21 Days (Time for Love 2)

I looked up her as I sent off, See you then.

“Giddy?” I asked, trying to hide my grin. “Giddy’s for schoolgirls. I don’t do giddy.”

“Tell that to your face,” Shelly shot back, causing me to laugh out loud. “Who was the text from?” she asked, gesturing toward my phone.

“TJ,” I responded simply, turning to open the door and allow her to walk ahead of me inside.

Shelly just stood there, looking at me with a confused expression on her face.

“TJ? TJ put that look on your face?” she asked, still standing in the open doorway.

“Can we get off the street and go inside?” I replied, making a sweeping gesture with my arm to get her inside.

I followed her through the door and stood behind her in the deli line. I knew it would only be a matter of minutes before she’d ask me what was going on. I was hoping to stall her until we had ordered our food and weren’t in the middle of a crowd.

She turned back and started to say something, when the guy at the counter saved me by asking for her order. Once it was my turn and I ordered my chicken salad, I joined her by the pick up line and leaned in to say, “TJ and I are hooking up.”

I figured it was better to just blurt it out than play twenty questions.

Shelly’s eyes got round and she began to bounce up and down, clapping and grinning like a deranged clown.

“Stop that,” I hissed, glaring at the starting customers.

Shelly stopped bouncing and put her hand over her mouth, “Sorry,” she said as another giggle escaped.

I narrowed my eyes at her and picked up both of our orders when the guy called our names. I ushered her to a booth in the back corner and sat, placing her food in front of her.

“How did that happen? What happened? Are you guys like a couple now?” Shelly fired off each question in one breath.

“Calm down,” I said with a laugh, unable to maintain the scowl that I’d been trying to hold her off with. “Don’t get you’re panties in a bunch. No… we are not like a couple now. We are friends who are going to explore a new, sexual side of our relationship. We’re both attracted to each other, and now that he’s living under the same roof as me, that attraction has been getting harder to deny. So … we decided to surrender to that attraction while he’s living with me.”

The excitement died on Shelly’s face and she leaned in toward me. “You mean the two of you are going to have sex with each other for the next two weeks, then he’s going to move out and you’re going to go back to just being friends?”

I nodded as I took a bite of my sandwich.

“That sucks,” Shelly pouted.

“It doesn’t suck,” I argued. “You just want to make everything into some big romance, and that’s not what either of us are looking for. We aren’t relationship people, Shel, you know that.”

“I call bullshit. You have both been in a relationship with me, Cal, Scott, Gaby, and each other, for the past eight years.”

“It’s not the same thing,” I replied.

“Of course it is … Anyway, what if after two weeks, one, or both of you, don’t want to go back to just being friends?” she asked.

“We are going into this openly and honestly. If one of us gets too serious, or wants out, we’ll end it. No hard feelings,” I responded, feeling proud that we could be so mature about this.

“That sounds great in theory, but feelings develop, Sash. I’d hate for either of you to get hurt,” Shelly said sadly.

“Can you stop acting like we’re doing some horrible thing? It’s just sex. TJ and I have it with other people all of the time, and we’re able to keep our feelings out of it. Now, we’re going to enjoy each other. It’s no big deal,” I assured her.

“If you say so,” Shelly said, unconvinced.

“How’s everything else going?” I asked, eager to get the topic off of my sex life.

“Pretty good. Work is going great for me, and Cal’s been working with Brock. He’s been thinking about opening up his own shop. He was going to talk about it with Scott and TJ, to get their take, but he’s been picking Brock’s brain about it first, since Brock started his own painting business. It’s scary to think about, but exciting too.”

“Wow, that would be great!” I said, excited for her. “He should go for it. Tell him to let me know if he needs an investor or silent partner or something. I don’t know a lot about that business, but I have the money, and would be excited to be part of it.”