Not my type. The man was not my type, no matter how fascinating I apparently found his body. Once I got back to Seattle, I really needed to get laid.
“Hey, great. You got your voice back.” He smiled. “Eric was in the shower and I didn’t want to wait around any longer. I was worried about how you were doing. Plus, the water heater isn’t that big and I wanted to leave some hot water for Nell.”
“Right.” I took a soothing deep breath, pretending to swallow his obvious lies. As pickup lines went, Joe’s needed work. I blew my nose. “Um, no problem. But would you mind putting a towel on? Or pants, maybe? Pants would be good.”
He laughed, making bits of me quiver. Bits that frankly should have known better.
“Alex, this is a towel.”
“Ah. No, it’s not.”
“It is. See?” The man held out his arms, modeling the freakishly small piece of white cloth.
“No, no.” I pressed my lips together tight, anger and aggravation growing in me by the second. “That’s like a hand towel. Christ, I’m not even sure it’s that. It’s probably more of a glorified face cloth you’ve stretched somehow.”
Chuckling, he shook his head. “Alex—”
“Hell, I can almost see some of the essentials. That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah, but you’re half hanging off the bed to take in the show.”
“Oh, I am not. I just had to cough.” I forced out a fake cough or two, holding my fist up to my mouth. We were in the friend zone, goddamnit. No perving allowed. Still, I could feel my face flushing, my nipples getting perky.
“Alex, relax. I saw you in your underwear. Now you’ve seen me in a towel. Why are you getting so worked up about this?” Hands on slim hips, his tongue played behind his cheek. Like stringing me out like this was all highly fucking amusing. Asshole. Hell, he even had a little golden treasure trail. A scattering of hair starting at the belly button and leading downward. My fingers wanted to follow the trail so badly. They basically itched, the little bastards.
“Look, it’s okay. I know what you’re doing,” I said, my croaky voice thick with recrimination. “But I just don’t think it’s a good idea between us.”
“What am I doing?”
“We should only be just friends,” I stated. “And this goes a bit beyond that.”
“Friends don’t let each other use their showers occasionally?”
“Friends don’t strut around showing off their assets.” I did not giggle nervously. That was someone else. God, what an awkward situation. “I could see less skin at a strip joint!”
“Fuck me,” he muttered, smiling.
“Normally I might be open to the idea of doing that,” I said. “Just the once, mind you—for fun or to get it out of our system or whatever. But this situation is a freaking mess. I’ve already been hurt by you. Emotions were involved despite my better judgment. Having sex with you now, even as friends, would just be stupid.”
He looked at me all wide of eye and said very slowly, “You want to have sex with me?”
Everything stopped. Every little last fucking thing.
“Alex?”
“I, um…” Over and over my jaw worked, yet nothing came out. Total panic stations. My brain had blanked, most likely fleeing the room. “I think maybe I’m a little high on the cold and flu meds. Yeah, that sounds about right?”
He just gave me another serving of that questioning look.
“No. No, I definitely don’t want to do anything naked with you.”
He blinked.
“You thought about having sex with me, though?”
“What?” I faux cringed.
“But you said—”
“Forget about what I said. And stop saying sex.”
Joe just stared at me.
“I thought you were trying to start something. I mean, you can’t blame me for thinking this is a setup.” Curling my feet up beneath me I leaned forward, ready to attack. Or defend. Or something. “Somethings wrong with Nell’s heat, seriously?”
He grabbed the back of his neck. “Shit. Alex, it’s okay. No need to be embarrassed.”
“And Eric was in the shower? That story is so lame, it’s like something out of a bad porn film. You might as well tell me you’re the pool boy,” I said, packing in all the scorn I could manage. “I’m not your type, remember? Then you come over here, parading yourself in front of me like some lumbersexual gigolo. So that yet again I get led on and wind up looking like a complete idiot! What kind of sadistic near-naked asshole are you?”
“I’m not playing games or something, okay?” The man hung his head, slowly shaking it. “Let me clear this up right now.”
Without another word, Joe picked up his cell phone off the table.
“Hey Nell,” he said into the phone. “Alex just wanted to ask you something.”
Circumventing the bed, he pressed the cell directly into my reluctant hand.
“Hello,” I said cautiously.
“Alex! Great to talk to you,” said a friendly feminine voice. “How are you doing? You’re still sounding a bit off.”
“Ah, yeah. Getting better, though.”
“Good. Glad to hear it. Listen, if it’s not okay for Joe to hang with you tonight just say so. I can always go to my brother’s place. It’s just that they were planning some fancy date-night thing, you know?”
“No. That’s fine.”
“Excellent. Let me know if you need more soup or anything.”
“Thanks. Yeah. Thank you for all the care packages. That’s really sweet of you. Thanks.”
“No problems. What was the question?” she asked.
“Ahh … can I pay you for the food and drinks? I’d really like to pay you. You’ve been so kind.”
“Absolutely not! I’ve got to go, but I hope we’ll see you in at the bar again real soon. Everyone would love to meet you properly. And don’t worry, we don’t bite. Or remind people of embarrassing scenes caused by idiot males.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“And can I just say, I get that he behaved like a complete dick. But Joe really is a great guy.”
“Ah…”
“It’s such a shame he’s been on his own for so long when he has so much to offer a woman. And I realize you don’t know me from a lump of moldy cheese,” she said. “But honestly, you could do a lot worse than giving him a second chance. You two looked really great together the other night.”
I frowned, perplexed. “How could you tell? Mostly we were just yelling at each other.”
“But there was passion there, you know? Real passion.” She sighed wistfully. “That’s so precious, Alex. It doesn’t always come along more than once in a lifetime.”
“Right. Okay.” Deep breaths. “Thanks for that, Nell.”
And she was gone.
Joe squatted down beside the bed, staring up at me. Good God, if anything could have made his flasher skirt even worse. I averted my eyes, despite my brain wanting another moment to imprint the memory. Idiot brain.
“Do you believe me now?” he asked softly. “I can call Eric too if you want.”
“No, that’s fine.”