spread across my face as I thought about us getting together this week.

Anticipation might be just what the doctor ordered.