Just Friends (6 page)

Tears filled his eyes as memories
of the previous night came to him.

“Don’t think about them,” he said
to himself.

He washed each dish and saucepan
clean before drying them.

Once he was done, Mitch moved
straight toward his bedroom. He’d not slept in his bed all night. Leah had been
in his arms. He’d felt her soft curves against him and had thought he’d never
have to be alone at night.

The way she reacted this morning,
he knew that was never going to happen.

He lay on his bed staring at the
ceiling for several hours. The desire to move wasn’t with him. He needed to
clear his head, leaving the apartment wasn’t an option. If Leah came home
before Chase got a chance to turn up, he wanted someone to be there for her.

Reaching over the bed, he grabbed
his phone. The only other person he knew to talk to was his father. In all the
years his father had known about his and Chase’s feelings for Leah, he’d
understood.

Mitch dialled the number, waiting
for his father to answer. It was early on a Saturday morning, and his mother
usually went to yoga class, leaving his dad home on his own.

“Hello,” his father answered.

“Hi, Dad, it’s me.”

“Mitch, it’s so good to hear from
you. What’s up?”

“What do you mean what’s up?” Mitch
asked, feeling defensive.

“Son, it’s a Saturday morning. You,
Chase, and Leah are usually doing something, why are you calling me? Is
everything all right?”

As his father continued to ask him
questions, Mitch stared at the photo he kept of their graduation. It had been a
day filled with a lot of laughs and celebrations. They were all going to the same
college with their futures ahead of them.

“I’ve done something awful, Dad,”
he said.

Silence came over the line.

“Do you want to talk about it?” his
father asked.

Mitch stared at the photo then
allowed the night’s memories to come back to him in a flood. “I need to talk to
someone.”

“I’m listening.”

Chapter Five

Leah walked down to the laundrette.
It was several streets away from their apartment. The cost was good, and the
quality of the shop was wonderful. She nodded her head to the owner before
dumping the sacks of clothes onto the bench in front of the washing machine.
Leah paid for the detergent then began sorting through the bags making piles of
light, dark, and white clothing.

Her mother had taught her how to
wash her clothes so she didn’t ruin any of her stuff. There really was a secret
to it. She placed the whites into the washing machine, poured the detergent
inside, put her money into the coin slots and closed the door.

She took a seat opposite the
washing machine. Other days she’d bring a book to read as the washing was
sorted through. Her rush out of the apartment meant she’d left empty-handed.
She folded her hands under her breasts, keeping her hair down. Covering the
bites on her neck was essential. For the next week or so at work she’d be
covering her love bites with some scarves. She hoped no one noticed. There
would be no easy way of explaining them.

The washing machine kept spinning ‘
round,
and Leah watched it do the cycle again and again. The
rest of the patrons continued to work through their washing as she just stared
at the washing machine. The constant turning reminded her of
herself
.
The feeling of being pushed ‘round and ‘round felt familiar to her.

If only she could remember what
happened the night before. Her body showed all the signs of lovemaking, and the
guys had even admitted to them making love. She wanted to remember every little
detail. What had they done? What had they said?

Was there something important she
was missing?

She was never drinking alcohol
again.

A woman sat next to her, and Leah
ignored her, watching her washing machine. Her cell phone buzzed inside her
pocket. She pulled it out to see her mother had left her a message about the
barbeque. Leah didn’t even know if she was going to make it now. For the first
time in their friendship, Leah felt uncertain.

Her phone buzzed again as the
washing machine finished. She answered the call from her mother as she emptied
the clothes into the basket.

“Leah, what’s wrong?” her mother
said.

“Nothing.
Can I call you back? I’m doing the washing.”

“Again.
Why don’t you buy a washing machine for that place or better yet, start looking
for a house to share.”

“It is a little early for that, Mom.”

Leah rested the cell phone between
her shoulder and ear as she moved to the spinner. She paid the money then went
back to the washing to load up the machine.

“Are you going to keep those men
waiting forever?”

She’d confessed her feelings to her
mother a few years back, swearing her to secrecy.

“Something happened last night,
Mom. I don’t know what.”

“What do you mean? I need details,
honey.”

Leah raised her hand out in front
of her. “Please, Mom. Give me a few minutes. Let me finish loading this up in
the washing machine, and I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

She finished the call, loading the
washing machine then putting the clothes from the spinner into the dryer.

After she was done, she noticed the
woman who’d been sitting next to her was gone. Shaking her head, Leah walked
out of the front door and dialled her mother’s number.

Her mother listened as she told her
everything she knew happened last night. By the time she had finished, tears
spilled down her cheeks, and her hand was gesturing all over the place.

“I don’t know what to do. I feel
everything has changed,” Leah said.

“Everything
has
changed. You’ve crossed a line with your friends. You can’t
come back from that. Do you still love them?”

“With all
my heart.
I just can’t bear the thought of them
sleeping with me because they felt sorry for me. I begged them, Mom.”

“Mitch and Chase will not hold it
against you. I think you and the boys need to take a long look at your life
together. It will only be a matter of time before this goes wrong.”

Leah looked through the window.
“How do you know it will go wrong?”

