Breaker: A blonde? Huh, maybe this one I’ll like.
Lia: Only time will tell. Seriously, though, you’re good with this? I can cancel with Brian.
Breaker: No, it’s good. Seriously. Might be nice. I haven’t been out on a date in . . . well, a long time.
Lia: I’ve never seen you out on a date. This is sort of exciting. I get to see how Breaker puts on the moves.
Breaker: Please don’t stare at me the entire time, watching my every move and smirking behind your napkin.
Lia: The urge to do just that is sitting very heavily on my chest because the joy I would reap from that is so overwhelming that my cup would be full for weeks. But I understand such behavior will cause you to sweat, and no one likes a sweaty pickle.
Breaker: Your concern for me feels so genuine. Thank you.
Lia: Anytime. So do you know what you’re going to wear?
Breaker: Can we not do this, please?
Lia: Umm, great suggestion, but no. Brian setting you up with Birdy is probably one of the best things to ever happen to me.
Breaker: More than your engagement?
Lia: Don’t tell Brian . . . but maybe.
Breaker: I always knew you were a different breed, but this really proves it. I’m going to bed.
Lia: But I’m not done teasing you and testing your patience.
Breaker: At least you’re honest about it. Good night.
I raise my hand to the wall and knock four times.
She knocks three, and for the second night in a row . . . I don’t get much sleep at all.
Chapter Four
LIA
“Today is the day!” I singsong as I make my way through Breaker’s apartment to his bedroom, where the curtains are drawn and he’s still in bed. Just a lump of a human sprawled across his mattress. “Good morning!”
“Grrrrrrr,” he growls into his pillow.
“Time to rise and shine,” I say while I fling open his curtains, flooding his room with the brilliantly bright California sun. “It’s date day.”
“Which is not until tonight, so why are you bothering me now?” he groans while placing his pillow over his head.
I turn to face him and spot part of his ass cheek hanging out for the world to see. “My God!” I say, covering my eyes. “Your butt is showing.”
“That’s what you get for walking in on me. You know I sleep naked.” He adjusts his blankets.
“How would I know that?”
“You’re my best friend. You should know everything about me.” His voice is muffled by the pillow, but I can still understand him. “Like I know that if I were to remove this pillow, I would find you in a pair of bike shorts, some random Zelda shirt, and your hair clipped up because you can’t have it touching your neck so early in the morning.” He moves the pillow to the side to get a look at me, and when he knows he’s right, he smirks and puts the pillow back.
“That was a lucky guess.”
“Not a guess.” He pokes his head. “All knowledge up here. Let me guess, you also ordered breakfast to lessen the blow of waking me up, and it will be here in five minutes. You ordered pancakes because you’ve been craving them. Still, you didn’t get them from your favorite place because you know I prefer the breakfast burrito from Salty’s. Hence, you caved and ordered from there despite them not having the maple-walnut syrup you love so much.”
“You know, it’s unflattering to be a know-it-all.”
His chest rumbles with a laugh. “Not trying to flatter you, so no problem there.” On a loud sigh, he raises his hands above his head and says, “Toss me my shorts.”
I walk over to his dresser, where a pair of shorts are folded, and I hand them to him. He slips them under the bed, and I watch him shimmy into them without showing off any skin. He then flips the covers off him and sits on the edge of the bed. His hand presses into his eye as he attempts to wake himself up.
I just stand there and stare.
Breaker is a far cry from the man I once met.
In that dorm hallway, he was tall, lanky, and had enough shaggy hair on the top of his head to be mistaken for a Yorkshire Terrier. Now, well, not so lanky anymore. Broad shoulders with sinew wrapping around them, flowing down his biceps that are thick but not in a bodybuilder way. He’s strong, fit, with enormous pecs and a pair of abs that quite frankly I’m jealous of. And his hair is no longer shaggy, more like perfectly cut to look messy, but it really isn’t. And instead of his pasty white complexion from being inside nonstop studying, he is a beautiful bronze from running outside with his shirt off.
I’ve never truly ogled my best friend, but . . . I can admit he has a really nice body.
Like . . . really nice.
“This burrito better be good,” he says as he stands, completely missing the fact that I just checked him out. Thank God for that. He works his way toward the bathroom, where he shuts the door. I leave him to his business and head out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee for us. He always carries the dark chocolate raspberry coffee that I love. He says he can’t taste the flavor, only smell it, but I can taste all the raspberry goodness, it’s why it’s my favorite.
“I can smell the raspberry from here,” Breaker says as he stands at the doorway of his kitchen, scratching his chest, a lopsided grin playing at his lips.
My eyes travel down his chest, to the V in his hips that is shown off by his low-hanging shorts.
Okay . . . really, really nice body.
Not sure if he’s kicked up his workout routine lately or what, but he’s uh . . . he’s looking good.
I turn away and hide the slight blush of my cheeks as I say, “It’s potent because I haven’t unleashed it in a while.”
“When was the last time you had breakfast here?” he asks as he takes a seat on the counter.
“I don’t know, we’ve been doing dinners more lately.”
“Yeah, because you spend a lot of weekend nights over at Brian’s, and I’m usually rushing around in the morning on weekdays looking to get to work. I don’t have time for casual breakfasts.”
I turn to face him and lean against the counter. “Well, now that you’re on sabbatical, you have all the time in the world.”
“Maybe this time will give me a moment to get to know . . . Birdy.” He wiggles his eyebrows, making me laugh.
“You know, I cyberstalked her last night.”
“Did you really? What did you come up with?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yeah, I would.” He nods at me. “Come on, spill. Tell me what I’m getting myself into tonight.”
I grab my phone from the counter, and while the coffee brews, I show Breaker the screenshots I took last night for this very purpose—to share with him.
“Okay, first of all, she’s really pretty.”
“Looks aren’t everything, but that’s a bonus. Let me see.” I show him a picture of her in a skintight light pink dress with a sunset behind her. Her hair is long and curled, and she’s holding a champagne glass. Surprisingly, I see his eyes widen. “Wow, okay, yeah. She’s beautiful.”
I pause and say, “But she’s a blonde.”