Page 7 of For the Plot (The Stone Siblings #1)

James

The Green Dragon - Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, & Howard Shore

Tonight had been absolute ass. Saturdays were always the busiest days of the week working at a bar, and tonight was no exception. Add to that, we were short-staffed, and my night was ruined.

The only good thing about it being so nonstop busy was that it left me very little time to think about my conversation with Nikki last night.

If I was being honest with myself, it was all I had been thinking about.

And I had to stop. I kept Nikki very firmly in the friend box in my mind, and she was not allowed to wander anywhere else up there.

She was my friend, and friendly feelings were the only kind I could have about her.

One conversation about her sex life was not going to change that.

At least, that was what I was telling myself.

Because last night’s feelings were a one-time thing.

I was just horny. We were talking about sex, and that was that. It was nothing else.

It couldn’t be anything else.

“Earth to James?” Sasha’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I realized I had been wiping the same extremely clean glass for minutes now, and Sasha was giving me her I’m going to kill you if you don’t get it together look.

“Maybe wanna do your job and help the horde of customers waiting for you to get your head out of your ass?”

“I dunno, wanna foot out first so I can get my head out?”

“What does that even mean?” she asked incredulously.

“Eh, I tried something, it didn’t work.” I shrugged, setting the glass and cloth down, and made my way down the bar towards her.

“You are so weird.”

“Hey, I keep your life interesting. You’re welcome.” I turned to take an order before she could say anything else and pretended I didn’t notice when she snapped the towel in her hand at my arm.

The time flew as I made drink after drink for the next few hours.

Finally getting a break in the crowd, I took advantage of the moment to wipe my station down and restock my glasses from the dishwasher. But right as I turned to the back, a wolf whistle broke out, and a man’s voice called out, “Oh, who's that hottie behind the bar?”

Recognizing the voice, I made sure to shake my ass a little extra as I continued on my way rather than turning and acknowledging him.

A trio of cackles broke out behind me, and I let a grin spread across my face.

In the madness, I had totally forgotten they were going to come entertain me tonight.

I made my way back out with a clean rack of glasses, dropping them on the counter and turning to my three waiting friends.

Will, Collins, and Nikki sat left to right on the bar stools, elbows on the bar, chins resting on their clasped hands, fluttering their lashes at me in unison.

“Free drinks, please!” they chorused out as one.

“Menaces, the lot of you,” I shot back at them, but the laughter in my voice definitely undermined the name calling.

I attempted, in vain, to keep my eyes from lingering too long on NIkki and the soft curves and rolls of her body under the crop top and maxi skirt she wore.

The soft, loose curls of her black hair falling around her shoulders.

The clear blue eyes twinkling in mischief along with the two idiots beside her.

“So how’s it been tonight?” Collins asked as he glanced around at the mostly packed bar. “Looks pretty busy in here.”

“Let’s just say we had a callout which made it worse, but it was Megan, so it’s also better,” I replied dryly. They all cringed in unison. They had heard many a complaint about Megan in our venting sessions—or as we liked to call them, roommate trauma-bonding sessions.

“Two nights in a row, and you might have killed her,” Collins quipped.

“Might?” I started pulling glasses out. “The usuals?”

“You treat us so well.” Will sighed dreamily at me, and I blew him a kiss. He pretended to swoon, falling into Collins’s shoulder.

As I made their drinks, I snuck glances at Nikki who was very much not looking at me .

Maybe she was just as affected by our conversation last night as I was.

As I made a Cosmo for Will, a lemon drop for Collins, and a vodka apple juice for Nikki, the three of them picked up where they must have left off in their conversation on their way here.

“I’m telling you, it’s an allegory for Macbeth ,” Will insisted, while Collins shook his head vehemently.

“What is?” I set their glasses on the bar in front of me, wiping my hands off on the towel thrown over my shoulder.

“That scene from the last Lord of the Rings ! Eowyn’s big moment.”

“And I’m just saying I don’t see it.” Collins threw up his arms in surrender, and Will made a sound of distress like he was actually being tortured, rather than dealing with our idiot roommate who also had a not-so-secret love of riling him up. I decided to take pity on him this time.

“Tell me, how so?” My eyes flicked over to Nikki only to see she was already looking at me, a small, fond smile on her face as she shook her head at their antics.

