Chapter 6 #4
And Aspen’s eyes widened as she saw the stack of books on the edge of the shelf that included two PT textbooks and visibly on top, in the worst possible shelving decision of her adult life, a hardcover copy of Tantric Sex for Beginners that Grace had given her for her thirtieth birthday and that Aspen had kept out of some combination of sentimentality and general failure to throw things out she would never use.
Aspen saw the exact moment Maddy clocked the book. She pulled it off the top of the stack, turned it in her hand to read the cover, then fanned a thumb across the pages. “I see you’ve upgraded your reading material, too.”
Heat traveled up Aspen’s neck and flooded her cheeks before Maddy had finished her sentence.
Maddy glanced over her shoulder with a smirk, holding the book up. “Not exactly a topic we covered in debate.”
The heat had reached her ears now too, and Aspen hoped her olive complexion was doing its job. “No. Uh…That was a gift.”
“Uh-huh.” Maddy put the book back and moved on without another word.
Aspen blew out a breath. Her throat was suddenly very dry. Water. She needed a cold drink of water.
Aspen moved toward the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink? Water? Tea? La Croix? Wine?”
“No, I’m fine.” For once, the word had no subtext. “Can I use your bathroom?”
“Yeah. Down the hall on the right.” Aspen opened the fridge, but her attention was fully locked onto the sound of Maddy’s shoes tapping lightly on her cedar floors as she moved down the short hallway. The bathroom door clicked closed.
Aspen took a slow, deep inhale, letting the cold air cool her overheated skin. She filled a glass with cold water from the Brita filter, closed the fridge, and gulped it down.
She felt her body returning to a normal temperature.
Aspen’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out. A new message notification from her dating app was on the screen. She quickly glanced toward the hallway, pausing to listen for sounds of the bathroom door, and clicked on the notification.
Danielle. Thirty-seven. Biotech engineer. They’d matched three weeks ago, traded a few volleys, but hadn’t been able to sync up their schedules to meet in person.
Danielle: Hey! Sorry for the delayed response. Any chance you’re free for dinner Friday?
Aspen stared at the screen. She heard the bathroom door open and the light tapping of footsteps on the hardwood again. She waited, but Maddy didn’t appear.
Down the hall, the floorboard creaked under Maddy’s weight. Her bedroom. Maddy was checking out her bedroom. Her stomach tightened, even though it had no reason to. Friends could check out their friends’ bedrooms.
She looked back down at the blinking cursor of her message field, her thumb still hovering over the keys.
The three-phase plan had exceeded expectations. Maddy was currently here, in Aspen’s home, examining her most private space and possessions, and had not made a single negative or hostile comment about it.
A friend would say yes to accepting a date offer from another woman.
A real, actual, non-compromised friend would absolutely—without internal debate or glancing at the hallway to decide—say yes to the perfectly nice and attractive biotech engineer who had asked her to dinner.
She thumbed out a reply.
Aspen: Yes! Dinner Friday sounds great. 7pm?
She hit send before she could reconsider. The sent check appeared.
Friend zone: reinforced.
Aspen locked her phone and ventured down the hall to find Maddy.
She was standing in the doorway, her feet not quite crossing the barrier to be inside the bedroom, but her upper body leaning in enough to get the full view from where she stood.
Aspen had not made the bed that morning, she realized.
She had not made the bed because she had not anticipated, when she rolled out of bed at six a.m., that by eight p.m., Maddy Sterling would be standing in it.
At no point since she had formulated the three-phase plan, or even since she had offered to store the overflow boxes at her bungalow forty-five minutes ago, had she considered the possibility of Maddy being in her bedroom.
Not that Maddy was in Aspen’s bedroom. And certainly not in any way that was not one hundred percent friendly. Or…friendly-adjacent.
Aspen cleared her throat and stepped into the open space in the doorway beside Maddy.
“That wall—” Aspen pointed across the room.
“—used to be a full walk-in. My dad and I knocked it down and converted the closet to a reach-in. I didn’t need that much closet space, and it opened up the room so much more. ”
Maddy nodded as she looked across the room like she was picturing the wall that used to be there. “Hm. Good choice.”
“My ex hated it.” Aspen said with a huff.
The words hung in the room for a beat. She didn’t mean to say it, but Maddy was standing in the exact spot Tess had stood in as she took a final look around the room with a hand resting on the handle of her rolling suitcase just before she walked out of Aspen’s life.
Redirect to safer ground.
“Anyway.” Aspen intentionally made her voice lighter. “That’s the grand tour. Surely you’re exhausted from the long journey, how about that drink now?”
Maddy glanced back down the hallway toward the front door. “I should get home—back. I should get back to Bunny’s.”
Aspen had caught the slip-up but did not let her face change. “Sure. Of course. After you.” She gestured for Maddy to go first.