Not So Nice Guy

by R.S. Grey

For 1300 days, I’ve been best friends with Ian Fletcher, and for 1300 days, I’ve convinced myself I’m not in love with him. I just really, really like pennies.

This is a complete disaster. I’ve thought a lot about how I would transition my relationship with Sam from friends to…more. I was going to do it slowly, carefully. She’s like a rabbit, timid and jumpy and mostly wants to be left alone so she can eat in peace. She’ll talk herself out of anything if you give her long enough to think about it, and above all, she fears change.

“Oh, yes.” I tap my finger against the page. “Now I remember—a grasshopper had just flown into the back of my throat. Nasty thing, really. Where did you park?” He turns to me slowly and reaches up to touch my cheek. My thighs press together on instinct. “You’re running out of reasons, Sam…reasons why we shouldn’t do this.”

Love how he calls out her bullshith

“When did you first realize you were attracted to me?” Ha. “Day one. Next.” His brows rise in shock. “Have you ever been close to telling me the truth?” “Of course.” “When?” I shrug. “Maybe three months in, when you’d just broken it off with that dermatologist…but then a guy I’d sort of liked for a while came back into the picture so I wanted to give it a shot with him.”

“Sam, we aren’t friends with benefits. I want to make that perfectly clear. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right.” I laugh. “Well I hate to break it to you, bucko, but we’ve already screwed up. Phone sex and a blowjob before our first date? As Shakespeare said, Shit’s fucked, yo. No point in trying to correct it now.”