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“Alright, fuckers,” he shouted. “This new song is called, ‘Sex Study Neighbor’.”
The crowd cheered and I heard Tom laugh next to me, but my only emotion was pure and unadulterated rage. Right before Jamie began singing, he gave me a wink. It took everything in my power not to storm up onto stage, wrench the drum stick from his beefy hands, and shove it up where the Irish sun never shines.
I take back everything I said earlier. I wanted nothing, I repeatnothingto do with Jamie Whatever His Last Name Is.
And that was final.
Guaranteed.
Ellis
It wasn’t that I was following Tessa. Not really. It was just that I happened to be at the same bar on the same night as she was for her date with Tom. It’s not like I don’t ever come to this bar, but I sure as heck could have avoided it tonight of all nights. Unfortunately, as soon as I’d given Tom Tessa’s number, I’d started to have second thoughts. Tom went through women faster than I did, and I didn’t want Tessa to get hurt.
I’m now sitting a few tables behind Tessa at the bar. She wouldn’t see me, especially through the packed crowd, and even if she did, she wouldn’t mind me looking out for her best interests. That’s what best friends are for, right?
I knew early on in the date that Tessa wasn’t having a good time. I knew Tessa’s laughs by heart, and she kept laughing her fake laugh with Tom, the ha ha polite laugh, and her gaze kept darting all over the place, landing anywhere but on his face.
I’d felt relieved.
And then I felt bad about feeling relieved.
It was when I was sitting there, sorting through my feelings (something I try to avoid at all costs), that I saw the big drummer push through the crowd like a medieval battering ram and stop in front of Tessa’s table. My chair screeched on the sticky bar floors as I pushed it back to hurry to her aid when I realized the red-bearded maniac was actually Tessa’s neighbor, Jamie something-or-other.
When she first moved into her studio I’d been concerned by the brute next door, until I saw him run into traffic to help an old woman who had started weaving around, looking confused. He’d stayed with her until a family member had come and picked her up.
Later, we’d seen each other in the hall and he’d asked to exchange numbers in case anything ever happened to Tessa. He said he knew I was her best friend and if anything ever happened to her he wanted to be able to get ahold of me. He promised me he’d keep an eye on her, which I thought was cool. He was an odd one—always pushing buttons and especially with Tessa, but despite his rough edge, I trusted that he had Tessa’s best interests at heart.
Even though he could be quite the asshole at times. Like, a total asshole. Which was weird, given how kind he acted on one hand. But I suppose it was some kind of defense mechanism, and I had to admit, it was one that intrigued me. I’d found myself drawn to the guy. Even fantasized about him a time or two. He was just such a contradiction, and I wondered if that’s how he’d be in bed, too.
He looked as attractive as ever, and I found myself liking the look of him and Tessa together.
Maybe it was the way Tessa was leaning in closer, as if Jamie were magnetized.
Maybe it was the way Tessa’s fingers clenched the table, her knuckles white.
Maybe it was the way Tessa didn’t resist when he dragged her chair closer to his.
But when he kissed her, I definitely felt jealousy. My jealousy tripled when Tessa started kissing him back.
But jealousy wasn’t all I felt.
Damn, they were hot together. What would it be like if we were all in bed together, the three of us? Well, according to how my cock was twitching while I watched them, I had a feeling we’d be fucking awesome.
In the dim, hazy light, I saw Tessa sink into the kiss, and even though I couldn’t see it, I imagined her lips, soft and gentle, against his, red and hungry. My dick got half hard as I imagined the Irish drummer, three times the size of Tessa, wrapping his massive hands around her waist and lifting her to the table, sweeping away the beer bottles and glasses and sending them crashing to the floor. She would be a deer caught in the lion’s mouth. I wanted to see him devour her.
I was fully hard by the time Jamie pulled away, and in the blink of an eye shoved his way roughly back through the crowd. Tessa sagged against her chair and I wondered if the air inside the bar was as stifling to her after that kiss as it was for me.
I studied her as Tom returned with drinks, while her attention remained fixed on the Irish man shouting profanities at the crowd.
Maybe I was wrong about my sweet, shy, quiet friend. Maybe therewasa kinky, emboldened side of her even I, her best friend, hadn’t seen. Maybe she really could pull the sex study off.
I barely heard the band’s last song as I tried and mostly failed to stop remembering how Jamie had kissed Tessa, and likewise imagining the two of them andmetogether.
Fuck.
What am I doing here?
Maybe I had always imagined Tessa to be untouchably innocent to make myself feel better because she’s never shown interest in me. She wasn’t into Tom either, but Jamie, and apparently the yoga instructor, were guys she was into. I needed to accept that I was only going to be Tessa’s friend, but hey, she was amazing, and being her best friend was no small consolation prize. Yes, I wanted more, but I wasn’t going to get it.
