Between Friends

Excerpt

Helena had never realized she possessed such a knack for complicating situations. A week earlier, all she had needed was a date to take to her high school reunion. Now, two of her friends had agreed to do so. That was wonderful. However, neither of them wanted to give up the privilege. She’d been worried about not being able to find anyone willing to masquerade as her boyfriend. She’d had one when she got the reunion invitation, so she’d responded and marked herself down as bringing a guest. They’d broken up, and even though he’d offered to go, she didn’t want to jeopardize their amicable break up by sharing a room with him for a whole weekend. It was silly to care about going alone simply because everyone would be expecting her to bring a date, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread when she considered it.

At first she had been concerned she might offend her friends by asking, but that had turned out not to be the case at all. She’d asked Julian first, but Tom had been the first to agree. She could have avoided this entire situation if she’d waited for Julian to “think about it” because it only took him an hour to come around, but she’d been so worried about not finding anyone among her single friends, and she had no intention of asking anyone in a relationship to help her out in such a way. Tom had agreed immediately. She’d been both surprised and pleased. When Julian had called her back, he’d seemed upset when she told him Tom had already agreed to help her. He’d then tried to persuade her to reconsider going with Tom and go with him instead. Julian had wanted to meet with her to talk about it because she had asked him first, and she had eventually agreed, but then Tom had insisted he be included in this conversation when she called him back to tell him she wanted to reconsider the whole thing. She’d spent half the afternoon on the phone with both of them. Now the three of them were sitting in her living room discussing the situation.

“ Okay, look,” Helena said as she tried to gather her thoughts. “This is starting to feel a little surreal. Why are you both so interested in doing this? Do you actually think it’s going to be fun? You’ll be stuck with a bunch of strangers, spending most of the time trying to make small talk and having to pretend you’re someone you’re not.”

Julian smoothed his hair back.

Something about the way he looked at her made her stomach do a flip.

“ Isn’t it obvious it’s you that we’re both interested in, not the reunion? I wanted to jump at the chance when you asked me, but since I had plans to ask you out on a real date very soon, I thought it would mess that up. Then, I thought about it and saw it as the perfect opportunity. I had no idea you’d immediately ask someone else before I gave you my answer.”

Tom rolled his eyes. “But she did, and I said yes first. I seized the day. I didn’t even have to think for two seconds.

He smiled sexily at Helena.

“ I knew the chance of lifetime when it presented itself to me.”

Why had she asked Tom? Simply because he was more adventurous and likely to say yes? Then why hadn’t she asked him first? He was sexier, no doubt, but even though they were all three the same age Tom acted about ten years younger. He would still fit in perfectly on a college campus. Tom had long silky black hair, vivid blue eyes, and a pale, gothic complexion. He also had an amazing body that would turn any woman’s head. Julian had short brown hair and a well-trimmed beard. He had broad shoulders and a nice body, and no one would deny that of the two he was the handsome one. Her classmates would see Tom as a hottie and envy her imaginary sex life. They would see Julian as a fine catch and good husband material. She didn’t care who she went with at this point. What she wanted more than anything was for this conversation to be over.

“ I think you need to chose, Helena. It’s the only fair way,” Julian said.

She shook her head. “I can’t.” She looked at Julian. “You want to date me, so this kind of masquerade seems like a bad idea.” She turned to Tom. “Unless I’m reading your signals wrong, you want to fuck me, which is not going to automatically happen because we’re pretending to be a couple. It would kill our friendship.” Her gaze fell between them. “So asking either of you to do this is wrong.”

“ I want to date you too. There does not have to be sex if we go together,” Tom said. “I mean, I want my interest in that part of the relationship to be very clear, but that is a decision two people make in private.”

“ Or in the backseat of a taxi,” Julian said.

“ That was one time!” Tom protested. “Excuse me for shocking you.”

“ Okay, that is not the point!” Helena said.

“ How can it not be?” Julian asked. “This is ridiculous. You asked me first. I gave it careful thought because I am interested in far more than a roll in the hay. I think I’m the better option.”

“ A minute ago you said the only fair way to handle this was for her to pick,” Tom said.

“ Well, after your insinuations, I thought she’d look on me with more favor. I’m man enough to admit it.”

“ How is that fair?”

“ It’s fair because we both have all our cards on the table.”

“ I don’t want to go with either of you now!” Helena said.

“ Why not?” they both asked.

She laughed. “Do you need to ask?”

