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But that also meant that now, she didn’t really have anyone to talk to about Blake, who wasn’t also Blake’s friend.
She’d always been sorry that neither Gianna or Charley lived in Baltimore because she felt like the two of them could become very good girlfriends for her.
So, she took a chance.
“I slept with Blake.”
Jesus. She probably could have torn that Band-Aid off slower.
Gianna and Charley’s responses told her she’d chosen wisely. Both women smiled in genuine delight.
“Oh, I’m so glad!” Gianna enthused.
“You’re perfect for each other,” Charley added. “Alex and I were hoping the two of you would figure that out.”
“The thing is…” Erika said, biting her lip.
Charley groaned. “Starting a sentence with ‘the thing is’ is never a good thing.”
“It—the sex,” Erika clarified, “only happened a few days ago, and since then, life has sort of kept us from talking about it. I got called into the hospital very early the morning after, and then Blake went on the road. We’ve been texting, but…”
“But?” Gianna prodded.
Erika shrugged. “It’s hard as hell to interpret tone from texts, but all I’m getting from Blake’s is that nothing has changed. It feels like we’re still just friends.”
“Do you want to be more than friends?” Charley asked.
Erika nodded immediately. “I thought I could handle a one-night stand with him. Thought it would be no problem to turn it off afterward.”
Gianna crinkled her nose. “I’m not sure anyone, short of sociopaths, are capable of turning their feelings on and off like a faucet.”
“The thing is, I don’t do casual sex,” Erika explained. “I don’t really like being single. Lately, I’ve been feeling lonely. So I put myself out there, signed up for a couple online dating apps. I even started dating a guy. He turned out to be a horrible asshole, but I know what I’m hoping to find.”
Charley frowned. “And you don’t think Blake is it?”
“He doesn’t want a relationship. Says marriage is something he’ll consider after retiring from the game. He seems pretty damn attached to his bachelor status.”
Gianna and Charley rolled their eyes.
“Guys are all the same,” Charley said. “Total idiots when it comes to romance.”
“And I think it’s kind of worse for our guys—professional athletes,” Gianna clarified. “I mean…it’s not like they have to try too hard. The second they walk out of that locker room after a game, they can take their pick of women all clamoring for a night in their beds. Elio’s retired, for God’s sake, and even now, even tonight when we were walking into the arena, I swear no less than a dozen women approached him, flirting their asses off. And he was holding my hand!”
Charley nodded. “It’s the same with Alex. Our guys have it too easy when it comes to women, and because they’re simpleminded fools, they think they like it that way. Trust me. They don’t. That’s why they need us.”
“Elio wasn’t looking for love when we met. Of course, neither was I, for that matter,” Gianna added. “I’d just gone through a painful breakup with a man I thought was the one. Then Mother Nature stepped in?—”
“Mother Nature?” Erika asked.
Gianna smiled. “The two of us got trapped in his family’s cabin in the Poconos during a blizzard. It gave us a lot of time to get to know one another and…I don’t know. It felt like we both opened our eyes at the same time and saw what was standing right in front of us. Suddenly, I realized my ex had never been Mr. Right, and Elio figured out that puck bunnies would never be enough for him. Then Mother Nature stepped in again?—”
“Another blizzard?” Charley joked.
Gianna shook her head. “The condom broke.”
“Oh.” Erika was aware hers and Charley’s faces matched, and Gianna definitely found it funny, cracking up.
All three of them burst into laughter when Charley asked, “Mother Nature is in charge of condoms too?”
