“You wanted something, Linda?” I looked at Clemetine’s roommate and gave her a smile. Linda was one of those girls that was mad at the world for everything, but she always seemed to soften when I turned on the charm. I knew she had a thing for me. She made it pretty obvious, but I had absolutely no interest in her.
“I was just wondering what’s going on.” She smiled at me and batted her eyelashes. “I heard Clemmie squealing, so I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“You guys can watch the movie in the living room if you want.”
“We’re fine in here.” Clementine responded.
“Hmm.” Linda paused. “Are you sure you guys want to watch it in here? Your bed is so small.” She looked at us. “Plus, it’s a little weird. People might get the wrong idea if they knew you guys watched movies in bed together.” She made a face. “And that he stayed over so much. Not that it’s my business, but it’s weird that you guys share the bed if you’re not hooking up.”
“We’ve been friends for almost fifteen years, Linda.” Clementine sighed. “We’ve shared baths before.”
“Not recently?” Linda’s eyes widened in shock.
“Well, if you count last month as recent.” I spoke up and smiled wickedly.
“What?” Linda gasped and Clementine hit me in the arm.
“Rhett’s joking, Linda.” She laughed. “We haven’t had a bath together since we were little kids.”
“I can still remember it like it was yesterday though.” I winked at Linda and I watched as her face went red.
“Well, you know...” She swallowed. “If you ever want to you know,” She smiled at me suggestively. “Just let me know.”
“I will.” I winked at her and watched as her face went bright red. It never failed to amaze me how easily it was to bring a woman to her knees. It didn’t matter how shady she thought you were. Flirt, give her a sexy smile, and bam, all other thoughts went out of her head.
“Night, Linda.” Clementine’s voice was dry as she dismissed Linda from the room.
“Oh, night.” Linda looked frustrated as she left the room and I felt Clementine staring at me as I lay back.
“What?” I questioned her.
“Why do you flirt with her when you know you’re not interested?”
“It makes her feel good.” I shrugged. “What’s wrong with that?”
“It makes her feel like she has a chance.” She sighed. “It’s mean.”
“How is that mean?”
“Because she doesn’t have a chance.”
“Well you never know...” I let my voice trail off and she hit me in the shoulder.
“You’re gross.”
“Hmm, I prefer easy.”
“You prefer to be called easy?”
“I prefer to be called hot, but hey we can’t always have what we want.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I can’t help it if all the girls want me.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed the remote out of my hands. “Who’s hot now?” She giggled as she scrolled through the movies.
“I let you get it.” I shrugged and watched her laughing. I smiled as I leaned back and glanced at the wall again. I was grateful that Clementine hadn’t asked me about my mother and my feelings. It had been years since I’d seen her and I hated talking about her. Clementine knew that it was something that I wasn’t ready to really discuss. I appreciated the fact that she respected my wishes and I was grateful that she could always make me smile. “You can choose the movie.” I said finally. “Just please please please, nothing with Channing Tatum.”
“What?”
“I’ll never be able to remove those moves from ‘Magic Mike’ from my brain.” I shivered and made a face. “I don’t want to watch a movie about male strippers.”
“Yet you were fine with watching ‘Showgirls’.” She rolled her eyes again.
“Uh, yeah. Hot topless women, ha**g s*x in the bar and the pool is fine with me any day of the week.” I licked my lip. “Shoot, I’d love to have sex in the pool.”
“Rhett.” She groaned.
“Fine, we won’t talk about sex, but if you play a chick flick I will proceed to tell you all about the time I had sex at the movie theater and...”
“Stop.” She slapped her head to my lips and gave me a look. “We might be best friends, but I do not want to know all of your intimate details.”
“But that’s part of the fun of being best friends.” I grinned and licked her hand. I laughed as she yelped and pulled her hand away.
“You’re gross.” She rolled her eyes and I laughed. I jumped off of the bed and pulled my jeans and t-shirt off and jumped back on the bed, wearing just my boxer shorts.
“You’re way too comfortable with me, Rhett.” She shook her head as she stared at my na**d chest.
“What?” I laughed and stretched. “You’ve seen me in boxers before.”
“I know.” She sighed. “But I was thinking about what Linda said. Don’t you think it’s weird that we still have sleepovers?” She paused. “And the fact that you sleep in only your boxers?”
“It would be weird if you were na**d.” I shrugged. “But, seeing as you’re wearing shorts and a tank top, it’s not really that weird is it?” I ignored the fact that my body was reacting to her in a way that was definitely not platonic.
“I guess.” She sighed and nibbled on her lower lip.
“What is it?” I asked her softly.
“I just,” She sighed and continued nibbling. “I just don’t know if we’re giving people the wrong impression.”
“Wrong impression?”
“Like we’re hooking up or something?” She jumped off of the bed. “Get up, I need to pull the sheets down.”
“It doesn’t matter what people think.”
“Penelope thinks we act like an old married couple, yet we don’t have any of the benefits.” She sighed as she got under the sheets.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I crawled into the bed next to her.
“It means that we’re intimate in ways that most people aren’t, yet we’re not really intimate.”
“Lots of friends share beds, Clementine.” I stretched my legs out and felt her smooth ones brushing against mine. “We’re mature adults. Who cares what anyone else thinks?”
“It’s just that maybe it’s not healthy.” She sighed and snuggled into the sheets.
“What’s not healthy?” I put my arm around her shoulder and she snuggled into my chest.
“This.” She looked up into my eyes as her arm crawled across my chest. “Maybe we shouldn’t share a bed anymore.”
“That’s stupid.” I glared at her and saw her face flushing. “If we’re comfortable with it, then who cares what anyone else thinks?”
