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“Let’s see if I’ve got this right,” Gloria said. “There was a blackout on Wednesday night, I wasn’t responding, so you went to Sebastian’s and stayed overnight?”
“Yep.” Amber sipped her beer. “What else was I going to do until bedtime?”
“You could have hung out at Tim Hortons. Or here.” Gloria took off her black fedora and gestured to their surroundings. “You could have spent the evening staring at Justin Bieber.” She pointed at the poster on the wall.
“Or I could have had sex. It was an easy decision. What’s wrong with a booty call?”
“Nothing,” Gloria said. “But you could have returned home to sleep, yet you stayed. Just trying to figure out what’s going on.”
“What happened the next morning?” Roxanne asked.
“He made me coffee and French toast with baked bananas,” Amber said morosely, knowing how her friends would take it.
“He likes you. He definitely likes you.”
“No,” Amber protested. “He’s just a sweet guy, that’s all.”
“You think he makes French toast for every booty call?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t think Sebastian has many booty calls, to be honest.”
“Yet he made an exception for you.”
“We agreed it’s just sex.”
“Perhaps he thought that at the beginning,” Roxanne said. “But French toast? With baked bananas?”
“And a strawberry garnish.” Amber wasn’t sure why she mentioned that. It was adding fuel to the fire.
“He garnished your fucking breakfast?” Gloria spoke as though this was truly shocking information. “None of my boyfriends or girlfriends have done that for me.”
Amber’s lips twitched at her friend’s vehemence. “Well, they should. You deserve a strawberry garnish.”
“Ha!” Gloria said. “You didn’t protest and say he isn’t your boyfriend.”
Oops. She hadn’t. It didn’t mean anything, though.
“I’m drunk. My brain isn’t operating at a hundred percent.”
“Oh, come on. You’re only on your second pint. You’re not that cheap of a drunk.”
“Personally,” Roxanne said, “I think the baked bananas are a bigger deal than the strawberries. Slicing up strawberries takes a minute. Baking bananas requires more effort.”
“But less hands-on time,” Gloria countered. “No, strawberries are inherently romantic. If a guy serves you strawberries, he knows what he’s doing. Bananas might have been meant as a dirty joke. Like, he wants you to bake his banana.”
“What does that even mean?” Amber asked.
“Who knows. I just made it up.”
“Anyway,” Roxanne said, after raising an eyebrow at Gloria, “this guy definitely has a crush on Amber. On that we agree.”
“Yep.” Gloria took a swig of her beer. “Amber, this guy wants you for more than your hot body and great skills in the sack. I’m positive.”
“And you definitely want him, too,” Roxanne added.
“Have you not been listening to anything I’ve said?” Amber curled her hands in frustration. “We’re fucking, and we like each other’s company. I don’t want anything romantic.”
“Then why have we been talking about this for twenty minutes?” Gloria demanded.
“Hey, this wasn’t my choice of conversation.”
“But you keep adding interesting details.” Roxanne crossed her arms over her chest. “I think you secretly want him, but you’re in denial.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Gloria said. “The reason you keep bringing up all the things he’s done—”
“Is because I’m drunk!” Amber protested.
Thank God she had enough presence of mind not to mention the cake decorating class.
“I don’t buy it,” Gloria said. “You enjoy being teased about this guy because you liiiiiike him.”
“Stop it,” Amber said, without any force behind her words.
She most certainly did not enjoy all this teasing...did she?
She doubted herself for a moment, then shook her head. Nope, she didn’t enjoy it. Time for a new topic of conversation.
“Hey.” The voice was lower than either Roxanne’s or Gloria’s.
Amber turned and saw a man standing beside her, with glasses and a rather cute nerdy look. He ran a hand over his face, as though nervous.
“Hey.” She smiled at him.
“I...uh...can I buy you a drink?” He gestured to her nearly-empty pint. “What are you drinking?”
Amber’s instincts when it came to men had failed her many, many times in the past, but she was older now, and she was convinced she was getting better at this.
And this guy seemed sweet and looked like Chidi from The Good Place.
However, she didn’t feel even a flicker of interest.
“Sorry,” she said kindly. “I have a boyfriend.”
“Really, she does,” Gloria piped up. “It’s not just a line. I mean, the guy’s not officially her boyfriend, but she sleeps over at his place—”
“Only because of the blackout,” Amber said.
“—and he makes her romantic breakfasts.”
“They’re not romantic.”
“Tell me.” Gloria turned to the man. “If you made French toast with baked bananas and strawberries for a woman who spent the night, would that mean you had romantic feelings toward her?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“See, Amber?” Gloria grinned triumphantly. “Told you.”
The man returned to his friends on the other side of the bar.
“Do you and Sebastian have any cute nicknames for each other?” Roxanne asked.
“I bet you call him Sebbie, don’t you?” Gloria said. “How sweet!”
“I don’t think he’d like that,” Amber said.
“Nah, I’m sure he’d find it cute if you called him Sebbie.”
Amber felt her lips curve into a smile, then quickly put a stop to that instinctive facial expression. Her friends would read too much into it.
“Have you done lots of dirty things together?” Gloria asked. “Did you grapefruit him?”
“Um....”
