Gabe blinked, his brow bunching together in a scowl as he followed my line of sight to the tent between his thighs. “What? No, your phone is ringing.”
“My phone?” Sitting back on my heels, I quirked my head and listened to the faint tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody” playing somewhere in the distance.
Is this real life?
“What is that?” I swiveled my head to look around my blurred room. The details were fuzzy in the dream, as it seemed the only part I cared to put effort into imagining was the gorgeous man splayed out on my bed.
Is this just fantasy?
“Isn’t that your ring tone? You need to pick up your phone, Mel. Time to wake up.”
Wake up!
I bolted up from my desk, jolting awake in an instant.
Fuck.
I’d fallen asleep at work. Glancing at the digital clock on my desktop computer, a string of curses slipped through my lips as my sleep-blurred vision registered the time. 9:02 PM. I stayed too late at work after hours and fell asleep on my keyboard. I fumbled for my buzzing phone and winced at the name of the screen.
Jess.Shit.
Glimpsing my reflection in the screen of my phone, a grown slipped past my lips as I tried to rub away the pattern my keyboard left imprinted on my forehead.
I pressed the phone to my ear.
“Hey, Jess,” I said, wincing at my sleep-encrusted voice.
“Happy birthday, girl!” Jessica chimed on the other end. “What’s with you? You sound like you just woke up from a thirty-year coma. You better be ready to party.” Underneath her bubbly demeanor, evident exhaustion weighed her tone. But that was understandable. Once we’d graduated from Western Washington University, I settled down into my mundane accounting job, and Jess became a registered nurse. Now she worked all sorts of double, triple, quadruple-level whatever shifts that only a coked-up super-woman would be able to swing. Somehow she managed to work non-stop and take care of her father as well, whose health was on a swift and depressing decline. On top of that, she still managed to make time for me.
“I’m just tired. Long day at work. You know we don’t have to go out for drinks tonight. We can take a rain check. You’ve probably been at the hospital all day—”
“Oh,ho,no, don’t you dare try to flake out on me, girl. It’s your birthday, we’re gonna party! Look, I know you’re nervous since we decided tonight’s the night you’re going to tell Gabe that you have feelings for him. But it’s going to be okay, Mel. I promise.”
I swallowed. “You don’t know that. What if he thinks I’m a creep? What if he makes me move out?”
My heart squeezed. “What if he stops talking to me?”
“And what if he confesses his secret love for you too? What if you both bang out a quickie in the club’s restroom and ride off into the sunset in his shining white BMW? Then you two will get married, and since he’s a rich software developer, you can quit doing math for a living. It will be a birthday miracle!”
“Sure, Jess.” I rolled my eyes. “That’s just how I imagined it. It’s the fairytale ending every girl dreams about.”
“Jokes aside, you guys are basically attached at the hip. And I see how he looks at you. He’s probably just too big of a weenie to tell you how he feels. Don’t let all the muscles fool you. I bet there’s a big softie underneath all that macho yumminess.”
Of all the words to describe Gabriel, “weenie” wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t scared of anything. So if there was some chance that he did have romantic feelings for me, he’d just come out and say it…
Right?
“I don’t know, Jess…”
“Hey, if you’re so freaked out about telling him, save it for another night. Just come out with us, okay? I could really use a drink after the day I’ve had. Besides, it’s too late for you to bail,” she said in a sing-song voice. “I just pulled up at Club Glow.”
Double shit.
“Um…” I glanced at my computer. Thanks to my nap, I wasn’t anywhere close to being done with balancing these accounts. “I might be a little late,” I admitted.
“Mel,” Jessica’s tone dripped with disapproval. “You better not be at work still. It’s your birthday. Pack up the abacus, girl. Jack Daniels is calling my name, and youknowhe’s gonna want me to dance.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll leave now.” I stood up, purposefully scraping my chair back so she could hear my initiative. “I’m heading right over. I brought a change of clothes and heels, so you don’t have to dance with the weirdo in a blazer and pencil skirt.”