“ I have a better idea,” Tom said. “You were going to go with Jeremy, but you broke up. It’s a month away. What if you have a new boyfriend by then?”

She didn’t see that happening, but she wanted to know where he was going with this question. “Meaning?”

He looked over at Julian and then he looked back at her. “Go out on dates with both of us. We both have feelings for you, so taking either of us would be hurting a friendship. We act like rational adults. We push this conversation to the back of our minds and forget it. Give us both a chance. Isn’t a real boyfriend better than a fake one?”

She looked at both of them. Did she want to go out with either of them? How would dating both of them really help? Julian hadn’t objected. He seemed thoughtful. She met his gaze. “What do you think?”

Julian sighed. “I said it should be your choice, so why not?”

Why not? She could think of lots of reasons. They were both her friends. Wouldn’t she lose one of them by choosing the other? Her relationship with each of them would change the moment she said yes.

Tom crossed his arms and sat back on the couch. “He’s right. Everyone’s cards are on the table now. It’s gonna be weird no matter what. We can’t pretend this didn’t happen. We can’t unsay things and change it all back now, but we can try to move forward.”

She nodded slowly. “You’re right. I’ll go out with both of you.”

“ You don’t sound thrilled,” Tom said.

Julian added, “He’s right. There’s no point if this isn’t what you want. It won’t work if you’re not comfortable.”

She let out her breath in a huff of exasperation. “I asked for this favor because you are my friends. This is not what I expected. That’s what’s causing my hesitation.”

“ Is it such a bad thing simply because it was unexpected?” Julian asked.

His question made her wonder. Was it a bad thing? When would Julian have asked her out if this hadn’t happened? Would Tom ever have made his feelings known? Would she ever have considered dating either of them on her own? “No, it’s not necessarily a bad thing at all. I do have to say though there’s very little chance of you two getting along any better now, and I feel bad about that.”

“ That wasn’t likely to happen anyway,” Julian said. He glanced at Tom. “No offense,” he added in a condescending tone.

Tom gave him a very fake smile. “Wasn’t planning on asking you to go clubbing or anything. Might keep you up past your bedtime.”

She hated it when men acted like this. Two women would probably be screeching at each other and possibly pulling some hair by this point, but that didn’t excuse it. “Okay, why don’t you each call me when you get home?” Helena said. “Meaning we stop talking, and you two both go home right now before you both say things you shouldn’t. Does that sound good?”

They looked at each other and nodded.

“ Fine,” Julian said.

“ Sounds like a plan,” Tom said.

They both seemed to have calmed down when they saw their snippy comments were upsetting her. That was a good sign. “Thank you.”

They all stood and walked to her front door. She knew she needed to say something else, but what on earth could she say? She’d never seen either one of them as being very competitive, but of course she’d never seen either of them in this kind of situation before now. She had a sneaking suspicion Tom would try to kiss her on the cheek, so she stayed in her doorway after both of them had walked outside. She didn’t want to escalate the situation again. She let the screen door close between them.

“ Bye,” she said, raising her hand briefly.

“ Bye,” Julian said.

“ Catch ya later,” Tom said.

They both backed toward their vehicles, glancing at each other, and when she didn’t move they both waved and turned. She almost laughed at them. Tom pulled away first, speeding down the street in his Mustang. Julian glanced up at her and waved again before pulling out of her driveway and going in the opposite direction.

The idea of going out with Julian was almost as exciting as the idea of sleeping with Tom. Was that wrong? A date with Tom would be fun too, and she liked the idea of sleeping with Julian now that she was considering it. So how was this going to turn out? She didn’t want to admit that her interest in each of them was biased and unbalanced. Her brain said Julian was by far the superior choice in the long run. Her body did not want to pass up the chance to have sex with Tom. How soon would Tom want to have sex? The first date? Would Julian be interested right away or want to wait? They hadn’t exactly set any ground rules. She was glad she’d stayed on the pill. Would it be awkward to talk about that? Would either of them feel right asking if she was on anything? Surely they’d both be fine with condoms given the situation, and she was pretty sure she still had some she and Jeremy had bought. She shook her head to clear her mind. She’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Could she have sex with both of them, or was she supposed to resist both of them until she made up her mind? How much would each of them want to know about what was happening with the other one?

Questions whirled through her head. What had she gotten herself into? More importantly, how much was she going to enjoy it? She smiled to herself as she closed the door, wondering how each man was going to try to win her heart…among other things.