Chapter Eleven
M assima was eyeing her more than a little excitedly when Piper re-entered their apartment, having walked August most of the way back to her car.
“That was a long goodbye,” she said, grinning widely.
Piper shook her head. “I was walking her back to her car. She doesn’t live around here.”
“And that’s all it was?” She sounded genuinely disappointed.
“Yes? Why would it be anything else?”
Massima scrunched her face up momentarily. “Because you never get this attached to your dates.”
“Ah, but she wasn’t a date.”
“You met her on a date.”
“With someone else,” Piper said pointedly.
Massima rolled her eyes. “I mean, I guess, but does that really matter?”
Piper shot her a look. “A bit, yeah.”
She shook her head. “You have to admit, it does look a little… interesting. You meet her on a date, you text her all the time, and now, I find you two alone here, looking awfully comfortable on the couch together…”
“If we weren’t part of the same friendship group, I’d think you didn’t have any. People hang out. It’s not that weird.”
“Oh, my god. You know that’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not attracted to my friends.”
Piper tilted her head. “And you’re suggesting August and I are attracted to each other?”
“You sure looked like you are.”
Piper sighed and flopped down onto the sofa. “I was just helping her get used to… opening lines.”
Massima failed to suppress her smile. “You were helping her practice flirting?”
“Not the way I would describe it.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s not.” She laughed. “But you do have to admit, it does sound a little… suspicious.”
“If I happened to be coaching Hermes on online dating, would you feel the same way?”
“Ha. No. As if anything would ever happen between you two.”
Piper held her hands out, palms up in confusion. “So, what’s different with August? I’m bi. On paper, I’m equally as likely to go for Hermes as I am August.”
“Absolutely not. Even putting aside the fact that he’s gay.” She laughed, clearly imagining the train wreck that would be Piper and Hermes being interested in each other romantically. “I don’t know, you just… look at her differently than you do him.”
“You got that from two minutes of seeing us interact?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I really don’t.”
“Just that… I can see you liking her. I can see her liking you. There’s… I don’t know, a charge between you that’s literally never been there with Hermes, so it’s a different conversation.”
Piper sighed. She’d gone through basically the same conversation with Hermes himself, and here was Massima making her do it again, but, this time, with imagined evidence from seeing them together. “I think you were just picking up a weird vibe from the fact that we were helping her get used to sending opening lines that were flirty enough for a dating app.”
Massima laughed. “It’s as if you really don’t know that’s kind of a weird thing to do. Even you have to admit that’s the kind of thing that would happen in a book or a movie and then they’d just fall for each other instead.”
“Well, we can all be grateful we’re not in a movie, can’t we?”
“So, you’re trying to convince me you don’t think she’s attractive at all?”
Piper looked around. “I don’t think I said that. When did I say that?”
Massima’s mouth dropped open momentarily. “You just said you weren’t attracted to her!”
“I’m not attracted to you, but I know you’re gorgeous. Same for Hermes and Shea.”
Massima yanked a tissue out of its box, scrunched it up, and threw it at Piper. “You are so annoying.”
Piper laughed. “Thank you. But I’m failing to see what I did wrong.”
“You think August’s attractive?”
“Objectively, she is.”
“But you’re not attracted to her?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
And she had been, right up until she’d answered. The last syllable of her insistence felt very slightly off, like it was something bitter in the back of her throat. She didn’t know why, though. She hadn’t been lying. August was beautiful, but they really were just friends.
She shook her head. This was Massima’s fault. If she’d taken Piper at her word, like Hermes had done, she wouldn’t be overthinking and making herself feel like she was lying.
You could absolutely know that someone was attractive without being attracted to them. That was a thing. She knew it was. She’d felt like that about plenty of people.
She was going to Google it later.
Massima huffed and seemed to give up. “Ugh. Fine. You’re so boring.”
“Thank you?” Piper said, bewildered.
