Chapter 15- Johnny - Advice from the Old Dog
“Knock, knock. Cookie delivery,” I yell as I let myself into Aiden’s house. He gave all the guys keys years ago when we did all of our rehearsing in his garage, and I kept mine. Aiden is usually playing drums in the garage and can’t hear you knock, or he’s playing video games and doesn’t want to get up.
“Hey man,” Aiden says without looking away from his game. “What are you doing?”
“I baked last night so I have some cookies for the shelter.”
That gets his attention, and he pauses his game and comes to the kitchen. He opens one of the boxes I’ve deposited on the counter and grabs a couple of cookies before heading back to his chair. I help myself to a cup of coffee and go have a seat on the couch.
“Do I want to know why you were on a baking kick last night?” Aiden asks, wiping crumbs off his shirt before grabbing his game controller and playing again. “Or is it safe to assume that I already know what’s up, and it has something to do with Alex’s friend Becca?”
I huff out a laugh and shake my head. “Am I really that transparent?”
“Well… yeah, you’re completely transparent. I figured you’d fall in love with her from the minute we saw her after the show.”
“Yeah, yeah. You know me so well.”
“So, what’s the problem? Not sure if you should do it because she’s Alex’s best friend or…?” Aiden holds up the controller in a silent request to play the game with him, but I shake my head no.
“Can’t. Promised Mom I’d come over and help her with something. With how much time Trav has been spending over there, I’m surprised there’s even anything left to do. He could have fully renovated their house by now.” I take a drink of my coffee. “But back to your other question. The problem is that Becca is not interested in a relationship. She invited me over after we all had dinner at Connor’s place a few weeks ago, but she said she only does one night.”
He pauses his game again and looks at me. “What do you mean ‘one night’?”
“She said if we slept together that it would only be that one night, and then never again. I told her I didn’t want that and together we decided to be friends.”
“Okay. So be friends and that’s it.”
“Yeah,” I drawl. “About that. I picked her up the day after Connor’s attack. We had breakfast and then decided we needed to find something to do so that Alex and Connor would have more time to talk.”
“Okay? What’s the problem, then?”
I take a deep breath. I don’t normally kiss and tell, but Aiden is the most level-headed guy I know, and I could really use some advice. “Well, when I was at her place that first night, I noticed that her left leg wasn’t as tattooed at the right. She has a huge Freddy Krueger on the front of her right thigh and its prominence made me think of a tattoo featuring a bunch of other horror movie villains. So I drew it for her.”
“And what? She didn’t like it?”
“No, man. She loved it. I took her to the shop after our late breakfast and let her tattoo me, and then I tattooed her with the design. She said that Freddy had the spotlight long enough.”
“Wait,” Aiden drops his controller and turns to look at me. “She tattooed you?”
“Yeah,” I say, trying to hide my smile. I love that she tattooed her logo on me. It felt like she claimed me. “She gave me a little line art camera. Here, I’ll show you.” I stand up and pull down the side of my pants so he can see the camera on my right hip. “She said it’s the logo for her photography business.”
Aiden gives me a smirk. “She branded you, man. Now you’re hers.”
Fuck, I wish that was the case. My life would be a whole lot easier right now if Becca felt the same way about me as I do about her. As it is, it’s hard to maintain our just friends status when I spend all my time thinking about how awesome she is or fantasizing about her hot body and the way she responded to me when I went down on her at the shop.
“Yeah. Well, see that part is fine. It’s what happened after I did the line work on her tattoo that has me all fucked up. I was telling her about the work I do on mastectomy patients and out of nowhere she grabbed me and started kissing me.”
“Okay? So you’re together now?”
“No, but things went a little too far. Afterward I was going to say that maybe we could try dating casually, since we seem to get along so well but before I could get the words out she jumped in with how it was a mistake and we need to put it behind us so we can stay friends.”
“Ouch,” Aiden presses a hand over his heart. “Sorry, man. That sucks.”
“I guess I should have expected it. She made it clear that she only does one night. We didn’t actually have sex, but maybe it was enough to qualify as the one night.”
“So what are you going to do now? Are you guys still trying to be friends?”
“I’m trying. We grabbed coffee a few times since then and it was a little awkward. It’ll get better, I’m sure. But I don’t know if I can be just friends with her, man. She’s so fucking hot. And the more time I spend with her, the more amazing she gets. She’s funny, smart, cool, and hot. She’s the one man. I just know it.”