“I guess.” She sighed and I felt her breath teasing my nipple.
“Most people don’t have a friend like us.” I stroked her hair and relaxed back in the bed. “They don’t understand that you can be close with someone, without sex. They’re just jealous.”
“I guess.” She rested her chin on my chest and shifted against me. “I just don’t know if we’re too old to continue being this close.”
“There’s no age limit on a friendship, Clementine.” I shifted my legs and slipped one between hers to get more comfortable. “People are just jealous of how close we are.” I closed my eyes as I felt her fingers running up and down my chest. They felt soft against my skin and I felt relaxed holding her in my arms.
“Did you shave?” She asked me softly and I opened my eyes and saw her smiling at me widely.
“Huh?” I pretended to be ignorant.
“Did you shave your chest?” She grinned widely now. “There’s no hair on your chest.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh my god, Rhett, you’re so vain. You shaved your chest.” She said and then giggled as she ran her hands across my chest.
“Oh my god, Clementine, you’re so vain, there’s no hair on your legs.” I imitated her girly voice and ran my hands down her legs. That was a mistake. Her legs felt soft and supple to the touch and I found myself hardening as she shifted against me. Her hip was pressed against my groin and I tried to shift away from her as I became very aware of how close we were. My head started pounding as I moved my hands away from her legs quickly. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to start seeing Clementine as a woman. I wasn’t even sure why my body was reacting this way. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t shared the same bed hundreds of times before. Many times, she hadn’t even worn shorts. I thanked God that she had shorts on now. I’m not sure what I would have done if she’d just been in her t-shirt and panties. Who knows what my hands would have done, where they would have gone.
“Ugh.” She leaned away from me. “I forgot to take my bra off.” I watched as she undid the bra and pulled it out of her t-shirt and threw it on the ground. I avoided looking at her chest. I didn’t need to see her unsheltered br**sts straining against her tank top. “Damn, I have to turn the light off.” She sighed and jumped out of the bed. I stared at her ass as she walked to switch the light off. “Ready for the movie?” She grinned as she jumped onto the bed. I couldn’t stop myself from watching her bouncing br**sts as she moved and I stifled a groan as she cuddled up next to me again. Maybe her friends were right. Maybe we were getting too old for this.
“Yeah, sure.” I muttered and stretched. “Though, I might just go to sleep. I’m feeling tired.”
“So I can choose what I want to watch?” She peered up at me and grinned.
“Yay,” I faked a yawn and closed my eyes. “I’m feeling sleepy.”
“Night, sleepy head.” She whispered and leaned up and kissed my cheek. I felt her br**sts pressed against my arm as she kissed me and I clenched my fists to stop myself from grabbing her around the waist and pulling her on top of me. I frowned at myself. These were not the thoughts I wanted to be having about Clementine.
“Night.” I whispered back and tried to control my breathing as she made herself comfortable next to me. All of a sudden I was aware of how close to na**d we both were. Her body felt warm next to mine. Her scent filled my nose and her hair tickled my chest. All of a sudden, sharing a bed with Clementine didn’t feel so innocent. It felt like temptation. And I didn’t like it. Clementine was the last person I wanted to hook up with. It would ruin everything.
Chapter Three
“Shit! I didn’t hear the alarm!” Clemmie sprung away from me and jumped out of the bed like a crazy person.
“So…?”
“I have a study group at eight.” She opened her closet, grabbed a sweater and pulled it on. “Dang it, I can’t even shower.”
“I’ll take an extra-long one. Just for you.” I grinned and watched her running around.
“You’re so thoughtful.”
“I try to be.” I stretched and grabbed the other pillow and put it under my head. “Ooh, now this is comfy.”
“Jerkface.” She turned away and ran her fingers over her hair to smooth it down.
“Is study group that important?” I checked my watch. “You’ve already missed most of the session.”
“Argh.” She frowned at me and grabbed her bag. “I can’t miss the whole thing. I gotta go. See you later.”
“I’ll let myself out.” I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. “See you for lunch?”
“Can’t.” She shook her head. “I have to study for a test over lunch.”
“Okay.” I shrugged.
“With Penelope.”
“I see.” I stopped myself from groaning out loud. Of course, Penelope had to be involved. I was so annoyed that Clementine was cutting me out of day-to-day activities because she was hanging out with Penelope.
“Maybe tomorrow?”
“I have a date,” I lied, feeling annoyed.
“Oh, okay.”
“I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, ciao.” She ran out of the room and I lay back in the bed. I didn’t have any classes on Monday, but I was supposed to go into work. Though, I didn’t have a starting hour at the company. My dad didn’t really care when I came in. He was too busy making deals to bother with me. I grabbed my phone and checked to see if I had any messages. I had five missed calls from five different girls and eight texts. I checked them all, but didn’t respond to any of them. I settled back into the bed and thought about the previous evening and how turned on I had been by Clementine pressing herself into me.
“You need to get a grip, Rhett,” I muttered to myself, and jumped out of the bed. I looked at the tousled sheets and sighed. What the f**k was I doing? Was there something seriously wrong with me? Maybe Clementine and Penelope were right. I shuddered at the thought of agreeing with Penelope, but I was starting to wonder if I wasn’t playing with fire. Maybe it wasn’t smart to keep sharing the bed with Clemmie. It was still innocent and I still enjoyed the comfort of sleeping together, but I was starting to wonder if we weren’t playing with fire. Were we using each other as placeholders for a real relationship? I sighed as my head started hurting. I didn’t want to think about this at all. I grabbed my phone again and called Lily, a girl I’d met in my accounting class.