Page 4 of Friend Zoned

Yup. I was right.

“You like being a coach?”

“I do. I liked being a player more, but a torn ACL took me out.” He points at his left leg. “But general manager and coach are good too. I just love the sport.”

I make a mental note to Google his job description tomorrow. We stand there, trying not to look at each other. I don’t know why he’s bothering with me, but he probably doesn’t want to interact with the group of frat boys, and I’m the next best option.

“You want to dance?” he asks, and I nearly drop my drink. Do I want to dance? Yes, I do. I love to dance, but do I want to dance with him? I don’t know. I might just disintegrate into a puddle if I get too close. As I try to think of a reason to say no, I see my mother from the corner of my eye dragging two very tall men with her.

“Fuck,” I whisper under my breath. The men play along and let her drag them. “Stay close, Coach,” I whisper to Aiden.

“Jeannie!” Mom brings the two guys to me like she accomplished a great feat. “This is Javier.” She reaches up and pats his cheek.

“Jarvis,” he corrects, but he takes the name mishap in stride and grins down at her.

“And this is Harris.” She pushes Harris close to me. “He’s handsome. Him too,” she points at Jarvis, “but he has too many tattoos.”

Jarvis chuckles, but Mom isn’t done. She pulls the collar of his shirt to the side to show me something on his neck. “Look. That’s too much. Why do you need all that? What does your mother say?”

“She doesn’t like them, but what can she do?” Jarvis shrugs. “I’m grown.”

Mom does not look impressed by that. “This is my daughter. She’s not married, and she has no boyfriend.” She doesn’t say this to anyone, but she looks from Jarvis to Harris after she makes that announcement.

I close my eyes, exhale, and wish the floor would open and swallow me whole. The two guys chuckle, but the coach does not. He moves closer to me as if to offer me protection and solace.

I put down my glass and grab Coach’s hand. His tightens around mine. It’s almost like we’ve done this before, and we’re not complete strangers who just met minutes ago.

“I’m going to dance with the coach. It was nice to meet you both.” I pull him away from my mother and the two men, and he follows. I find a corner of the dance floor that’s partially hidden. “That was mortifying. I’m three seconds away from going to wait for her in the car,” I whisper. The DJ is playing an upbeat Bruno Mars song, but before I can start to dance, the song ends, and a slow ballad comes on. I sigh in resignation and start to walk away, but Coach takes my wrist and pulls me into his big hard body.

God damn.

Chapter 4

Aiden

God damn. I lose my senses for a second and hope I didn’t say that out loud. But God damn, she feels good. She’s just how I like them. On the tall side and not rail thin. She has enough for me to hold on to, and I will myself not to grab anything that’s not mine to grab. At least not mine yet.

She smells like heaven. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. She rests her head on my chest, and I want to keep her there all night. I tighten my arms around her and pull her closer. I think I hear her sigh. After about a minute, she lifts her head from my chest and looks up at me. I make sure to look down and lock eyes with her. She has big beautiful brown eyes. I could drown in those eyes. There’s a sweet innocence about her. Even now as we stare at each other, she’s blushing, and I feel a shiver go through her body.

“Um, you’re a big bear of a man aren’t you?” Her eyes widen, and I bet she can’t believe she just uttered those words.

“Yeah,” I say. “I have big parts.”

“I bet you do,” she says, biting that full bottom lip. It’s bare now, her lipstick from earlier long gone. She breaks the stare and looks around the room. “You have to do me a favor, Coach.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” I want to remind her that my name is Aiden, but I’m interested to hear what she has to say.

“You’re stuck with me for now. You can’t leave my side, or my mother will bring around more guys.”

I turn my head, and her mother is watching us. She’s still holding onto Jarvis and Harris, and now she’s talking to the bride’s brother too. She says something to him and points to Jeannie.

“And what do I get out of it?”

“You get to be with the girl in black.” The song ends and another slow one starts to play. “I can’t promise to be any fun, but I’m mysterious,” she whispers. She turns her head, probably looking for her mother again. “You can stay away from the frat boys over there, and we can go to the dessert table and try everything.” She puts both hands on my chest, and I freeze at the unexpected gesture. She immediately removes her hands and looks into my eyes seemingly embarrassed before she looks away from me.

“Dessert it is, then.” I follow her across the room to the dessert table. Most people don’t know this, but I have an incurable sweet tooth. I don’t keep any sweets in my house, but this dessert table is my Kryptonite.

“You know,” I say to her, “the type of dessert people eat says a lot about who they are.” I hand her a small plate. “I’ll be able to tell everything about you based on what you put on your plate.”

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