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  “A short skirt for easy access I see.”

  I whip around and catch the mischievous smile on her face. Heather’s red hair is pulled up in a set of intricated braids and twist as it sits delicately on her head, soft tendrils drift down framing her face. We apparently had the same idea about keeping it simple as she has on a peach-colored A-line dress that hugs her curves in all the right places.

  “I don’t think anyone will see me when you walk into the room,” I respond turning back toward the mirror. Heather walks up behind me and smacks my hand away, taking control of fixing my hair. As she pulls a few tendrils away from my face, she huffs.

  “Stop that nonsense right now! You and I both know that Cole will have eyes for only you. When will you get it through your thick head that if all he wanted was sex, he wouldn’t be trying so hard. You gave him the goods already, so why is he still hanging around?”

  I never thought about it like that, but before I can respond, she pats me on the shoulder and pronounces me ready for our double date. I can’t say that I wanted to go earlier but now this evening is looking slightly more promising.

  “How about some liquid courage before we leave?” I ask as we head downstairs. I know I am going to need to keep my wits about me this evening if I am going to avoid falling into bed with Cole again, but a shot or two won’t kill me.

  “Shots it is,” Heather says as she prances toward the kitchen. Any request?”

  “Anything but tequila.”

  “You are cut off from tequila for the rest of your life or at least until I need another good laugh.” I hear Heathers tinkling laughter as I continue down the stairs.

  I enter the kitchen to a line full of shots on the counter, amber color liquid, and limes. “I said no tequila!” I growl.

  I want to remember my date with cool, shit I want to make it on one. With the number of shots she has lined up I may just fuck him on every flat surface in this house.

  “Bitch, I only drink silver, you know this! It’s our old friend Captain. I figure it will loosen you up just fine.”

  Without a word I march over and grab a shot from the counter, throwing it back in one motion. I feel the burn as it makes it way down my throat and threw my system. As always, Heather is right a few more of these, and I will be right as rain.

  “No lime?” Heather asks as she throws back her own shot.

  “Chasers are for pussies. I may have one, but that doesn’t make me one.”

  We both share a laugh as we clink glasses and throw back another shot before we have a chance to grab the final shot off the counter the doorbell rings.

  “Shit, they are here! “

  “Hope you’re ready, Cole is bringing out the big guns tonight,” Heather says as she waltzes out of the kitchen to answer the door.

  I don’t know if I am ready, but I know either way tonight is going to change everything.

  COLE

  I’ve been sitting impatiently in my car for almost twenty minutes for Wyatt to show up, I even texted Addy to let her know how excited I was to spend time together tonight. I can’t wait for Wyatt any longer, we agreed to arrive at Heather’s around a quarter till seven to get the girls. I know we said seven, but I figured better early than late. However, it’s a couple minutes before seven and Wyatt is nowhere to be found. I’ve rang him a couple times and sent him a text and nothing.

  “Damn it, Wyatt, you better get your shit together, or you are going to lose your shot,” I mumble to myself as a climb out of the car. I head toward the front door, feeling like a complete asshole for not bringing Addy flowers or anything for our date. However, I remember that this is not about us, this is supposed to be about Wyatt and Heather if he ever gets here. I ring the doorbell, and Heather pulls the door open with a huge smile on her face. Her smile falters as soon as she sees it’s only me.

  “No stress, he is on his way. Ran into some car trouble, he’ll be here in no time,” I lie with a smile on my face. I really hope that’s all it is.

  The smile returns to Heather’s face, not nearly as wide as it was previously. “Alright, Addy and I were just getting the party started with some shots. You’re welcome to come join us if you like. “

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We both know what happened last time you gave Addy shots,” I respond as I follow her into the house and close the door,

  “I would think a drunk Addison would be easier for you to take advantage of?” Heather questions.

  “Seriously, now you two. How many times do I need to tell you, I want Addy forever not just a quick lay.”

