His Curvy Best Friend - Curvy Girl Dating Agency

“Thank you.” This time my words were more sincere, her small gesture making me feel just a little bit better. “Really.”

“No problem. So, what did you want to talk about? As long as it has nothing to do with matchmaking, I’ll listen.” She bit into her sandwich, golden brown eyes focused on mine. Patiently. “Well?”

“I need to talk some things out.”

“And you thought of me? Why?” Her disbelief was palpable, and I shrugged.

“Because Eva and Olive are newly in love and they won’t get it, but I feel like you might.” It was odd to admit that we might have anything in common other than our friendship with Olive, but it was the truth.

“Okay,” Mara said around another bite. “I’m a good sounding board even if I don’t get it, and I won’t judge you. Ever.” The fierceness of Mara’s words made me even more curious about her secrets.

“Stone and I kissed.” I blurted the words out and told Mara pretty much everything, about the jealousy that roared through me at the sight of him and Babs together at The Mayflower. “I mean, she is the better version of me. Not only is she gorgeous and stylish, but she’s a college professor and she’s bubbly, and most of all, she’s totally into fitness. Just like Stone.” Saying the words out loud made me even more embarrassed than thinking them.

“That’s stupid.”

“Is it? Maybe that’s what led to the kiss in the first place. Everything went wrong after seeing them together.” I told her about forgetting movie night, about not seeing or hearing from him for a week, and how odd that was. “That’s what led to the kiss, that led to the fight. I’m not crazy, am I?”

“Anyone who chooses algorithms as a line of work is crazy, and that’s a fact. But the answer to your question depends. How do you feel about Stone?”

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

Mara shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich before answering. “What’s the point? Life is too short for that. You have an answer?”

Did I have an answer? Of course I did. “Stone is my best friend. My touchstone. The only thing that helped me survive growing up as a Worthington and being my parents’ biggest disappointment. And regret.” We’ve been through everything together, all the highs and lows that life has had to offer up to this point.

Mara, still chewing, shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Yeah I know all that. Hell, everyone knows that. I’m asking if you love him? Do you have romantic feelings for him? Do you want to jump his bones…kiss him again?”

Before I could even think about the answer, I felt the blush creep up my throat and heat my face because, hell yeah, I definitely wanted a repeat of that kiss. “Maybe.” Another image flashed, the one of Stone naked and wet in my bathroom, an incident I refused to share with anyone. “Very possibly maybe.”

“Okay, that’s progress. Then what is the problem?”

“The problem,” I said and looked around to make sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. When I was satisfied, I sighed and continued. “The problem is, that I don’t trust love.”

“But your whole business is…,”

“I know, and I believe in love. For other people. But I don’t have any experience with love lasting. My parents, my whole family was supposed to love me, but it was easy for them to let me go for defying their expectations. It was easy for them to cast me aside, and if that happened with me and Stone, I’m not sure I would recover.” There, I said it. The words were out there in the universe, which Olive said gave them less power. I waited.

Nope. The belief was still there, stronger than ever.

“You think he’ll what, hit it and quit it?” She snorted a laugh and took another bite of her sandwich before opening the dill pickle potato chips she seemed to have forgotten about until now.

“What? Of course not. But what if he and Babs are actually the real thing, and this little distraction between us gets in the way of that?”

“Idiot.” Mara put her sandwich down again and shook her head. She took a sip of her sweet tea and sighed. “No offense Sophie, but for someone so damn smart you really are a bit of an idiot.”

“Gee, thanks.” I wanted someone who would listen and be honest, but Mara’s brand of honesty was enough to give a girl a complex.

“Seriously. You are, literally, the only person in all of Pilgrim who doesn’t know that Stone is in love with you. Madly in love. His feelings are real.”

I shook my head, unwilling to believe her. “That doesn’t explain the anger.”

She sighed and looked at me like I really was an idiot. “He’s pissed off because you only kissed him because of some other hot blond. Because you were jealous, not because you wanted him. If he did that, you’d call him a jerk, or maybe even an asshole. Just own up to your own crap, Soph.”