She heard her mother sigh over the
line. “You’ve slept with your two best friends. The two friends you’ve known
most of your life. What would you say to another woman in that situation?”

Leah stared at her reflection
hating her own answer.
“That she’d need to make a choice.”

“What choices would those be?”

Closing her eyes, Leah answered her
mother. “Either to stay and work it out, or to realise it was a big mistake and
leave.”

“I’m sorry you have to make these
choices, baby. You’ll figure it out in the end.”

“And if I don’t?”

Her mother sighed. “Do you really
have much of a choice?”

Leah shook her head. “No.”

“I’ll be waiting to hear from you.
Good luck, honey.”

She disconnected the call and then
made her way back into the laundrette. After a couple of hours, their clothes
were washed, dried, and neatly folded. When she got back to the apartment she’d
iron them for the guys.

Leah was careful with the washing
as she loaded them back into the now cleaned sacks. She waved goodbye to the
owner then made the walk back to the apartment. It no longer felt like her
apartment but a thing. A place she slept in. Leah knew she was more hurt about
begging them to take her. What if she hadn’t begged? Would they have still
taken her?

Her face was red as she got back to
her apartment. The doorman nodded at her. She smiled even though she didn’t
feel there was much to smile about.

She used the stairs to walk up to
their floor. The door was not locked, and she let herself inside with ease.

Chase and Mitch were sitting in
front of the television. She tensed as they turned to her.

“I wondered when you were going to
make it back home,” Chase said.

Mitch looked up and down her body.
She felt an instant bolt of lust straight in her cunt. Leah licked her lips,
looking at the pair of them.

“I did the washing. You had a lot
of clothes to sort through.” She put her key on the hook they put by the door.

Mitch came over taking the sacks
from her.

“I’ll iron them,” she said.

“All
right.”
He lifted them up. She noticed the strain
on his muscles even though he didn’t complain. A memory of her nails sinking
into the flesh of his arm flashed across her mind. The memory was gone as quickly
as it had come. “You’re still on for making dinner tonight. I’m starved.”

Leah smiled feeling the tenseness
ease out of her. “Sure. Anything you want.”

She moved toward the cupboard where
she kept the iron and the board. Mitch put the sacks on the chairs and went
back to the television.

You’re
a coward.

She knew she should be talking to
them about what happened, but she couldn’t bring herself to destroy the peace
around them. They both seemed happy to her. Bringing up last night was wrong.

You’re
going to regret it.

No,
I won’t. They don’t want to talk about it, and I seriously don’t want to talk
about it.

This
is your chance with them.

Leah knew she was in love with
them. She didn’t know why she was holding herself back from them. Being with
them was a dream come true.

It
would be a dream if you remembered what it was like to be in their arms.

Shutting off the thought process,
she picked out each item and made sure to make it crisp before putting it onto
their pile.

****

Mitch’s dad’s fabulous advice had
been to ignore the night before. Until Leah was ready to talk about what
happened or even begin to remember what had happened then, the best solution
was to make it easy. Don’t talk about it; don’t make a big deal about, and
carry on with life as if nothing had changed.

The biggest problem Mitch was
having
was
the fact he wanted to talk about it. He
didn’t see why not talking about what happened would work. They’d made love
last night. He’d been deep inside Leah’s body as she climaxed around his shaft.
She’d called his and Chase’s names. Leah had confessed to being in love with
them, and they were supposed to pretend it wasn’t happening.

Leah was in the kitchen cooking
their dinner. He kept looking behind him to watch her. She’d been ironing for
the past couple of hours, and he hated it.

Mitch wanted to take her in his arms
and show her how much he’d loved last night. Her honesty and passion had been
so worth the wait.

“Stop looking at her,” Chase said
in a whisper so Leah wouldn’t hear.

“I don’t know how you can stand
this.”

Chase glared at him. “Do you really
think this is me standing it? I can’t
fucking
breathe.
I feel wound up that tightly.”

The other man glanced back at Leah.
“I know what it feels like to have her come apart in my arms, Mitch. I’m taking
your old man’s advice because it might
fucking
work. I
want her to come to us on her terms, not the other way around.”

Chase drained his can of beer and
threw it into the trash can.

The rest of the movies were waiting
for them to watch. The scent of garlic and chicken filled the air.

“I’m starting to think my father is
fucking useless.”

His friend nodded in agreement. How
was this helping them?

They knew Leah better than anyone.
If they didn’t talk about it then she wouldn’t mention it again. Last night
would remain a memory in their minds but not in hers.

Mitch knew he couldn’t handle
another man walking through that door. If it got to that, he was gone. Mitch
knew it was extreme of him, but there was no way he was watching Leah with
another man. He’d watched her with other men and hated every second of it.

She came through and placed their
food on their laps. He watched her bend forward and slide in another movie. His
cock pulsed inside his jeans. He’d taken her from behind. Mitch knew what it
felt like to have the curve of her ass pressed against his body, to feel the tight
clutch of her cunt wrapped around his cock as he rode her body.

He rubbed a hand over his face and
saw Chase was doing the same. Less than twenty-four hours ago, Leah had been
between them, the passion inside her shared equally. She’d reached for both of
them at the same time. Their names had been screamed from her lips.