Anonymous sex is exactly what I need right now.
In fact, it’s all I’ve ever wanted. And damn Parker for messing that up with all her Sex should be fun and You should be able to talk to the person after bullshit.
Sex was sex.
Talk was talk.
The two were kept completely separate, as Parker and I had just so disastrously demonstrated.
And as for feelings? That shit didn’t belong in there at all.
In the end I settle on the shorter of the two blondes, a friendly publicist who’d recently accepted a new job in Austin, and has made it abundantly clear that she’s looking for a last hurrah in Portland before relocating.
The girl practically has no strings attached written across her cute, perky butt.
Five minutes later, I’ve settled up our bar tab and waved goodbye to John, who’s also looking to be on the verge of getting lucky, and I’m about to escort Ana with one n back to my place when my phone vibrates in my back pocket.
I take it out with the intention of silencing it, but my thumb freezes when I see the name on the screen.
Parks.
It’s been so long since she’s called me, texted me, talked to me, that, for a moment, my face breaks out in a smile, until I remember the state of our friendship:
Deteriorated.
I tell myself to ignore it. Tell myself to focus on what’s simple, like Blondie here.
But my brain doesn’t listen, because then my thumb swipes across the screen, and I lift it to my face, although I don’t actually say anything.
Don’t know what to say.
“Ben?”
I skid to a halt then, because I’d know that voice anywhere. It’s her crying voice.
Automatically, the sound of it brings out the I will slay dragons for you instinct in me.
Even now.
Especially now.
I will slay dragons for you, Parker.
“Tell me,” I say.
“It’s my mom.” Her voice is tiny. Scared.
My heart drops.
“The cancer came back. It’s…it’s really bad.”
“Where are you?”
“At my parents’. You don’t have to come, I just…I wanted…I needed—”
“Shut up, Parks. I’m on my way.”
And just like that, I know. Know that I’d do anything—anything—to get my best friend back.