Friend-Zoned (Friend-Zoned 1)

I haven’t noticed she started to speak.

“So we can be friends, right?”

Wait, what?

I stare at her, a frown forming at my mouth.

Did I. . ? Did I just get Friend-zoned?

I look over again to see Tina nodding vigorously and smiling brightly.

Wow, this has never happened to me before. Girls usually come to the club knowing I got money; they ask me out or ask me to their place for a “drink”, which one hundred percent of the time ends up meaning sex.

Tina takes my silence as her cue to speak again. “I mean we work right across the street from each other. We can do lunch sometimes and, Ooh,” she widens her eyes almost comically, “we can get together for coffee at Winnie’s!”

She looks so excited at the prospect of us being friends, she’s practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

You don’t need another friend. Definitely not a friend that’s a girl; too complicated. Cut her loose, man. You don’t need this shit.

“Uh. . . ”

Just do it! Cut her loose. This is a mistake.

I look into her sweet face and the words are out of my mouth before I realize.

“Yeah, sure. We can be friends”

What. The. Fuck?

Where the hell did that come from?

Before I can think about what just happened, Tina looks at me and smiles big. Her lips are a pale pink, not lipstick or gloss, but naturally. Her teeth are white and perfect. I tell myself to stop staring at her damn lips. So I focus on her eyes. Her eyes are slightly crinkled at the corners. Goddamn, even her eyes are smiling.

Great. Just great, you moron.

Tina stands abruptly, pushing the chair out so hard it almost flies backwards onto the floor. She snatches up one of my business cards out of the holder on the desk, smiles brightly at me and says, “Great! So I guess I’ll be seeing you around, friend!” enthusiastically waving my business card back and forth in the air like it’s a Polaroid picture. She finishes with, “I’ll be in touch. ”

And then she’s out the door. I sit back in my chair and my brow furrows once more as I scratch my chin.

Seriously. What the fuck just happened?

***

I walk myself down the stairs and out of Nik’s building, thankfully remembering the way Max showed me. I make my way across the street to Safira, bound through the door grinning from ear to ear and holding Nik’s business card. Mimi looks at me, her face twisted in confusion. She looks around the store then back at me. She narrows her eyes and slowly walks over to me. She takes the business card out of my hand and reads aloud, “Nikolai Leokov. Owner. The White Rabbit. ” She breaks out into a huge smile and shakes her head in disbelief.

She claps her hands together and yells, “I can’t believe it! You’re actually going out with him!” Still smiling, she pats my hand. This small action is huge for Mimi. In Mimi Land, that is a hug.

Meems knows all about my past relationship; in fact all my girls know about Jace Weathers. I don’t keep secrets from them. One girl’s night out, after one too many cherry bombs, I unloaded my past onto Mimi and Lola. They listened intently as good friends do and offered me unconditional support.

I love my girls.

They are awesome.

Mental note; make the girls cupcakes.

I feel the rush of warmth in my middle; my face softens a little but I quickly pull on a poker face and straighten my back. I prepare for the wrath of Mimi.

I overdo it a little with the cheer, smile big and say, “Actually, we decided to be friends!”