ie

With a wicked grin, I step up to Roman who is still bent over rustling through his truck. I grab his hips, and start thrusting.

“Wha—” he starts, but I thrust into him to keep him from standing up.

“Play along.”

I keep thrusting, then I look over to my elderly neighbour and give her a cheerful wave. With a horrified look, she closes the blinds. I roar with laughter and let Roman go. He stands up, turning around and looking down at me. “Explain.”

“The old lady over the road was spying on us, I just wanted to give her something to talk about.”

Roman snorts a laugh. “By dry humping me?”

“Yes, by dry humping you. Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.”

He chuckles. “You’re a fucking feral.”

He thrusts something at me, and I raise my hands, catching it. I glance down, it kind of looks like a flag, maybe?

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

I open it and unfold it. It’s a large sign, made out of material. On it, it has a picture of Dr Seuss, with the text ‘Some people are cunts’. I squeal happily. “Oh, my god, this is so awesome!”

“Let’s go hang it on your fence.”

“Eeeeek!”

We both run inside, like two rebellious teenagers, and rush out to my backyard to hang the sign on my fence. When it’s up, we both admire it. “Gosh, it’s beautiful,” I say. “Let’s get a picture.”

“You go stand next to it,” Roman says, pulling out his phone. “I’ll take a picture.”

I rush over, squatting down so I don’t cover the text. Then I give him a thumbs up. Laughing, he snaps a few photos.

“It’s so cool!” I say, following him back onto the patio to continue drinking.

“Where’s your damned sister? We’ll be drunk and in bed by the time she arrives.”

I nod, rolling my eyes. “Right? She’s so painful.”

“What’s Calvin’s real name again?” he says. “I’m totally going to call him Calvin by accident.”

“It’s TJ.”

Roman snorts. “Nope. It doesn’t suit him. Calvin it is.”

I punch him in the arm.

Then we keep drinking.

~*~*~*~

“Matilda, this is Roman. Roman, this is my sister Matilda,” I say, introducing my sister to Roman when she finally arrives with her overly pretty, overly girly boyfriend.

“Nice to meet you,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Roman shakes her hand. “All good I’m assuming.”

She nods, grinning. “Oh, of course. Molly would never tell me all the juicy details.”

Roman glances at me, and I give him an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Roman, Molly, this is my friend TJ.”

TJ steps forward, and he’s even prettier in real life than he is in the photos. Roman is right, he really does look like a Calvin Klein model. His hair is perfect. His skin is perfect. He’s just damned perfect. He’s also feminine as hell. Not my type.

“Hi,” he says, extending his hand. Roman takes it, shakes it, and then drops it.

I hope he squeezed some masculine into poor TJ. God knows he needs some.

“Nice to meet you.” I smile. “Come, sit down.”

“Have you two been drinking all afternoon?” Matilda says, staring at the line up of beer bottles on the table.

“Yep, we sure have. We were waiting for you two.”

“Nice sign,” TJ says, nodding at the sign on my fence.

“Thanks.” I laugh. “Roman put it up for me.”

“It’s awesome,” Matilda says.

“It matches its owner,” Roman says, grinning at me.

I flip him the bird.

Matilda smiles at both of us.

I lean over and turn on some music, and TJ starts singing straight away. And dammit, of course he can sing. I want to roll my eyes, but that would be rude. I look over to Roman, and he rolls his eyes. Yep, he’s thinking what I’m thinking.

“You have a good voice,” Roman says. “You should be on a singing show.”

TJ instantly lights up at the compliment, and starts going on and on about how he wants to go on one of those shows, but they’re all rigged and he wouldn’t get a fair chance. I shoot Roman an annoyed look, and he’s already laughing. Jerk. He totally knew what he was doing then. Now we all have to listen to pretty boy talk about his amazing voice for the next hour.

I stand and go inside to get some snacks, and Matilda stands and follows me.

“So?” she says, stepping up beside me. “Roman ...”

“Yeah,” I say, glancing at her. “What?”

“You two get along well.”

“Yeah, we do.”

“Especially considering you haven’t known each other long. It’s not awkward between the two of you at all. I could swear you have known him your whole life with the way you act around him.”

I laugh. “Yeah, it’s weird, hey? I just feel like I’ve known him forever.”

“He seems like a really cool guy.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “He is. He’s good looking too.”

She laughs. “Yeah, he is. Trust you to notice that.”

I shrug. “I’m allowed to look.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m glad you have someone like him in your life. He seems genuine, and he’s funny.”

“I know, did you hear his comment to Cal ... ah ... TJ?”

She raises her brows. “I did, it was funny, and what’s Cal?”

“Okay, so.” I giggle. “He thinks your boyfriend looks like Calvin Klein, so he’s given him that nickname.”

Matilda gushes. “He does look like Calvin, though. He’s so good looking. I honestly can’t get over it.”

Inward eye roll.

“Yeah. He’s too pretty for me. I’d want to beat him when he spent more time in front of the mirror than me.”

She laughs. “You always did like the rugged ones.”

I nod.

“Roman seems rugged.”

She wiggles her brows.

I flip her the bird. “Stop it.”

“Oh, come on, you’re both single. You should have some fun.”

“We’re friends.”