Page 32 of Charmed by You

And once I got over hating him for being an arrogant prick,I knew without any hesitation that Simon was the man for me.

Yeah, sometimes things don’t have to be overthought.

Sometimes you just know. Sometimes things just are.

I’m thinking about life and sex and all that Simon-y stuffas I pull up at Aaron’s place in the hills.

And, of course, as soon as I arrive, Simon falls out of mythoughts, and I’m back to being irritated about the damn article again.

“Don’t let it worry you,” Aaron says, leading me to the backporch. “We’ll deal with it. If you want us to, we’ll challenge it. The factthat you weren’t even at this party should make a big difference. We can getpeople who were there to testify to that. But I still don’t think it’s worththe trouble.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Thinking about it is just going to piss meoff. And I don’t want to be in a pissy mood when we talk about the script. “ButI want a drink.”

He laughs. “I’m not surprised.” He steps behind the outdoorbar and pulls open the wine fridge. “How about my famous wine cooler?”

“Perfect,” I say. He mixes red wine with sparkling fruitjuice, and it’s like drinking heaven. “Did you want to work out here? Or are wegoing inside?”

“Hot tub okay? My back is killing me.”

I shrug. This may not be the most traditional workingenvironment, but Aaron and I have known each other since I was practically indiapers. Well, okay, I was ten and he was nineteen. So sitting in a hot tubgetting a script all damp as we flip pages in the steaming water is not only afamiliar setting, but a comfortable one.

“There should be a suit that fits you in the pool house. Goahead. I’m already wearing trunks.”

Sure enough, I find the pink two-piece I usually wear when Ivisit, and when I come back, he’s set a nice large plastic cup filled withyummy nectar on the side of the hot tub.

I climb in, then take the copy of the script he hands me,careful not to get it wet. “How extensive are these notes?”

“Not bad. We’ll be done in an hour. Maybe two.”

“Good. Because I’ve been having a lovely week off withSimon. And I would like to get back to that as soon as possible.”

He laughs. “Good. That first day at your house, I thoughtyou might actually bite his head off. Now I guess there’s a different type ofbiting going on.”

“La la la, I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Since when?” he asks, and I make a face, then take a longsip of my cooler.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

“That’s for sure,” he says. “You know there’s nothing Iwouldn’t do for you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“I’m really glad to hear that.”

I frown, something in his voice making me uneasy. “Is theresomething going on? Nothing with Spiraling, is it?”

“No. It’s nothing, really. Just some personal shit. Makes meglad to have a friend like you.”

“Dating stuff?”

“Not exactly. Okay, maybe a bit.”

I take his hand. He’snot in the tub yet, just sitting on the side, with his feet in. “You need toget out there more. You used to date a lot. You stopped.”

“I guess my heart hasn’t been in it.” He picks up his wineand holds it out for a toast. I tap my glass against his and take a largeswallow.

The only trouble with this drink is how easy it goes down.Fortunately, I know that Aaron keeps a car service on call, so if I get tootipsy, it’ll be easy to get home. Or I can always get my boyfriend to pick meup.