Page 34 of The Little Black Book

“You should probably hold this,” she whispers, her breath brushing against my neck and causing me to shiver.

Then she pushes the popcorn bucket into my lap before digging a handful out and eating it. My lips curl up into a soft smile as I adjust the bucket and tilt it in her direction for easy access. She’s given me a pass by acting normal and not making a big deal out of the accidental boob-touch.

Because it was an accident. And I need to brush it off just as she apparently has.

We laugh through the rest of the movie, and when it ends, we both grunt and heave ourselves out of our seats. Zoey presses a hand to her stomach and groans, making me chuckle.

“Same, girl. Same,” I say as we walk down the steps to exit the theater.

“Next time, we should skip the candy and drink water. The popcorn, sugar, and carbonation are battling for supremacy in my stomach,” she says.

“Live and learn.”

“Yeah, right. I feel this way after every movie, yet I continue to chow down on all the good stuff every damn time,” she says with a self-deprecating laugh as we step out into the afternoon sunshine.

“At least the movie was good,” I say, walking with Zoey toward her car even though mine is in the opposite direction.

I’m just not ready for this non-date to be over, yet.

“It really was,” she says bumping her shoulder against mine. Then she stops and peers at me with laughter dancing in her eyes. “And I even got a free boob-grope out of it.”

Her words shock a bark of laughter out of me. Resting a hand on her shoulder, I shake my head.

“That was not a grope. It was an accidental brush.”

“Hey, don’t go raining on my parade. That’s the most action I’ve seen in months.”

She stiffens, and her smile drops for a second before she covers with a fake grin that wouldn’t fool a complete stranger, much less me. She obviously didn’t mean to divulge that much information.

“You know,” I say lifting a hand to show her my palm, “if you want arealgrope, I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

“Shut up,” she says, her genuine smile returning as she shoves at my shoulder.

“Hey,” I say, rubbing the spot and wincing like she’d actually hurt me, “I was just trying to help out a friend.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” she shoots back with a shake of her head.

“The offer stands,” I say with a wink.

We reach her car, and she leans in, wrapping her arms around my middle in a tight hug. I squeeze her back and try to ignore howrightshe feels in my arms. It’s a friendly hug. I can’t make more of it than there is.

Pulling away, she gives me a little wave, saying, “Thanks for the movie and junk food, Sam. I had a lot of fun.”

“Me, too,” I say. “I’ll see you later?”

“Of course,” she says, waving again as she climbs into her car and starts the engine.

I watch her drive away, and the bubbling feeling in my stomach worsens. I spent this time with Zoey to reinforce our friendship and remind myself what we are to each other, but ended up touching her boob and enjoying her embrace a little too much.

I’m so confused, but there’s nothing I can do about it but move on.

As I walk toward my car, I pull my phone from my pocket and open my little black book app. I need to narrow down what’s left of the list and set up another date.

Because finding a connection with someone is going to be the only way I’ll be able to stop obsessing over what I do and don’t have with Zoey.

And I really need to stop obsessing over the woman I know I can’t have.

Chapter13

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