  As I round the corner my eyes meet Addison’s, a light blush is covering her cheeks. Heather stands next to her grinning like the Cheshire Cat, I suspect she knows exactly what she did, and I can’t thank her enough. I look at Addison, she is dressed for battle, and I am her prey. Her milky white skin is on display with the short skirt she has on, along with the low-cut shirt giving me just enough view of her ample tits to make my mouth water. I try to think of dead puppies and my grandparents having sex as I enter the kitchen willing the raging hard-on I have to go down. If this is how our night is starting, I can’t wait to see how it is going to end.

  “Now, where are those shots you promised?”

  “Keep your pants on, lover boy, they are right here. Maybe if you play your cards right Addy here may let you do a body shot,” Heather says with a wink.

  “Heather, seriously? Laying it on pretty thick, aren’t you?”

  “Look, bitch, at least your date is here. I can’t believe he asked me out but can’t even be bothered to show up or even text to let someone know what is going on.” Heather hands Addy and I both shots before tossing one back herself. I toss mine back just as my phone chimes in my pocket. I pull it out and notice I have a text from Wyatt.

  “He’s on his way. I told you he had car trouble.” I turn the phone around and show Heather the picture he sent. “See he even sent the picture to show you the issue.” Wyatt was so worried she wouldn’t believe him he had to take photographic evidence of his flat tire.

  Heather throws back another shot. “He could have texted me too.”

  “Stop being a baby, Heather. He’s probably embarrassed. Go reapply your make up and do whatever else you need to do so you’re perfect when he gets here,” Addy says with a smile as she shoves her cousin out of the kitchen.

  “Alright, I can tell when I am not wanted. You two don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” She gives me a wink before leaving Addy and I alone in the kitchen. I slide closer to Addison, purposely invading her personal space as I hear her breath catch.

  “Are you looking forward to this evening?” I whisper in her ear. I watch a shudder run down her back. She takes a step back, leaving extra space between us. I haven’t even touched her yet, and I can see her walls crumbling.

  “I’m glad that your friend finally pulled his head out of his ass and asked Heather out. She wouldn’t have waited for him forever.”

  “What can I say, not everyone can be like me. When I know what I want, I go after it, and I don’t stop until it’s mine.”

  We begin to inch closer together like two magnets being pulled toward one another by an invisible force. I reach out and cup her cheek with my palm, she nuzzles into my touch. That was the go-ahead I needed to take what is mine, forget the begging, Addison is mine. Bending slightly, I barely graze her lips with mine when the chime of the doorbell breaks the spell, and she jumps back from my touch as if she was burnt.

  “That must be Wyatt, let me get the door.” She quickly exits the kitchen.

  “Fuck,” I growl as I adjust my rock-hard cock through my pants.

  Just one second more and I would have been in heaven. The connection between Addison and I is amazing, she just needs to let go, and I need to figure out how to get her to do that. My thoughts are interrupted as Addison and Wyatt return to the kitchen. I look my friend up and down and pray that he has a good explanation for his appearance because if he doesn’t this
evening will be over before it started.

  Chapter 16

  ADDISON

  I barely escape from Cole before I did something I would regret. I run to answer the door, I can hear “Dear Mama” by Tupac Shakur blasting from upstairs. Shaking my head, I know Wyatt has a lot of making up to do for being late.

  The doorbell rings one more time before I can open the door. “I’m coming. You’re the one that’s late, I don’t understand why you are rushing us now,” I mumble as I open the door. When I lay my eyes on Wyatt, there is no way in hell that Heather is going to calm down anytime soon. Wyatt is covered from head to toe in what I guess is grease all over his once white button-up shirt. Black smudges cover his face from where he obviously was wiping sweat from his face while working. I didn’t think it could get any worse, but I look down and notice he even has a rip in the knee of his jeans. How the hell do you tear your jeans while changing a tire! If it weren’t for bad luck, Wyatt wouldn’t have any luck at all.