“Didn’t you see Girls Trip? Is his dick so big that it requires two grapefruits?”
Amber found herself considering the size of an average grapefruit relative to the size of Sebastian’s dick...then told her brain to behave. “I’m not dicknifying that with a response.”
Gloria slapped her hand against the table. “You said ‘dicknifiying’!”
“No, I said ‘dignifying’.”
“Gloria’s right,” Roxanne said.
“It’s the alcohol.” Amber nodded at her glass. She was getting sick of all the teasing, and her friends were delusional. “Hey, there’s a play I want to see in Toronto next month. Anyone want to come with me?”
“You could bring—” Gloria began.
“No, I’m not bringing Sebbie. But you could ask Syd. Things are still going well, right? And you’ve reached the six-month mark now?”
Amber was pleased things were working out for Gloria. But her and Sebastian? That wasn’t the same.
* * *
When Amber got home on Saturday after her family’s Chinese New Year dinner, she brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, and snuggled under the covers, phone in hand.
Hey, she texted Sebastian. You’ll never guess what happened tonight.
She stared at her phone for two minutes, willing it to vibrate.
What? he replied at last, and she couldn’t help smiling.
You know how my family always plays Pictionary at Chinese New Year? Zach’s new girlfriend got “shaft,” and she drew an enormous picture of a dick. In front of my entire family.
LOL. Were your grandparents scandalized?
Yeah, I think they were.
How did your team do? he asked.
I wasn’t on a team. As the only one who wasn’t part of a couple, I got to be scorekeeper.
Which she hadn’t minded. It meant Zach didn’t bug her about her drawing skills.
She suddenly realized she’d spent her entire drive home looking forward to telling Sebastian about a Pictionary game. It didn’t mean she liked him, but... Her excitement about telling him was disturbing, nonetheless.
Time to make this sexual.
She opened the top drawer of her night table and sent him another text.
Speaking of big dicks...
* * *
Wednesday evening, Amber saw Sebastian again.
Thursday evening, she was sitting in front of her TV, watching a baking competition and trying to decide what to crochet next.
Sebastian had liked her little peacock. Maybe she could make something for him. But what would be best? Which animal was his favorite?
Okay, she had to admit that she liked Sebastian a teeny-tiny bit as something other than a friend. She was thinking of doing a crochet project for him, which wasn’t the sort of thing she did for Gloria or Roxanne.
But this could never become anything more.
First of all, she was off dating at the moment. Now, it had been nearly a year, and the reason she’d stopped dating was because she was the Queen of Bad Boyfriends—and Sebastian was nothing like her exes. He was a good guy.
He’d made her French toast for breakfast. With baked fruit and a garnish.
He was thoughtful and considerate in the bedroom...in a totally ungentlemanly way. She squeezed her thighs together at the thought of what they’d done together last night. He’d blindfolded her with one of his ties and pleasured her for half an hour, until she was begging for his cock. He’d whispered such naughty things in her ear...
She’d assumed they’d sleep together a couple times and that would be it. Except it had been going on for a few weeks now, and she had no desire to end it. This was exactly the sex she needed.
And, okay, there was that teeny-tiny feeling of romance.
Her friends had a point, much as it pained her to admit it.
Sebastian would not be the bad boyfriend she was afraid of, but was she ready for a relationship? With a Lam?
That was the big problem. She might be interested in dipping her toe back into the world of romance, but with Sebastian, she couldn’t simply dip her toe. Their families would make sure of it.
They could avoid telling their families for a little while, but not forever, especially since Sebastian was an honest guy who didn’t like keeping secrets.
He’d asked her if he could tell Zach there was something going on between them—because he was seeing Zach this weekend and would feel weird about his friend not knowing—and Amber had said yes, as long as it was vague and Zach swore not to tell anyone else.
She wasn’t sure how Zach would take this. He was her older brother, after all, but Sebastian thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, and she was trying to believe him.
Their parents absolutely couldn’t know, however.
Besides, she only liked Sebastian a teeny-tiny bit, and maybe she should stop seeing him soon, to prevent those feelings from becoming anything more.
No, she wouldn’t make him a peacock.
* * *
Sebastian drove back to Stratford, whistling along to the music in the car.
After visiting his parents this afternoon, he’d stopped by Zach’s house in Mosquito Bay and told his friend that he was seeing Amber. To his relief, Zach had been fine with it. This was what Sebastian had expected, although he hadn’t been entirely confident.
With Zach, Sebastian had pretended he didn’t know where things were headed with Amber, though that wasn’t true. He knew he was falling in love, but he hadn’t wanted to say it out loud until he’d spoken to her, and that wouldn’t be for a couple more weeks.
Valentine’s Day.
Yes, Sebastian had finally settled on a date.
Sure, Valentine’s Day might be a little lame and predictable, but he liked the idea of it. It seemed fitting, since her basket had been full of discounted Christmas chocolate when they’d met at the grocery store, that this involved another holiday. Plus, Valentine’s Day was on a Friday this year. The timing was good.
Until then, he’d be very sweet—except in the bedroom—and prove he was the guy she deserved.
He just hoped she’d be interested, and he hoped he could reassure her that his parents would like her and wouldn’t interfere that much.