Chapter Thirteen
P iper looked up from her book as people began leaving the dance studio across the street. If August’s date had turned around and was now going well, Piper’s presence was potentially about to be pretty awkward. However, she’d rather that than ignore whatever feeling had forced August to send her location. She hadn’t done that before. Piper knew the feelings that prompted such a move, and she’d much rather appear unnecessarily than leave August feeling alone if she needed help.
Most of the people leaving were in pairs. It didn’t take long to spot August leaving alone.
Piper sat up straighter, watching August closely.
Apparently sensing the attention, August looked around, tracking the pair of eyes she could undoubtedly feel watching her. When she landed on Piper, sitting in the window of the café opposite, she smiled and tilted her head, a slightly bewildered look crossing her face.
Piper grinned as she watched August cross the street and head towards her in the café.
“Random late-night craving for a coffee?” August asked, amused, as she stood behind the bar stool beside Piper’s.
“Hot chocolate, actually,” Piper said lightly, looking up at her.
August bit her lip as she leaned over, looking into Piper’s mug. “My mistake.”
“I’ll forgive you.”
“Thank goodness for that. I would have been heartbroken otherwise.”
“I’m sure you would.” Piper laughed. “I figured it was safer to be nearby, just in case.”
August winced. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“I’m glad you messaged. I’d rather you were safe and supported than…” Piper shook her head. “Well, you know.”
“Mm. Thank you. For showing up. I’m still sorry for getting you out on a cold night.”
“I can drink hot chocolate and read anywhere. This is as nice a place as any to do that. And, besides, this way I get to see you all dressed up.”
August blushed, looking towards the counter. “You met me when I was going on a date. You’ve seen me dressed like this before.”
Piper breathed a laugh. With the way Massima and Hermes had been messing with her head lately, she knew she absolutely shouldn’t have been doing anything approaching flirting, but August had clearly had a bad date and Piper didn’t want her whole evening to be a write-off.
Besides, complimenting your friends wasn’t that weird.
“I’m going to get a drink,” August said, nodding towards the counter. “Do you want anything else?”
Piper shook her head and picked up her mug. “I’m good.”
This close to closing, the café wasn’t busy and it only took a couple of minutes before August was back—carrying a drink and a packet of biscotti.
“One for you, one for me,” she said, handing the packet to Piper. “In gratitude for showing up.”
“That’s not necessary. But I’m not going to say no to biscotti.”
August laughed, took her coat off, and slid onto the stool beside Piper, eyeing the book Piper had placed face-down. “Good book?”
Piper hummed. “Rachel Lacey. I love the bisexual rep.”
August smiled and picked it up, reading the blurb.
“So… bad date?” Piper asked, dipping her biscotti into the remaining hot chocolate.
August groaned quietly. “Honestly, not that terrible. Well, compared to when I dropped you my location and wondered what the hell was going on as a random woman dragged me away from the location we’d agreed on without so much as giving me her name…”
“Jesus, August.”
“It’s okay. She was just… enthusiastic, I guess. But, yeah, the date was at least legitimate—a rumba class, which is actually pretty cool. It wasn’t a good match, though.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. She was looking for fun and quick. I wasn’t.” She shot Piper a look. “I did get invited back for another lesson, though.”
“Oh, yeah? With the same woman?”
“Ha. No.” She set Piper’s book back down. “One of the teachers. Said I was okay at it—the dancing.”
“Damned by faint praise.”
August laughed. “Okay, she said I wasn’t bad at it, but, you know, in that way that isn’t insulting.”
Piper dropped her chin onto her hand, watching August with a warm smile. “So, you’re amazing at it and just trying to be humble?”
“I’m definitely not amazing at it!”
“Mm. I don’t believe you. Maybe you’ll have to show me to prove your point.”
August looked around wildly. “Here?”
“No,” Piper giggled. “I wouldn’t do that to you. But, you know, maybe at my place after?”
August sucked in a sharp breath. “Right. Well. Uh. My place is closer.”
