“Couldn’t forget if I tried.” He licked his lips.
Words. I should have been saying them, telling him we had to forget it ever happened, that I was going to tell Dougie, that our friendship would never go further. I stood there speechless instead.
“I’m sharing. I expect you to, Meek.” He didn’t stand there any longer. He pulled open the door for me and ruffled my hair with his other hand. “You’re my favorite LA girl by far and you know it. I’d share the world with you if I could.”
I combed my fingers through my dark hair, hiked up my book bag, and scanned the place to see if my mother was up front. I couldn’t focus on what had just happened, couldn’t even consider that Jay was my best friend and also the man I was lusting over.
I had a boyfriend. And, sure, Dougie wasn’t talking to me and was acting like I didn’t exist half the time, but he was still the man for me.
“So, my mom is going to try to make us stay the whole night. We have to get back to the airport on time.”
He nodded, eyebrows raised with a little smirk that said to me he wasn’t listening to a damn thing I was saying.
“I’m serious, Jay. I don’t want to restock and organize all day.”
“And normally I’d agree with you, Mikka. I would. Today, though, is the opportunity of a lifetime. Whoever gets to say they restocked a porn store?” He practically shook with excitement.
“Are you twelve?” It was a remark I pulled out for most people when they learned my mother owned a porn shop.
“I honestly think in my heart of hearts, I am.”
I tried so hard to continue to glare at him but looking back over the years, I knew his statement was true. If there was an opportunity to be a kid or immature, Jay was the first to take it. He shoved our boss into the pool at a formal event just because he thought the man was being too stuffy.
Anyone else would have been fired. Jay jumped in after him and claimed he was saving him. Bob laughed and laughed.
I was no different because I cracked under his charm. My mouth lifted of its own accord and I spun away from him.
“I saw that, Meek. You know as well as I do there’s no reason to be a damn stiff. I’m fucking pumped!” He whooped at the end of his proclamation and the laugh I had been holding in burst out of me.
“You’re so ridiculous.”
He nudged me as we walked down an aisle looking for my mother. “It’s the best way to be, woman. You and I both know it.”
“I beg to differ, but it works for you. And for me, I guess.” I shrugged. Jay’s success meant my success, quite frankly. I’d moved to LA with dreams of screenwriting but got to the top with my over-organized nature and handling everything for Jay. I got to see the movie made, I got to read the scripts and Jay always asked me for input. Jay Stonewood was my biggest client, my best friend, and the whole female population’s eye candy.
Jay moved much slower than me as we searched the store. He stumbled upon a box and picked it up. “What the hell is this for?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Can we not do this?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I’m serious. Do you know?” He glanced at me and then back at the box in his hand. “You don’t know. Your mom probably never let you in here.”
He was baiting me. I knew he was. But the need to prove myself and be the best pushed me to answer. “It’s a new type of vibrator, waterproof and dual action. The motor is mediocre. I’d recommend the more expensive version. If you can’t orgasm with that one in five minutes”—I dropped my voice and slid my hand over the box seductively—“you probably need to see a doctor.”
His mouth dropped, and I snatched the box out of his hand. “That was hot, Meek. Tell me more. Where has this side of you been hiding since I’ve known you?”
I blew a raspberry. “Want me to continue your fantasy and say it’s locked away until I get home or be honest and say, newsflash, not even Dougie gets that side of me because it is fake.”
He crowded me into the shelving and lifted my chin with the knuckle of his finger. “I don’t believe you. Maybe you haven’t met someone to unlock that side of you. But it’s there.”
We were both looking at each other’s lips. I licked mine and he licked his. I remembered how he tasted, how soft his lips felt, and how he’d demanded everything from me as he controlled the kiss. The world was fading around us and all I could see was him, all I could focus on was that we had fit together that night, that I’d felt more alive in that moment than I ever did anymore.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “It’s for the sale, not reality. I know how to sell product. My mom made me work on commission and I didn’t want any loans in college. I worked hard and it paid off. Dougie was happy to know I didn’t have loans going into our relationship.”
He grumbled something about Dougie that I didn’t ask him to repeat. I knew he wasn’t a fan of my boyfriend and didn’t need the reminder. I shoved the product back on the shelf just as my mother appeared from the back room.
“Mikka, face the picture forward.” My mother’s voice berated me from across our store. How she could see that I was restocking wrong, I didn’t know. She was a ferocious mother, driven by her need to succeed in the porn store business.
I turned it the right way. “Mom, it doesn’t matter, every side has the same picture.” I whined like a petulant child. Still, I knew my mother would correct it like she did everything. It was a pastime of ours to argue the semantics of product display. I’d known when I’d come that’s what we would be doing. We wouldn’t discuss much else.