“No. You’re not. I’m sorry. I just… thought this was the one. There was so much tension in here when I walked in. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much tension with anyone in my life—maybe except for my morning coffee, because that relationship is on another level.”
Piper breathed a laugh. “I think you were just thrown by the low lights and the fact that August is, objectively, beautiful, and that I had, technically, met her on a date. Drawing conclusions that are potentially logical but don’t need to be there.”
She hummed. “I guess. I just think you two look great together and you obviously like each other as people. That feels like a great start for a relationship.”
“I’m sure it is. I look forward to testing the theory when I eventually meet someone to do that with. And August will be there, cheering me on from the sidelines. Just as I’ll be cheering her on when it happens for her.”
Massima shot her a doubtful look, holding it for slightly too long to be comfortable, before she deflated. “Fine. I’m still bragging to Hermes that I met her first, though.”
“Maybe he won’t even care.”
“It’s Hermes, of course he will.”
“I mean, he offered to potentially house her brother. He might be about to see more of her than any of us.”
Massima furrowed her brow and looked at Piper like she was being ridiculous. “There’s no way she’s going to spend more time hanging out with her brother and Hermes than she does with you.”
“Why not? She and Ford are close.”
“You’re so oblivious it hurts sometimes.”
Piper threw the balled-up tissue back at her. “Rude.”
“Required.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “If you say so.”
Piper wandered into the kitchen. Massima’s insistence still poked in her mind because, when she glanced into her own room, she was reminded of lying on the bed with August. But she’d shared a bed with plenty of her friends over the years, and she’d sat on beds with even more of them. It didn’t mean anything.
She and August were helping each other get dates with other people. They wouldn’t be doing that if there was anything between them. She’d know if there was something between them.
She took a deep breath and moved to put the kettle on. Her friends were messing with her head. That was all it was. Simply because she usually met people and never saw them again. One time she stayed in touch with someone and everyone’s brain went straight to dating.
Perhaps that was fair when they had, technically, met via a dating app.
◆◆◆
When she woke up the next morning, Piper hated Massima’s line of questioning even more than she had the night before.
After the initial quizzing, they’d settled in and had a perfectly lovely evening together—punctuated by Hermes being a little jealous that Massima had met August first and demanding that, next time, they all get to meet her. As if Piper was going to send an emergency text to their friend group the second August stepped into the apartment so they could all descend upon her. She had, however, appreciated her friends being so excited about August and meeting her.
That appreciation, though, had also waned in the night.
Her dreams had been filled with August. Flirting with her, touching her, kissing her…
Somehow, Massima and Hermes had gotten so into Piper’s head over the whole thing that she was now making things supremely awkward by dreaming about August—intimately.
She wasn’t entirely sure how she was supposed to face the woman now without feeling incredibly guilty. She’d dreamed of her friends before but never quite like that. What did you even say to someone when your brain had been providing its interpretation of what they looked like naked?
She’d mostly been hoping to just forget about it. Then, Massima walked into the kitchen while Piper was in there.
“Morning. Did you sleep well?” she asked, perfectly normally and innocently, and, instead of reacting like a normal person, Piper had inhaled her coffee.
“Yes,” she said eventually, still choking.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She looked Piper over with concern, her hands reaching towards her helplessly, knowing there was nothing she could do.
Piper waved her off. “You didn’t. I just, uh, accidentally inhaled my coffee.”
“Sounds unhealthy.”
“Feels unhealthy too, honestly.”
“I can imagine.” She shook her head. “Just… lost in your own world?”
“Apparently,” Piper said, glad that choking had likely made her red in the face because she was certain she must be blushing.
She’d been pushing the dreams out of her mind with so much force, she hadn’t even heard Massima approaching. But, when Massima asked how she’d slept, her brain had functioned like a rubber band snapping and had catapulted all the memories she was trying to forget front and center in her mind. Crystal clear, high-definition memories that she absolutely had no interest in sharing with Massima. They felt so vivid she was certain Massima could see them too—even if she knew that was physically impossible. Knowing Massima, the fear was that she’d take one look at Piper and just know.