“OK, so you know how Eowyn is able to kill the Witch-King because no man can kill him, but she’s a woman, right?”

“Alright, I’m with you.”

“Well, he's paying homage to Macbeth with that line, obviously! In Macbeth , it’s the witches who tell Macbeth ‘ None of woman born shall harm Macbeth .’ But then later you find out Macduff was delivered by C-section, so on a technicality, he was not woman born, yeah?”

“OK.” Collins nodded along slowly, stroking his chin like a cartoon villain pretending to think, but Will was too far gone on his tangent to notice, staring at me instead. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Nikki stifling a giggle into her glass.

Will made the universal duh gesture, and when Collins didn’t immediately respond, Will finally looked over and saw what Collins was doing. He lifted a finger, pointing it accusingly at Collins and grumbling about impossible people, while the three of us burst into laughter.

Just when it looked like he was about to explode, Collins finally gave in, speaking through his laughter, hands aloft placatingly. “OK, OK, I’m sorry! Of course I know ‘no man’ is a reference to no ‘man woman born,’ I was just messing with you.”

Will just shook his head, tsking at Collins. “Man, sometimes I really can’t with you.”

“Then don’t make it so damn easy.” Collins grinned, slinging his arm over Will’s shoulders.

As they devolved into a scuffle, I leaned on the bar in front of Nikki, forearms resting on the edge, rocking on the balls of my feet towards her.

When I looked up to meet her eyes, a shot of electricity zoomed through me.

Nikki

The veins on James’s arms bulged as he pressed his forearms further into the edge of the bar, and my eyes traced along the black lines of the tattoo on the inside of his right forearm.

It was the molecular breakdown of caffeine, in honor of his coffee addition.

Our shared love of that magical bean was the first thing we bonded over.

James nodded his head towards Dumb and Dumber, leaning in to murmur, “How long have they been at this?”

I take in his profile. The dusting of reddish-tinged dark brown scruff. Hair reaching his ears, wave pattern just barely discernable. Hazel eyes glinting jovially behind his wire-framed glasses.

His jawline hid behind the soft roundness of his face, the slightly rounded belly of his "dad bod" pressing where his shirt was tucked into his jeans under his open flannel.

And his nails were painted—currently a dark enough blue that they almost looked black—only slightly beginning to chip at the edges.

I had never really paid much attention to his physical appearance, never noticed the space he took up or the way he moved.

But ever since our conversation last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

James cleared his throat, and I remembered he just asked me a question.

I hoped he couldn’t see the blush I felt staining my cheeks.

“Oh, you know, just for the past hour or so.” James shook his head, pushing back from the counter, and I tried not to shiver at the loss of warmth in my space.

I looked over to Will and Collins instead, who had finally finished their fight and were now tearing up over what looked to be a cute animal video on Collins's phone.

I took a sip of my drink, watching as James made his way down the bar taking people’s orders.

My eyes caught on the way the muscles in his forearms shifted as he shook a drink, the sleeves of his flannel pushed up to his elbows.

The way his smile was just a little crooked as he smiled at a flirty customer, leaning into the bar the way he had done just a minute ago with me.

I watched as he winked at them, a blush rising in their cheeks as they looked up at James through their lashes.

I wish it came as easily to me as it seemed to James.

He was so naturally flirty, the turn of his lips making you feel like you were constantly in on some inside joke with him.

He would never have a problem finding someone to hook up with.

He never seemed to have a problem in the past, that’s for sure.

My mind wandered back to last night and our conversation again. I had never talked with him so openly about sex before. There was definitely a difference in making sex jokes with your friends versus actually talking about your sex lives, and last night was definitely the latter.

As uncomfortable as I had been in the moment, as I was anytime I tried discussing my sex life with people, it had actually helped a lot.

It made me realize that if I really was going to actively seek out my first sexual experience, it had to be with someone I trusted.

And definitely someone who knew what they were doing.

It almost made me think… but no. I shook my head, trying to unthink that thought.

Because if I went down that road, there was no coming back.

And just because he was able to easily flirt and hook up with strangers did not mean he would be open to…

what? What did I even think I would ask him?

To teach me how to have sex? How absolutely ridiculous.

I forced myself to look away from James and join in on Will and Collins's conversation.