Piper fought against the twisting in her stomach. August was her friend. She’d talked at length with Massima about how it wasn’t weird that they spent time together. But it was hard to deny the spark with the way August spoke and the way she’d sucked in that breath.
Piper had spent so much time trying to tell herself that it was just Massima and Hermes messing with her head, but… what if it wasn’t? What if she happened to be the problem?
She’d been happy when she thought August was her date. They’d fallen quickly into a rhythm with each other, she’d been flirty, she’d thought August was attractive. And then she’d put that all away because August wasn’t her date. She’d pulled away from all of that so that they could be friends. But…
She shook her head. “You don’t mind dancing in front of Ford, then?”
August laughed. “He’s not there tonight.”
“Oh? He’s doing okay?”
“Eh. He insisted on going home for the night. The pressure is off for the time being, but, as far as I can tell, they’re still treating him like a personal chef.”
Piper winced. “I’m sorry. You know, you should bring him along on Friday.”
“When I meet your friends?”
“Yeah. Have him meet Hermes, maybe start that ball rolling?”
August sighed, sagging slightly. “I still don’t know if he’s there. He says he wants to stick it out.”
Without really thinking about it, Piper reached out to caress August’s arm. “Well, even if he isn’t, at least they’d know each other if the time did come.”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.” She chewed her lip before downing some of her drink a little too quickly. “I don’t get it, but he has to make his own decisions.”
The weight of everything she carried was clear to see. It broke Piper’s heart, and she could only imagine what it was doing to August.
Piper moved her hand down until she was squeezing August’s fingers. “He knows you’re there for him and that you care. That’s the best thing you can do. And it’s the only thing you can do.”
“I guess. I just… it’s not like he can go to our parents, what with… everything.”
“I know he appreciates you being there for him. But he is also an adult, and it’s not your responsibility to be his parent,” Piper pointed out gently.
August nodded. “I know. I just… feel so unbelievably guilty. They supported me through college and, just because he’s doing things a little differently, they’re… Well, you know.”
“The problem is them. Not you.”
“You think?”
Piper nodded. “Definitely.”
August bobbed her head, moving her gaze to the place where Piper’s hand rested on top of her own. Piper’s heart pounded and nothing about it felt particularly platonic.
It would be just her luck to develop a crush on the friend she’d made while trying to date other people.
Her mind felt oddly bare as she watched August staring at their connected hands. Somewhere deep inside, she knew she was being weird about it, but her brain felt like a weird game of Pong where the question of whether or not she should pull her hand back bounced from side to side in an otherwise empty space. It was one of the weirder sensations she’d ever experienced and she couldn’t honestly say it felt bad—though, she couldn’t honestly say anything at all, lost as she was in the whole thing.
Eventually, August sucked in a breath, looked up, and twisted her hand so she could briefly squeeze Piper’s in return. “Thank you,” she breathed, and Piper was certain she wasn’t imagining the loaded, intimate tone in her voice.
They both cleared their throats at the same time and pulled their hands back, and Piper almost laughed at how very implicating that was. However, she had no interest in ruining the friendship they’d been building, so she left it hanging there. August was having a rough night and had spent so long carrying the weight of her parents’ shit treatment of Ford that it was highly possible she was just emotional and Piper happened to be there.
August stood up. “Come on, let’s get out of here before they’re closing up around us.”
Piper breathed a laugh, glancing around the place. There were still two other patrons in the café but things were definitely winding down for the night.
They walked back to August’s with a confusingly comfortable and electric silence between them—at least from Piper’s side. Her brain couldn’t comprehend that August might be feeling like something was different between them tonight too, but she didn’t know how else she’d explain the silence and the energy between them.
It didn’t take long. August really did live close by, and she hadn’t been lying when she’d said it was closer than Piper’s place. Piper had taken the subway over to the café. She’d had no idea she was within walking distance of August’s place.
The loaded energy between them finally broke when they got to August’s door and a small, ginger cat was sitting beside it like a furry guard.
“Hello, Melon,” August said warmly, bending down to stroke the cat, who instantly dropped onto its back and tried to attack her hand.
Piper laughed. “Melon? That’s a good name for a cat.”
