The night slowly returns to me as I drink my morning coffee silently while staring into the beautiful red roses on my kitchen island across from me.
The flowers. The wine. The photo on the mantle.
Sure enough, the frame that once held a photo of my entire friend group is now the proud home of a poorly taped-up photo of Josh and me.
I really need to quit drinking.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I grab a plastic trash bag from under the sink and start tossing all the ripped-up photographs inside. One by one, I cringe at how feral I let myself get last night.
My brain is running a looped montage of me searching through all my photo albums, then ripping apart every single photo that contained Teagan. This obsession needs to stop before someone gets hurt. What if she had stopped by out of the blue and saw all our photos torn to shreds like this? She’s my best friend. I can’t keep doing this to her.
What would have happened to me if my friends had seen this?
I shove the last of the evidence from last night’s episode into the bag, tie it in a knot, and push it to the bottom of my trash bin so nobody can stumble upon it.
I’m startled by the loud knock at my front door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and the girls usually call rather than show up unannounced. This is the second uninvited visitor at my door in the last twelve hours, and I’m not amused.
My eyes scan the room to make sure I got every single photo. Everything looks back to normal here after my cleaning sprint. I check my reflection in the mirror by my front door and like what I see enough to let the world take a peek.
I open the door slowly, then fling it all the way once I see who’s waiting on the other side.
“They forgot to send this with the roses,” he says with a smirk while he twists a little white envelope in his hands. I see my name written in dark, bold ink on the front.
I grab the card from his hands and open it in a rush.
Lexi,
I would give you the world if I could.
But I hope you’ll settle for my silent affection.
I smile at him and hold the small card to my heart. “I’ll take whatever you’re willing to share with me.”
His answering smile weakens my knees as he tosses his dark hair back. “So are you going to invite me in or…”
Instead of answering him, I grab him by the collar of his charcoal grey button-up and pull his lips to mine, relishing in his warmth and the familiar taste of him.
I pull away and look into his dark eyes.
“Hi, Josh.”
He pushes past me, stepping into my home like he owns the place, and throws his jacket onto the back of my white leather couch before making his way to the small kitchen.
Rationally, I know I should be annoyed that a man dismissed me so easily. But when Josh does it, I find it endearing, like he’s comfortable enough here to call it his own one day.
I follow him, perch on one of the three barstools lined up against the island, and watch him silently move around my kitchen. Something about it feels deliciously sinful. My best friend’s boyfriend shouldn’t know where my favorite wine glasses are, and he most definitely shouldn’t know what drawer I keep the wine opener in.
But Josh does. He knows almost everything about my place and even more about my heart.
Because Josh should have been mine, and he would have been in another life.
Until Teagan stole him from right under my nose. Not that she knew I had feelings for him. At the time, I was his interim secretary at the architectural design firm where he worked, and I made it very clear that he was off limits to me. Before the firm hired me full-time, I wouldn’t risk sleeping with my boss.
I didn’t think I had to specify to my best friend that he was also off-limits to her.
I foolishly invited her to the office for lunch one afternoon and asked her to wait in the lobby for me since the taco truck I loved was just around the corner. Unfortunately, Josh decided he also wanted tacos that day and was already waiting in line when we walked up.
I finally knew what that whole ‘love at first sight’ thing was when they first laid eyes on each other.
