31. THE ONE WHERE THEY AGREE TO BE FRIENDS
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE ONE WHERE THEY AGREE TO BE FRIENDS
Comment: Hex & Frankie Sullivan crossover?!
Comment: Hmm using the popularity you got from West for you AND your friend’s gain, I seeeeee
WestParkerComedy comment reply: Hex had 5 million followers before she even let me breathe the same air as her! I think it’s me who’s using this for my own gain but idk man, you seem confident so ok
Comment reply: Defending her honor? YUM
It’s been a week since I basically begged Joey to let me make her come in her New York City hotel room.
The morning after, she posts a video to Hex’s account of her before leaving for Hamilton.
She’s propped at the end of the bed, on the opposite side from where I’d fingered her until she came, wearing a sparkly Hex mask and lavender headphones.
Her phone’s set up to record herself in the mirror, hidden from view.
She mouths the words to a clip from an audiobook she loved, paired with a Frankie song, wishing the author a happy release day and thanking them for an early copy in the caption.
The video gets a million views in twelve hours. Which is great! But not what it has been… The one she posts on my account of some crowd work she’d caught last weekend goes viral too, but again, it seems we might be tapering off a bit.
There haven’t been any videos posted of us during my shows since New Haven, but that’s because I haven’t incorporated her into the show—she’s barely said a hundred words to me since she kicked me out of her bed.
Our content is consistently doing well, but we’ve fallen off the trending page this week. It’s too early for that, even if things are still moving along better than most could hope.
Something’s got to change or we’ll be social-media has-beens before the month’s out.
Our comments are similar to what they’ve been for weeks.
Comment: No, but I’m just here for Hex and West?? And now they’re not giving it to us anymore sooooo
Comment reply: They don’t owe us anything
Comment: I just wanna know if @WestParkerComedy is still DTF?
No @FunnyGirl2827, I’m not DTF… anyone whose name isn’t Josette nomiddlename Daniels.
I almost comment some version of that but think twice about it. I’ve been pushing my luck with snarky comments lately. Joey’s asked me to be on my best behavior, multiple times now, and statistically, I have a not-so-good track record with that. Especially when it comes to her.
Letting myself have that moment with her in the hotel last week was exactly what I wanted—Joey too, but then that brilliant fucking brain of hers got in the way, letting logic make decisions for her heart.
When Joey finally has to break her vow of silence between us, it’s to tell me about my first brand deal.
My jaw hits the floor. “Forty grand?”
She nods, sending me a text with a link to the company’s website.
“I haven’t accepted. I want to make sure you have the final say in these.
It’s your name attached to them.” I watch her scroll to our shared notes app before passing her phone to me.
“I think it’s important to know who and what you’re representing before accepting any offer.
It’s easy to let dollar signs cloud your judgment.
No company is perfect, and only you can decide what you’re willing to overlook for the sake of a paycheck. ”
Her notes are to the point, highlighting the good qualities, while also pointing out things someone might not like.
I accept three in a row, my head spinning with the dollar signs Joey mentioned.
Frankie’s coming to spend the weekend with us after making the hard decision to part ways with her record label and management, and Joey suggested we rent a townhouse downtown near the venue instead of overpaying for hotel rooms.
The day we check in for the long weekend, Enzo barges into my room and basically corners me. “What’s up with Joey?”
Steam rolls out of the bathroom connecting our bedrooms. “Hey, so question. I know your parents were assholes, but they had to have taught you how to knock, right?” I’m already dressed in a pair of sweats, using a towel to ruffle my hair until water doesn’t drip from the ends.
“I know you deflect with jokes.” Enzo plops down on my bed, pulling a pillow from the side to prop himself against the headboard.
I shrug, tossing the damp towel over my bare shoulder. “I dunno. What’s up with her?” I’m pretty sure my voice cracks and I give myself away, but I don’t look to see if he’s caught me in my lie. I bend down, thumbing through my bag on the floor to find the shirt I want.
Enzo glowers, his midnight black eyes pinning me in place. “I know you did something stupid… I just can’t prove it yet.”
Telling Enzo wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea, and I absolutely know Joey wouldn’t want me talking about it with anyone—my best friend included.
“I always do something stupid. What’s new?
” I find the T-shirt Joey wore the morning she left my hotel room in Boston, a smile pulling at the corners of my lips.
I’d much rather her wear it again, but at this point, I’ll try anything if it gets her to talk to me.
I’m sick of being treated like an office mate she only speaks to when we need to brief for a meeting.
“Listen, I’m going to see a movie with Kell.” Enzo pops up from the bed, putting the pillow back in its place. “Go figure it out.” He stalks through our conjoined bathroom. “You’re good at pestering people until they break.”
He doesn’t see me flip him off as he walks away.
I finish getting dressed, eventually wandering downstairs. The townhouse is huge, with plenty of space for Joey to avoid me in, and yet, in the last thirty minutes, she’s managed to pop into every room I’m in.
While I throw a load of clothes in the wash, she comes into the laundry room looking for a broom, eyes scanning the shirt I’m wearing before bolting without the dustpan.
When I go to the kitchen to grab a beer, Joey comes downstairs looking for a corkscrew to open a bottle of wine.