But, no. She simply watched Piper with concern and nobody mentioned anything about illicit dreams. Nobody mentioned anything about August naked, or how she kissed, or how Piper had insisted they were just friends right before she spent all night dreaming of the woman.
She was never telling her friends about anyone ever again. All she’d done was make a platonic friend and now she was having sex dreams? The whole thing was ridiculous.
“Hermes is coming over tonight,” Massima said once she was certain Piper was physically okay. “So, you know, if you wanted to bring August over again, that’d be cool.”
That wasn’t happening.
Piper cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure she said she was busy tonight.”
“Oh.” She frowned slightly. “With what?”
“A date.”
“Oh.”
August had said nothing of the sort, but Piper could already feel the tension that would be August back here, potentially in Piper’s room at some point, with both Massima and Hermes watching them for any sign there was something romantic between them, making little comments… That was not Piper’s idea of a good time.
Massima made her coffee and some breakfast, a small crease between her brows the entire time. Finally, when she was done, she sat at the table with Piper and said, “Well, you should invite her over later this week.”
“I’m sure she’s busy with work.”
“But you don’t know that she is. You can at least ask.”
“Must I?” Piper muttered, mostly for herself.
“Yes.” Massima nodded decisively. “She might need a night with friends. She might be waiting for you to ask.”
“She doesn’t know you. That’s not a night with friends. That’s a night with strangers. And strangers who have repeatedly accused her of being interested in the one friend she does have in the group.”
“Oh, my god. We’re not going to say those things to her face.” She shook her head. “And, if you say you’re just friends, I believe you.”
Piper narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t believe me last night.”
“I know,” she sighed. “And that was unfair. I’m sorry. I thought I saw something between you and I wanted good things for you. But that was unfair of me. If you say you’re not interested and the two of you are just friends, I believe you.”
Piper bit back her emotions. How nice of Massima to come around after she’d wreaked havoc on Piper’s brain, sleep, and peace.
She did appreciate the apology, though.
She sipped her coffee again and nodded. “Okay. Well, I guess I can invite her over at some point.”
“Do it now.”
“I’m not inviting her over at this time in the morning.”
Massima looked at her deadpan. “Not like that. Invite her over tomorrow, but send the invite now.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“It totally is. She’s your friend, we’re your friends, and we want to integrate her into the group.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to integrate.”
“Sure she does. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have come over here. I’m assuming she knows we live together, so she had to have known there was a chance we’d meet.”
“That was more of a… weather thing. It was snowing, this place was here.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Just invite her over.”
Piper looked at Massima. She looked genuinely excited and apologetic. Maybe, on some level, this was her way of making amends for pushing the notion that they were interested in each other. She’d had a night to think about it and realized just how wrong that had been. And, now, she really was just excited to make another friend.
That was nice. Piper shouldn’t have been trying to avoid that.
And she wasn’t. Not really. She was merely attempting to avoid immediately texting and inviting over the person she’d been… romancing in her dreams. But, if she wanted things to be normal, she had to act like they were normal. And texting August was normal.
She sighed. “Fine. I’ll text her and ask if she wants to hang out on Friday. But, not here. It’s less pressure if we do it on neutral ground rather than bring her here and ambush her with everyone.”
Massima laughed. “There’s not that many of us.”
“Maybe not, but you know what I’m talking about. We’ll do it somewhere… public, somewhere she can easily leave if she needs to.”
“I don’t think she’s going to feel the need to escape, but sure, whatever you want.” She clasped her hands together. “I’m so excited. I’m going to tell Hermes about it immediately.”
“We don’t even know if it’s happening yet. Don’t you want to wait?”
“Absolutely not.”
Piper nodded slowly, looking down at her phone. Absolutely not. Everyone was getting right on this whole thing. So… no time like the present to text the person you’d been dreaming about. Right?