Blind Date (A Why Choose Romance)

He grimaced. “I doubt she has a ferret at all.”

“I doubt it too. However, she’s an interesting girl, a bit unconventional. If anyone would have a pet ferret, it’d be her.”

“Huh. And on fire?” Ethan sat down across from me. “So, she was here long enough for you to get to know her?”

“Yeah, she likes tomatoes. She ate them last. All the sensible people save the best until last,” I watched his confused face. “I cooked breakfast once we’d finished working up an appetite,” I said as if it were the equivalent of us sitting at the kitchen table playing Parcheesi.

I dreaded telling him, but I knew I must. And I braced myself for whatever was to follow.

Ethan’s response wasn’t exactly what I expected. “You, uh... what?”

“You don’t need the deets, dude. We did the dirty after you left.”

“After I left! Well, I sure know you didn’t fuck her while I was here.” Ethan raised his voice and stood up. This did not bode well.

“Dude, I ran into her after I showered. She looked sexy as fucking hell. She gave me that medusa look, and my cock turned to stone.” I decided to leave out a lot of the details.

“But you didn’t have to fuck the girl I brought home.” He slumped back on the seat, looking deflated.

“Technically, I didn’t fuck her. And I didn’t force her, Ethan. She wanted me too. I think I tore a few of the buttons from your shirt when I ripped it off her, though. So I owe you a shirt.”

He stared at me for a time. I dropped all this on him as if it were nothing. And if it were some groupie, it would have been nothing. But I liked Kayla, and he obviously did too.

It felt weird. As if I should’ve just kept my mouth shut before I irreparably destroyed this relationship over a girl.

I sipped my coffee, waiting for a response and bracing myself for him to punch me in the fucking face. Not that that had ever happened before, but I might have provoked the first time.

He didn’t do anything like that, thank god.

Ethan raised himself out of the seat, walked over to the coffee pot, and poured himself a cup. “Alright then. So you sampled Kayla as well.”

“I guess that’s what I did, yes.”

“You’re an insatiable manslut, and you know that, right?”

“I know that. Dude, you heard me say she wanted me too, right? Believe me, I talk the talk, but I wouldn’t force my dick where it wasn’t wanted. Or my fingers, or my mouth, for that matter. It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t left her and if she hadn’t wanted to.”

He nodded. “I know. Just... well...”

“Spill it, man. What’s eating you?”

“I should be fucking furious with you, Tyler. She was wearing my shirt. She stayed the night in my room.” He waved his hands in the air. “And you did whatever you did with her, anyway.”

I nodded. “Guilty. You deserve to be furious. I wouldn’t blame you. But you’ve seen her, so you can’t blame me for wanting her too. I’m an asshole. And I let my cock take control for a while. I’m guilty and sorry, man.”

“It wasn’t like we were an official thing.” His face remained stoic. “We’d only just met. It was one night. I thought she liked me. And I hoped she’d want to see me again, but I guess I was wrong. If she can take my number and then go and mess about with you, she can’t have been all that interested in me.”

That’s when I realized he wasn’t angry with me. He was upset by his shattered dream.

“Ethan, she walked out of your room a very happy woman. Even with all my talents, I didn’t turn her on from zero. She was already on a high from being with you. I just made her an even happier woman on top of all that.”

He sat back down with his coffee mug.

Ethan took a sip of his coffee before saying, “But she had to rush off to her burning ferret when she knew I was coming back.”

“Yeah, you know. I think she had shit to do. Or work. Or something.”

“Shit, yes, that’s right. She said she couldn’t stick around. And I remember her saying she normally works at lunchtime. It would make sense that she might have to get to work today.”

“What do we do? Tell her we’d both like to take her out, so she’d better choose one of us, or she can take you one night and me the next?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? Taking it in turns to date the girl while she makes her mind up—what she wants if she wants either of us, that could work.”

I kinda understood him. We had more than fifteen years of camaraderie between us. Were we going to let the last twelve hours destroy something like that?