AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for saying I look older than I am,” laughed Erin. “I guess this is why women shouldn’t ask about other women’s ages.” All three chuckled for a moment, but Julia couldn’t find the will to release tenseness in her shoulders. “Wait, did you just say I intimated you? Like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada?”
And just like that, all three of them laughed again and Julia’s tension was gone.
“If the shoe fits,” Keegan joked, holding a hand over her full mouth. “I mean, you’re more Anne Hathaway at the end than Meryl in the beginning.”
They let the moment pass, but all Julia could think about while watching colors flash before the screen, her hand still gripped around her glass, was the mistake she almost made with Erin in that bar bathroom. A mistake she still wanted to make.
“Julia, what are you turning this year?” Keegan grinned. Julia immediately sat up, ready to stop Keegan from saying anything else, but before she could, she blurted, “is it the big four-oh?”
Embarrassment did not cover her feelings. Pure horror was more like it. She felt like she was in one of those recurring nightmares–the kind when you show up to class in 6th grade in nothing but your underwear and even the teacher is laughing at you.
Well, it was good they agreed on plutonic professionalism because she was sure Erin would regret every interaction they ever had. Her already self-conscious body wouldn’t be enough. There wasn’t a person in the entire world she thought deserved someone like Erin.
“Forty?” Erin gasped and Julia fell back onto the couch, wishing it would pull her right through into oblivion.
Worrying about how she was going to stop daydreaming about Erin’s smile wouldn’t be a problem anymore. There wouldn’t be any flirty eyes with her, knowing how many years were actually between them.
“Forty,” she repeated, covering her blushed face.
Erin, completely unbothered, leaned forward on her crossed legs. “You are stunning.”
A devilishly sexy smile tugged at her eyes. If the embarrassment didn’t flush Julia’s cheeks, that comment certainly did. Keegan just sat back, pretending to still watch the television. Julia’s eyes were wide, pleading for a change in conversation.
“Where did you get this amazing dip?” Erin’s eyelashes fluttered as she dunked another carrot in.
“I made it.”
“You did not!” She put her plate down.
“I did,” Julia said with a nod, thankful for her perceptibility.
“Little Miss Martha Stewart!” Keegan teased. “She made all of this from scratch.”
“What else would I do with my time?”
“Paint?” Erin answered quietly, so quietly that she wasn’t even sure Keegan had heard.
“Actually!” Keegan, still clueless, stood and topped off Julia’s glass with the last of the merlot. She knew that no one else’s glass was quite as low; no one else needed the courage to make it through the night.
“Here we go.” Julia slumped back onto the couch again. “What’s your idea this time?”
“You get ideas a lot?” Erin asked, a small chuckle arising from her throat.
“Well,” Julia sat up and leaned on the plush pillow between them, “there was the book club you talked me into and then you stopped going after the first week. Oh, and then there was the knitting group that didn’t consist of anyone who still had their real teeth.”
“Oof, you do need better ideas,” said Erin, but Julia had even more examples.
“I second that!” Julia raised her glass and clinked it with Erin’s.
“It isn’t gang up on Keegan time!” she huffed.
“But this is working out quite well. I like having reinforcements.”
“I’m just trying to get you out of the house more.” Keegan rolled her eyes.
“What’s this idea?” Julia asked, “but before you tell me, I want the record to show that I do not need help spending my free time.”
“Right,” Keegan said, nodding sarcastically. “You need all the time to yourself, so you can make all the crap I’m too lazy to make.”