  “What the fuck happened to you?” I shout. “You know what, don’t answer that, I need another shot before I even contemplate dealing with this.” I leave the door wide open as I turn on my heels and head right back toward the kitchen. Hopefully, Cole can help think of some way to fix this situation, but as I near the kitchen with Wyatt hot on my heels, the look on Cole’s face says exactly what I’m thinking. We are so fucked.

  “Wyatt, man. Just…FUCK!” he growls as he reaches up and tugs on his dark brown locks.

  “I know man, I know! The gods are at work or something, I got a flat and had to change it. I even left my house thirty minutes early so I could be here on time,” Wyatt says as he backs away toward the door.

  I step around them both and pour Cole and I both a shot, he looks like he needs it. I throw back mine, before pouring another. I tap Cole on the shoulder and give him a sympathetic smile.

  “Thanks, beautiful,” he responds with a wink before turning back to his friend.

  “Where’s mine, Addy? I have had one hell of a night too.”

  “You don’t get shit until we figure this out! Heather is going to lose it when she comes downstairs and sees you looking like this. You didn’t think to go home and change or something? I mean you were already fucking late.” I stalk toward him as my volume raises with every step, Cole wraps his arms around my waist pulling me flush against his chest.

  “I wasn’t worried about what I looked like. I have been waiting too damn long for Heather to even give me the time a day, let alone get a damn date. I wasn’t about to waste another minute on something as dumb as changing my clothes,” Wyatt shouts back.

  “Calm down, princess, we will figure this out. Go see if you can stall Heather so we can make a getaway. Tell her Wyatt called and said he needed me to come to get him.”

  I am so caught up in the feeling of his body pressed against my back that I can’t even form words to respond. I nod my head.

  “Good girl,” he says before placing a chaste kiss on my cheek. If he wasn’t holding me up, I would have turned to a puddle of mush on the floor.

  “Let’s get going, dumb ass.” Cole releases me and grabs Wyatt by the back of his shirt, but before they can make it out of the kitchen, Heather comes around the corner.

  “Well you almost made it,” I say sarcastically before turning to pour more shots. I know my cousin, she is going to need more alcohol if we are going to make it out of here at all tonight.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” she screeches. “I thought you had a flat tire, not having to fight a war with your car.”

  “Heather, calm down, sweetheart, there is a reasonable explanation for this.” Cole is trying desperately to keep her calm, but I can tell it isn’t working.

  “Calm down! Calm down! You know just saying that makes me want to punch you in the fucking throat, right?” Cole raises his hands and retreats, leaving Wyatt alone with the firing squad. He looks over at me for help, but I have nothing. I just hold up the shot glass, and he shakes his head.

  “Yo, hooker. Come take another shot and calm the fuck down. Don’t think I didn’t hear Tupac blasting from upstairs. You already got yourself all worked up for a fight before you came down here. Let the man speak.”

  Heather huffs in response before grabbing the shot from my hand and tossing it back. She turns back toward Wyatt; the poor man is basically cowering in the corner.

  “Well, speak! I don’t have all night, I’m not wasting a perfectly good outfit sitting in the house damn it.”

  Man, she is in rare form already. I almost feel bad for Wyatt, but he really did bring it on himself. Wyatt takes a deep breath before he begins to explain what happened.

  “Okay, so I left my house early to get here early, I didn’t want to be late for our first date. I was pulling out of the parking garage from my apartment and not paying attention to where I was going and hit a huge pothole, popping my tire and bending the rim. I had no idea that it was there. When I climbed out of the car, I thought it would be a simple fix. However, you can tell by my clothes it was anything but simple.”

  We all stare at him in disbelief. “Why the hell did you not just go back upstairs and change?” I ask. I mean that would be the most logical thing to do.

  Wyatt rubs the back of his neck and looks down. “After calling the tow truck, I just asked him to bring me right here. I was already so late, I didn’t want to disappoint Heather any more than I already had.”

