Blake
“Dude, that was a hell of a party last night. I woke up in the bathtub with all my clothes on.”
I roll my eyes at Nick’s recap of his night while I brew a pot of coffee.
“How’d you manage that?” I ask.
Nick just laughs. “No idea. I don’t remember anything after I licked that body shot off of Poppy.”
He leans against the counter and runs a hand through his dark hair, which is sticking out in every direction. He’s not wearing a shirt. Just a pair of gym shorts and one sock.
“If you woke up with all your clothes on, where’s your shirt?” I ask.
He scratches his bare chest as he yawns. “Poppy was cold, so I gave it to her.”
“Does she want some coffee?” I ask.
“Nah, she’s sleeping.”
I grab two mugs from the cabinet and set them on the counter.
Nick dumps a bunch of creamer in his mug. “What happened to Briar last night? I didn’t see her after she left in the middle of our drinking game.”
“She wasn’t feeling well. She went to bed.”
“She okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I don’t like lying to Nick, but I don’t want to tell him what really happened. Briar wouldn’t want me to.
I think about what she said last night, that pained look on her face. How her cheeks flushed bright red because she was so embarrassed to admit that she was a virgin.
Even though there’s no reason for her to be embarrassed. There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin.
I was going to tell her that, but she walked off.
My chest aches just thinking about it. I hated seeing her like that.
I thought about going after her to check on her, but I could tell she wanted to be alone. I didn’t want to push her.
I didn’t even go to my bedroom last night when everyone left the party. I crashed on the couch because I wanted to give her space.
Nick thanks me for the coffee, then heads back to his bedroom. I slump against the kitchen counter and huff out a sharp breath.
I’m finishing my drink when I hear soft footsteps down the stairs. I look up and see Briar standing at the end of the kitchen, her eyes shy as she looks at me.
When I see what she’s wearing, my heart pounds in my chest.
Oh, damn.
She’s wearing my hoodie.
It’s way too big for her and hits her at her knees. The neckline hangs off her shoulder, showing a sliver of her creamy skin.
I clear my throat. “Hey,” I say, trying to sound normal and not totally thrown off at how fucking cute she looks wearing my clothes.
“Hey,” she says, her voice soft and shy. She eyes the coffee pot. “Is there any coffee left?”
“Yeah, I made plenty. Here.”
I grab a mug and pour her a cup. For a minute, we stand there in the kitchen, quietly sipping our drinks.
Briar shuffles her bare feet and glances down at the ground.
I can’t help but stare at her. Her long, blonde hair is messy, and her eyes are puffy from sleep.
My breath gets stuck in my throat at how pretty she is.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her in the morning. I know how cute she looks when she’s sleepy and a little disheveled.
But seeing her wearing my hoodie in the morning, right after she wakes up, does something to me. It makes my skin hot. It makes my heart beat faster. It makes me wish she would wear my clothes, nothing else, all the time because she’s so fucking adorable in them.
“I hope it’s okay that I’m wearing your hoodie,” she says. “I was cold when I woke up and got out of bed. All my sweaters are dirty.”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, of course. You can wear any of my clothes. Whenever you want.”
Her mouth curves up in a shy smile. “Thanks.”
She’s quiet again. We go back to sipping our coffees and looking everywhere but each other.
I think about everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours. How we went from flirting with each other to her telling me that she’s a virgin to this awkward silence we’re sharing in my kitchen.
I think about how excited I was last night. It felt like all those flirty comments and looks we exchanged were a clear sign that we were headed into “more than friends” territory.
I wonder if she still feels that way about me…If she wants to be more than friends anymore.
I quickly shut down the thought. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. She’s clearly not. She’s distraught and upset.
Guilt hits me like a sucker punch. Instead of fantasizing about flirting with Briar, I should be focused on being her friend. On giving her the support that she needs.
“So, um, about last night,” Briar says after a moment, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I’m sorry for how I stormed off. I just needed some time alone after telling you…what I told you.”
“It’s okay, Briar. You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, but it was kind of rude of me to storm off.”
I hold her gaze. My chest aches at the pained look in her pretty green eyes.
“You needed to be alone. That’s okay.”
“You’re really not mad at me?”
I shake my head. “I could never be mad at you, Briar.”
She blinks, and the pain in her eyes starts to fade. That ache in my chest loosens. I feel like I can breathe again.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin, Briar.”
She crosses her arms. “That’s easy for you to say. You’re not a virgin anymore.”
“Yeah, but I used to be. We all were at one point.”
She looks up at me, her big eyes curious. “Is this weird that we’re still talking about this?”
“No.”
She tilts her head like she doesn’t believe me.
“It’s not weird, Briar. We’re best friends. We can talk about anything, remember?”
She gazes at me for a long moment. “Best friends,” she says quietly.
“Yeah.”
She looks like she’s working up to say more, but she stays quiet.
“You think you being a virgin is going to scare me off from wanting to be your friend? It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me,” I say, a hint of joking in my tone.
She starts to chuckle. When I see that beautiful smile spread across her face, warmth puddles in my chest.
“You’re gonna have to become a serial killer for me to stop being friends with you.”
She laughs again.
“Actually, even that wouldn’t be a deal breaker. You’re such a sweetheart that if you did murder anyone, I’d assume they were terrible and they deserved it,” I joke.
She’s laughing harder now. She reaches out and playfully smacks my arm. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you said that.”
“It’s true.”
When she stops laughing, she looks up at me, then moves closer. I wrap my arms around her and hug her tight.
“I’m such a cliché,” she says as she nuzzles into my chest. “The shy, awkward, embarrassed virgin.”
“You’re not. Briar, I told you. There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to have sex.”
“Tell that to my ex,” she says, her voice small and weak.
I lean back to look at her. “What?”
Pain flashes in her eyes as she looks up at me. “Logan was…” She trails off and presses her eyes shut. Like she’s remembering something painful.
“Briar, what is it?”
She lets out a shaky breath before she looks at me. “It’s why we broke up. He didn’t like that I was a virgin. At first, he said it was fine. He said he was happy to wait until I was ready, but then…one night…he…”
Her voice breaks as she trails off.
Tension grips all of the muscles in my body. “What happened, Briar? What did he do?”