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“Perks of being your own boss is making your own hours,” Luna declared. “And don’t you take that tone with me, missy. I’ve been trying to reach you all freaking day. Are you wearing two different flip-flops?”
I pushed past her and slipped my key into the lock, swinging the front door open. “I am. And I know you’ve been blowing my phone up. Kind of hard to miss.”
She followed me into the living room like a disgruntled butterfly, cranky but still flitting around, and glared when I flopped myself down on the couch with my coffee in hand.
“Well?” she demanded seconds later. “What happened on your date?”
“Wasn’t a date,” I said, opening the lid of my cup before taking a drink. “Oh, and by the way, thanks for going around telling people I had a date last night.”
“First”—she held up her index finger—“that’s on you for thinking I’d stay quiet about something this monumental. Second”—her middle finger joined the first—“what the hell do you mean it wasn’t a date. Of course it was! Even Georgia confirmed.”
“You two are the worst.”
She threw herself down on the loveseat. “Stop deflecting.”
“Okay, fine.” I knew when I was beaten. Which was most of the time with Luna. She had a gift for steamrolling her way over a conversation. Most of the time it was entertaining as hell... when I wasn’t the topic. “It wasn’t a date. Ithoughtit was. I still don’t know how I misread that one. But apparently I was wrong.”
“How do you know?”
Here goes nothing. “Because when I kissed him, he pulled back and ran out of here like his ass was on fire.”
She let out a happy yelp that had no place in this particular situation. “Omigod, you kissed him? That’s so great!”
I lifted my brows, wishing I could pull off the whole one-brow-arch thing. “Did you just stop listening to everything I said after that?”
“No. I heard you, and the dude is obviously a turd. But I’m still really happy for you.”
“Why? It was a disaster, Lu.”
“Because this means you’re putting yourself back out there. You felt something for this guy, and you went for it. You acted on it instead of sitting back and waiting for him to make a move.”
I kind of wish Ihadwaited. At least then I wouldn’t have been shot down so spectacularly.
“I don’t know what his deal is. I mean, I saw how he was looking at you in your workshop the other day. It was so obvious he was into you, even my great aunt Ida could have seen it, and she’s got so many cataracts the doctor took her driver’s license away.”
“But—”
“Something had to have freaked him out. That’s the only explanation.”
“Yeah. Me kissing him. That freaked him out,” I deadpanned.
She pursed her lips to the side in thought. “No. Something else. I saw it myself. He looked like he wanted to gobble you up.” She flapped her hands in front of her. “But you know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s his loss, because you’re shit-hot and fucking amazing. And now you’ve taken that first step into claiming a little piece of happiness—or at the very least, an orgasm—for yourself.” She clasped her hands together and pressed them to her chest. “My little bird’s grown up and ready to leave the nest. I’m such a proud momma hen.”
“I think you mixed up a couple metaphors there.”
“Whatever. You know what I mean, that’s all that matters. Time to get you on another horse.”
I set my cup on the coffee table and stretched out, propping my head on the arm of the couch and resting my feet on one of the million squishy throw pillows that covered the thing. “I love you, Luna. And I’m glad you’re proud I put myself out there, but being shot down isn’t very fun. You need to temper your excitement, because it’ll probably be a while before I ride another horse... if ever.”
Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout. “Don’t look at last night as a failure, babe. Look at it for what it was. You were dipping your toe back into the dating waters. Okay, so a smelly little fish came up and bit you, but there are other fish who won’t bite. Or they will, but only if youwantto be bitten. And they’ll do it in a way you really like.” She waggled her brows.
“You are so bad at metaphors,” I said with a laugh, already feeling a million times better, all thanks to her. That was why I loved Luna so damn much. She made everything better.
She shrugged. “Meh. My talents lie elsewhere.” Her expression turned serious. “But seriously, are you okay?”
Yet another reason why she was the best. “Yeah, hon, I’m good. It was just embarrassing. That’s all.”
“Well,” she started knowingly, “that, and you liked him.”
