“We’ve already established you have Mom powers,” I said as I stood up and brushed off my behind. “We’ve also already established that Mom powers are better than superpowers every day of the week.”
April got to her feet as well, then reached out to squeeze my arm. “You’re going to be a great mother someday. Just, you know, get the sperm from the donation bank so you don’t have to deal with a man who had to ejaculate for you to get it.”
I wrinkled my nose and groaned. “Thanks for that lovely visual.”
“Hey, you’re the only one around here getting some on the regular, so don’t give me that. Don’t pretend you’ve never seen a man ejaculate. I bet you’ve seen it at least once this week.”
“Not this week actually.” I sighed. “I’ve been really busy at the shop.”
I didn’t elaborate because I didn’t want her to worry, but I’d spent most of my nights this week in front of my computer. Trying to come up with ways to reach my targets wasn’t as easy as I hoped it might be, and in the meantime, all that red on the spreadsheet kept blinking at me.
“Uh oh,” April said, eyebrows raised. “Trouble in paradise already?”
“It’s not paradise and there’s no trouble with Cyrus.” Except that he wanted to take me to Italy and I didn’t know how to turn him down without telling him I couldn’t close up shop for an entire week. Especially not now.
I also couldn’t afford to hire someone to stand in for me while we’d be gone, so I was bang out of luck with that trip. April narrowed her eyes at me. “What’s going on then? Why haven’t you seen him this week?”
“I’ve seen him. I just haven’t hooked up with him for a few days.” In fact, it had now been almost a whole week since the last time we’d slept together. Not for lack of trying on his part, but I was struggling with putting my worries aside for long enough to take him up on any of his invitations to come over.
My best friend clearly wasn’t buying what I was trying to sell, though. “I thought all you had with this dude was a friends-with-benefits relationship. So where are all the benefits?”
“They’re…” I tried to think of a way to answer her that wouldn’t make her suspicious but came up blank. “They’re just on hold for a while. We’re both super busy at the moment.”
“Too busy to fuck?”
“April,” I admonished her, sending a pointed stare down the hallway. “Adi’s going to be back at any moment.”
“That girl washes her hands more thoroughly than a surgeon before he, or she, performs open heart surgery. That’s how I knew she hadn’t washed them earlier. Don’t worry. We have time.”
“Yeah, well, there’s nothing to talk about anyway. Like I said, we’ve seen each other. Everything is fine. We’re still friends. We just haven’t gotten together for anything outside of wedding planning this week.”
“How are things going with you two then?” She crossed her arms but jerked her head to show me she wanted me to follow her to the kitchen.
“It’s good. Like I said, we’re just friends who hook up from time to time. It’s actually really going well.”
April got some plates and silverware out, shooting me a look as she handed it over so I could set the table in the breakfast nook while she got back to the food. It was an almost seamless routine for us by now.
“I know it was my idea to sleep with him, but I didn’t mean you should keep doing it. You know that, right?”
I frowned at her as I set out the plates. “What are you talking about? Why shouldn’t we keep doing it? I just told you it’s going really well. We have a lot of fun together and he really is a friend.”
April sighed and stopped moving after pulling the tray out of the oven. She turned in place to look at me, her protective mittens coming up to grip the back of her neck.
“That’s a terrible relationship for you to be in. Sooner or later, you’re going to want something more. Fucking a really hot friend repeatedly without developing feelings isn’t easy, Luna. Not even for me. Why do you think I never sleep with anyone I actually like?”
“That’s ridiculous.” I set the silverware down with a clatter and rolled my eyes at her. “This is the first time that I’m happy with someone without any delusions of it being or becoming something more. Trust me. I’ve got this. I’ve even already got my exit point planned if it should ever come to that.”
Worry clouded April’s eyes. “I just hope it’s not the other one who has delusions then.”
I stared at her for a beat, then burst out laughing. “Cyrus? No. You can trust me on that, too. He’s not the type to harbor any of that particular kind of delusion. Stop worrying about us, April. We’re fine. I swear it. Totally and completely delusion free.”
Chapter 22
Cyrus
There was something seriously wrong with me. It was the only thing that explained why I was driving all the way over to Luna’s shop to invite her to dinner when I could have just texted her.
I parked in her loading area around the back of her shop, reflecting briefly on the day I’d met her when she’d been arguing with that delivery driver right there, but then pushed the memories back and let myself in.
More and more often these days, I found myself having to push thoughts and memories of her aside. Fucking only one woman for an extended period of time is messing with my head.
I knew it, but I had zero motivation to do anything about it. Late one night earlier this week, Luna had turned me down again.
Frustrated that she kept dodging me and wouldn’t tell me what it was about, I’d considered calling up one of my regular hookups from before I’d met Luna. Janet was a flight attendant who had texted me that very morning telling me she was in town for a night.
As I’d started typing up a reply, knowing that she’d have been there in the blink of an eye if I’d actually sent it, I deleted it instead. Needless to say, I was confused as fuck about what was going on with me.
If I hadn’t known any better, I’d have thought I was developing feelings for Luna. Since that was out of the question, I chalked it up to spending so much time with her lately—both in and out of bed.
Luna was startled when I emerged through her inner door, pressing her hand to her heart when she realized it was me. “Holy crack in a reindeer-shaped cracker. What are you doing here and why did you come in through the back?”
“I like to use the back door from time to time.” I couldn’t help the smirk that formed on my lips or the wink that followed.
Luna’s brows rose and she shook her head fast as she let out a nervous-sounding laugh. “Not with me, you don’t. Still doesn’t answer my other question. What are you doing here? We didn’t have plans to meet up today.”
“No, we didn’t,” I said and closed the door behind me before sauntering over to her. She was behind the counter, but I figured we were way past the point where she stayed behind it and I was on the other side.
Walking right around it like I had so many other times now, I slid my hands up her back and into her loose hair, then angled her head and brought mine down to greet her properly.