“He’s not mine. I actually don’t know who he belongs to, but he likes to roam the building. It’s like being the chosen one when he sits by your door.”
“Well, congrats on being the special one tonight. Maybe he knew you were out on a dodgy date and wanted to look after you.”
August stood back up, shooting Piper a look. “You’re not that dodgy.”
Piper laughed. “I’m glad you think so. Maybe one day I’ll be chosen by a cat as cool as Melon too.”
“I don’t know,” she teased as she unlocked her apartment door. “Melon’s pretty special.”
“That’s true. I only just met him, but it’s clear he’s one in a million.”
August led the way into the apartment, glancing over her shoulder at Piper. “Oh, now you’re just trying to butter him up and make him love you more than he loves me.”
“Hey, whatever it takes to be the chosen one.”
She laughed. “Well, you’re competing with a whole building full of people.”
“Actually, I’m competing with you. You’re the one he’s chosen.”
She moved around the place, taking her coat off and turning on a couple of low lights. “He’ll be onto someone else by morning.”
“His loss.”
Piper looked around the space. It was sleek, clean, and modern, cast in deep, seductive shadows by the low lighting, and she couldn’t help but feel like August was doing that on purpose. Of course, the café they’d come from had been filled with moody, almost romantic, evening lights, but it felt different in public than it did in August’s apartment.
She hung her coat on the spare hook by the door. “Nice place.”
August smiled. “Glad you approve.”
“Does it have a sound system? Speakers?”
“Ever the musician, huh?”
“Not a musician. I just work in music.”
“Hm. I don’t know if it’s all that different.” She shook her head. “But, yeah, there’s a Bluetooth speaker you can connect to.”
Piper pulled her phone out, going through the process of connecting to the speaker and looking up a rumba playlist. When the music started, she held out a hand to August, who had dropped onto the edge of the sofa. “Show me what you’ve got then?”
August laughed, the sound tinged with embarrassment. “You know I’ve only had one class.”
“Something tells me you’re a quick study.”
“How could you possibly know that?” she asked, but she took Piper’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to standing.
“I clearly know you better than you realize,” Piper said, a little lost in the intense look August was giving her, and painfully aware of where their hands were connected again.
“You sure you want to do this?” August asked, her brown eyes intense and wondrous as she looked directly at Piper.
“Get a secondhand dance lesson? Absolutely.”
August clamped her lips together for a moment before moving further into Piper’s space. “Okay, but remember, it’s no replacement for the real thing. And if you want the real thing, I’m reliably informed Thursday nights are the ones to pick if you don’t want to run into my date from this evening.”
Part of Piper had already forgotten there had been a whole other woman August had been on a date with tonight. That probably wasn’t great of her.
August took a steady breath before she slipped a hand to Piper’s waist, and even through the sweater she was wearing, Piper burned as if August had touched her skin directly. With her free one, she directed Piper’s hands, her voice barely more than a whisper, and she avoided Piper’s gaze.
The air in the room felt thick. Piper’s heart was pounding and she felt lightheaded. It had been a very long time since she’d been on a date with anyone who made her feel even close to this much—and they weren’t even on a date.
After a moment of holding position, August looked Piper directly in the eyes. “We’re going to move like this,” she whispered, moving her body to demonstrate. “I’ll lead and you can just… follow.”
“Okay,” Piper murmured, and she wasn’t unaware of the needy edge in her voice. She could only hope August was.
They waited for a moment before August counted them in and then she moved them. Long, measured, sensuous movements. Their bodies flowed like water together, something driving and beautiful passing between them.
Piper had to hand it to August’s date, rumba lessons had been an incredibly intimate choice for a date. She could imagine exactly how electrifying a class would be, how much tension it would build up, and how, with the right person, it would have been the most incredible night.
August turned them on the spot, and Piper went willingly with her, their bodies pressed close together, August’s hand soft and warm in her own. Piper’s heart was pounding so painfully and obviously that she knew August must be able to feel it. And her whole body jolted when August’s fingers flexed against her waist.
She was pretty sure she’d had sex that was less erotic than this.