I think she finally gives up when she finds me in the secondary living area, thinking if I hung out here, she’d have space to move about the house without running into me again.
Joke’s on her! The universe wants us in the same room.
She sighs at me lounging in the middle of the couch, no TV on, just hanging out with the doubts in my head… “The longer you avoid me, the more awkward it gets.” I lock my phone screen and throw my arm over the back of the couch.
“I’m not avoiding you.” I can tell she knows I know she’s lying.
Joey’s in her Harvard sweater, a pair of loose sleep shorts, and she’s hugging her MacBook to her chest with a stemless wine glass in her hand.
I take my time enjoying the view of her thick thighs covered in the ink I’m slowly memorizing.
She eyes the couch, choosing the end she thinks is furthest away from me.
“I’m almost seven years younger than you, Joey. Not seven years old.” I give her a pointed look that says, be for real right now.
Her lip raises in a heated scowl. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Then stop avoiding me,” I say frankly.
Sipping my beer, I watch as Joey crosses her legs at the ankles and pulls a blanket off the back of the couch. She drapes it over her legs, placing her computer in her lap, and sighs. “West, we shouldn’t have done that.”
“Okay, but we did.” I shrug. “And I don’t regret it.” I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to regret anything when it comes to her. “Do you?” I ask, because apparently I’m a glutton for punishment on top of everything else.
She looks like she’s about to crawl out of her skin under my careful gaze. I don’t want to run her off, but I’ve about had it with her making this worse than it needs to be.
“I mean…” She trails off.
“Fine, say you do regret it.” I know she doesn’t, but I’ll let her think whatever she needs to get by. “You’ve never been forced to be around someone you shouldn’t have hooked up with?”
Joey shakes her head gently, her ponytail swaying with the movement. “Just you.”
“Ow,” I mutter.
“Not because what we did wasn’t good…” She’s so uncomfortable right now. I love it.
Big, bad Josette Daniels getting worked up talking about sex.
I lean forward, urging her on by widening my eyes.
I’m deserving of her eye roll, but I still crack a smile at it.
“I don’t think either of us can deny the…” She stops, searching for the right word.
“Chemistry,” I offer.
“Attraction,” Joey counters. She closes her computer and folds her hands on top. “We can’t deny there’s some intense sexual tension between the two of us, but I–I…” Joey struggles with how to let me down easy.
I guess I can help her out. “West Parker gets Hex, but I don’t get Joey. I get it.” I hate it. I hate it so much.
My fucking body craves her. When she’s near, it feels like there’s a magnet under my skin begging me to be close. I have more fun when she’s around. I’m more myself again when she’s around…
Not the comedian.
The guy before the accident. The guy before—
“It’s not you, West.” Joey interrupts my thoughts.
I give her a smile. I’m not sure what it looks like or what it’s for, but I can tell she doesn’t believe it. “Of course not. Who wouldn’t want to be with West Parker?” I don’t mean for the question to come across as sarcastic as it does.
West Parker isn’t real. He’s a character I became to cope with everything I’d lost.
Before Joey can say anything else, I tell her what I’ve been thinking all week. “I can’t turn off what I’m feeling, but I can respect that you don’t want the same thing.” What do I want, though?
Have I even thought about it?
Do I want to be in a relationship right now?
What would that do to my career?
I don’t know how to answer any of the questions flooding me at once. Maybe it’s good we’re pumping the brakes a bit…
I fiddle with the ring on my pointer finger. “I’ve really missed my friend Joey this week.”
It doesn’t matter that we’ve barely known each other for a month. Neither of us can argue how quickly we’ve fallen into an easy friendship. If giving up on anything more is what I have to do to keep Joey in my life, I’ll do it.
I’ll be ready to finger fuck her to another orgasm whenever she asks though…
“We do have fun together, don’t we?” she asks, faking an annoyed tone.
I sigh, nodding solemnly. “I wish it weren’t so, but you’re really cool.”
Joey cracks the first real smile she’s given me in days, and I swear it feels like a light has started to shine on the darkness my mind slips into sometimes.
“Friends?” When she asks, I want to laugh. Maybe even cry.
How is it my luck that the very first time I’ve ever felt something for someone, it’d be for a woman who’s so afraid to be hurt, she won’t let anyone in to show her what it’s like to be loved?
I give her a lopsided smile. It’s all I can muster. “Best friends?” I add.
My smile turns more real by the second when Joey grimaces. “Frankie would make you battle to the death for that title.”
We settle into a comfortable silence while Joey works, and I fuck around on my phone. I get up from the couch to grab another beer, bringing Joey’s bottle of Pinot Noir back with me. She thanks me with a small smile when I top her glass off without asking.
“Do you want to order something in for dinner?” I ask, returning to my spot on the couch.
Joey has finally settled in, realizing the huge sectional is big enough for the two of us, and she doesn’t need to hang off the edge like I’m waiting to bite.
“Whatcha thinking?” she asks, pulling one side of her headphones off her ear.
“Let’s see what’s around,” I offer, looking through the options on my phone. I name off a few locations, snickering before I land a joke Joey’s gonna scold me for. “I’m guessing pizza’s out of the question?”
A decorative pillow flies at my head.