  I turn to Heather and watch her anger melt right in front of me, I mean I guess it is kind of sweet that he thought of her first, but damn, this dude is kind of dense.

  Wyatt takes a few steps closer before reaching for Heather’s hand. “I can go if you want, but I said it earlier. I have been waiting too long to have a chance to go on a date with you. I wasn’t going to let something as dumb as dirty clothing stand in my way.”

  Heather blinks a few times as if she is under a spell. “I guess that’s plausible. Cole, we need to swing by Wyatt’s place so he can change.”

  “Not a problem, let’s get going while the night is still young.”

  I look up at Cole and smile, he always finds a way to make the best out of the worst situations. Wyatt reaches over and tries to grab Heather’s hand, but she pulls it out of his grasp, and storms out of the kitchen toward the front door. Wyatt quickly follows behind her like a lost puppy dog.

  “Wherever we are going, I hope there is alcohol, lots of it.”

  “Hey, I doubt that it could get worse than this,” Cole says as he motions for me to exit the kitchen first.

  “Famous last words.” I can’t help but feel that a comment like that is just asking for trouble.

  After swinging by Wyatt’s place, so he can get changed, we head to dinner. We have no idea where we are going, the guys tell us it is a surprise, Heather doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about this. I can’t say that I blame her, with Wyatt’s track record this could be anything. As we pull up to the restaurant, I hear Cole swear under his breath. As I look out the window, I can see exactly what the issue is.

  We pull up and park, luckily Heather has not seen where we are going yet. As we turn the corner the sign for Noble Experiment comes into view.

  “Seriously, you brought me to your job for our first date?” Heather asks in disbelief.

  “I thought you liked it here? I didn’t want to take the risk of taking you somewhere that you didn’t like so I figured that this was a safe bet. Did I do something wrong again?” Wyatt looks at Cole and I with a look of desperation.

  Before I can even open my mouth in an attempt to help to smooth things over, Heather grabs my hand and marches toward the entrance.

  “We are going to the restroom.”

  As I turn I see the defeated look on both men’s faces, this night is not going as either of them had planned.

  Chapter 17

  COLE

  I watch both girls head away from us as dreams of the perfect evening crash and burn. I turn toward my frien
d, wanting to lash out at him for his own stupidity but the defeated look on his face says it all.

  “I’m sorry man,” I say as I rest my hand on his shoulder.

  “I don’t know what I am doing with her. She deserves better than a broke ass waiter. I can’t seem to make anything of myself, I had big plans for when we all graduated. Start a business, the white picket fence, the whole package deal but now I have nothing. I work as a bartender at our favorite hangout when we were in college.”

  “Don’t be so down on yourself. This isn’t the end for you, things will turn around sooner or later.” I try to be optimistic but almost two years of trying to find a position is just too much for some people.

  Wyatt graduated from San Diego Mesa with a bunch of degrees that basically said he was an Architect, but after graduation, he hasn’t been able to find a full-time position. No one wants to hire anyone straight out of college, and what jobs he does find, he usually gets canned after the project ends. His only option is to go at it on his own, but he doesn’t have the funds to do that. Heather and I have both offered to invest because we know he will succeed, but he refuses because he wants to do it on his own.

  “Let’s go in and grab a drink. We can get our table and wait for the girls to come out. I am sure Addy is smoothing things over for you as we speak. Everything is going to be fine.”

  “Whatever you say man.” Wyatt turns, and we both enter the restaurant and check in for our reservation. Once we are seated, we grab a beer and wait for the girls. After about another twenty minutes, I start to worry that they ditched us, so I decided to text Addy.

  Me: Everything going alright in there?

  Addy: For the most part, Heather hasn’t blown up the place yet.

  Me: That bad? He really was just trying to do what was best for her.

  Addy: We both know, but she isn’t thinking logically right now.