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His words evoked three very different responses from his buddies. Coulton looked shocked, Victor scowled, and Tank—true to character—slapped him on the arm, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hot fucking damn! Hell yeah!” Tank shouted, drawing the attention of two flight attendants, both shooting him a warning look to hold it down. It didn’t help that he’d expressed his glee during the safety demonstration.
“Why are we just hearing about all of this?” Coulton asked. “We’ve been together for days.”
Blake lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“Fuck.” Victor leaned across the aisle to ask quietly, “Was the sex bad?”
Blake quickly shook his head, putting that thought to rest immediately. “Hell no. It was…” Even though he was worried about the current situation between him and his gorgeous neighbor, he couldn’t hold back the smile that emerged every single time he recalled being with her.
Tank laughed. “Clearly, the sex was shit-hot.”
“That’s a fucking relief,” Victor said.
“It’s just…I don’t know. I thought things had changed between us, but the last few days, the texts?—”
“Sexts?” Tank interjected, wiggling his brows.
Blake shook his head. “Texts. Just matter-of-fact, run-of-the-mill texts. The same kind of texts we’ve been exchanging for years. And there haven’t been very many. Shit, she even ghosted me one whole day. It’s starting to feel like Erika has shoved me back into the friend box.”
“What did she say when you told her you wanted to date her exclusively, wanted her to be your girlfriend?” Coulton asked.
Blake grimaced.
“Fucking hell,” Victor muttered. “You did fucking tell her?”
“I was going to.” Blake tried to defend himself, even though he knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on. “I planned on sitting down with her at breakfast the morning after and laying it all out. My feelings, my hopes for our future, but…”
“But?” Coulton prodded.
“She got called into the hospital for an emergency at five in the morning. One minute, she was asleep in my arms. Five minutes later, she was in her car, driving to work.”
“But you’ve been texting her the past three days,” Tank pointed out.
Blake glanced down at his phone. “Yeah. The first day I sent her a bunch of texts, talking about how much I missed her and couldn’t wait to see her again.”
“Sounds nice,” Coulton observed.
“She didn’t text me back until the middle of the night, which was weird. I was sacked out in the hotel and didn’t see it until the next morning. And then that day, she ghosted me.”
“What did her text say?” Tank asked.
“She just asked if we won against Vegas, then said she and Corky missed me too.”
“She didn’t watch the game?” Tank asked.
The same time Victor asked, “Corky? Who gives a fuck about the dog’s feelings?”
“I do,” Blake retorted. “But it was just such a generic text. And the fact that she didn’t watch the game…I don’t know. It got in my head, you know? So I texted back, but…well…I was reluctant to…”
“You fell back on the old Blake material instead of putting yourself out there.” Coulton looked like he understood, even though there was the slightest bit of disappointment in his gaze.
“She didn’t start texting me back until yesterday morning, but it was the standard stuff, couple of pics of Corky, she wished me luck in the game, shit like that. She’s always said since day one she just wanted us to be friends, and I got that. Or…” Blake hastened to add, when all three of his friends shot him a “seriously?” look. “I thought I was getting it. I haven’t exactly helped my case with her, bringing home puck bunnies for victory dances, swearing off marriage, strutting around like an arrogant playboy.”
“Yeah, but you had sex. I mean…she slept with you. What the hell does she think that means?” Coulton asked.
Blake left Baltimore feeling good about where he and Erika were, but each day since, he’d been looking at things from her perspective…and not liking what he was coming up with. “Well, worst-case scenario—she thinks it was a one-night stand. Although, maybe that’s not the worst case because what I’m really afraid of is she views what we did as me trying to console and comfort her.”
