Lick Is A Four-Letter Word (8 page)

But
not bad enough to regret what just happened
, she
thought, smiling to herself.

Chapter Five

Josh
and
Troy
headed
straight for the outside doors. Still grinning, Felicity stopped by the
fountain to hunt down the lipstick she kept in her purse. She was fairly
certain there wasn’t a bit of it left on her face.

“Felicity!
Oh my God, I heard you
were stuck in the elevator. I tried to call, but you know how bad the service
is in this building. I kept getting your voicemail.” Sue hurried over to
Felicity and sat down.

“I’m
fine. My phone never rang.” She dug it out of her purse and laughed as three
alerts pinged while she was looking at the screen.
“Yup.
There’s your voicemail.”

Sue
smiled. “So, were you stuck in there with those two
hotties
I saw running for the doors?”

Felicity
shrugged.
“Maybe.”

Sue’s
eyes widened. “Oh, you totally were!” She frowned suddenly. “Why did they run
off? What did you do to them?”

“Let’s
just say that they had some personal issues to take care of,” Felicity said.
She blushed, thinking about how much she’d enjoyed feeling their arousal
against her body.

“Oh my God!
Did you kiss them? What
is going on with you, kissing strange men all the time these days? It’s not
like you to—”

“They’re
not strangers,” Felicity interrupted her.

“Wait,
what?” Sue’s face slowly lit up. “Are those the two guys from before?”

Felicity
waved her hand at her friend.
“
Shhh
!
Not so loud. Everything echoes in here.”

Sue
blinked. “One was Asian and the other black. Holy shit, girl!”

Felicity
blushed harder. “Sue, don’t make me strangle you.”

“What
the hell are the odds of you meeting them again here?” Sue asked, awe in her
voice. “It’s, like, destiny.
Only in real life and not at the
movies.
I wish I had popcorn.”

“Oh,
come on, Sue,” Felicity said, trying to keep her elation out of her voice.
Privately, she agreed with her friend. Out loud she said, “Just coincidence.”

Sue
wrinkled her nose.
“Coincidence my ass.
You were just
telling me how you regretted not getting their phone numbers and now,
Providence
has smiled
upon you, you lucky girl.”

Felicity
bit her lip. “Um—”

“Oh no.”
Sue grimaced. “Tell me you
got their numbers? Or they got yours?”

Felicity
shook her head. She hadn’t had time what with all the kissing, though she
didn’t tell Sue that.

“Oh for God’s sake.
Seriously?
What the hell were you doing in there all that
time? The elevator was stuck for over fifteen minutes! I know, because I was
down here waiting for you.” Sue crossed her arms over her chest.

Felicity
opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

“Wait a
second. What
were
you doing in there,
hmm?” Sue asked again, less appalled and more curious this time.

Felicity
cringed. Sue was going to have it all out of her in no time. “Um, we kissed?”

“So,
you really did kiss them?
Again?
I was just joking
before, holy
moly
.” Sue’s eyes went round. “And I got
a good look at them this time. Wow, you are so freaking lucky. Those dudes are
hot.” She fanned herself.

“Yeah,
except I didn’t get their numbers, remember?” When Sue’s grin faded into
another frown, Felicity leaped to explain. “It’s okay, though. They work in
this building. I’m sure I’ll run into them again.”

Sue
cocked her head.
“You sure about that?
They weren’t
running away from you?”

Felicity
flushed again.
“Um, no.
Definitely
not.”
She remembered the tents in their pants. Her face felt like it was
on fire.

“Oh,
wait a second. You said they had ‘personal issues’ to deal with?” Sue used air
quotes to emphasize her point.

Felicity
nodded, stuffing her lipstick back into her purse so she wouldn’t have to look
her friend in the eye. It didn’t matter.

“
Hoo
boy!
They had a little too much wood in the pocket area, eh?” Sue cackled.

“Sue!
Oh my God, not so loud,” Felicity begged, looking around. Some of the people
clustered near the elevators glanced at them, no doubt drawn by the shrill tone
of Sue’s voice. “Hello? You’re totally embarrassing me.”

Sue
mouthed a
sorry
, then continued speaking in a quieter tone. “I still
can’t believe you ended up in another lip lock with them. I am simultaneously
proud and horrified, Felicity.” Sue stood up. “We need to discuss this further.
With alcohol.”

Felicity
thought about it. Alcohol sounded like just what she needed.
Something
frozen, to cool down her still buzzing libido.
“You’re buying me a
frozen margarita,” she said to Sue.

Sue
nodded. “You got it.”

****

“We
forgot to get her number. Again,” Josh complained from the passenger’s seat.

Troy
sighed, loudly. “This is the third time you’ve mentioned it. I’m right here,
you know. I heard you the first time.” He waited a beat.
“And
the second time.”
Josh was his best friend, but sometimes… “And yes, I
also heard you the third time. Talking about it will not make her number
magically appear on your cell phone.”

“I
know, but I’m so mad at myself,” Josh said.

“We
know where she works now, remember?”
Troy
glanced over. Josh was tapping his finger on his knee. “Stop that. You’re
stressing me out.” He didn’t mention that he was
already
stressed out
from the kiss they’d shared in the elevator. How he’d gone from wanting to
watch Josh kiss Felicity to kissing Josh himself, he had no idea.

And
you liked it. You liked it a lot
, a voice in his
head said, annoyingly.
Shut up
, he told it, turning the car onto the
street where Josh’s mother lived.

“It’ll
be easy to run into her again,”
Troy
continued.

Josh
shrugged. “We seem to get easily distracted.”

Troy
parked the car in front of the house and turned it off. “Look, Josh, relax,
okay? We’ll hunt her down on Monday. No worries.”

Josh
narrowed his eyes at him. “You seem remarkably cool with what happened.”

Troy
grinned, hoping it covered up the way his heart fluttered every time he
remembered kissing Felicity.
And Josh.
“We got to kiss
a gorgeous woman. We know where she works so we can find her again. What’s not
to like?”

Josh
crossed his arms. “What about the kiss?”

Troy
pretended ignorance. “That’s what I was just talking about, Josh.”

“You
know what I mean. Don’t play dumb, Troy. Not with me.” Josh’s expression had
slid into irritated.

Damn.
Deflection fail
. “Josh, why are we talking about this? We’re
guys. We’re supposed to ignore shit like that and pretend it never happened.”

Josh
smacked him on the back of the head.

“
Ow
!”
Troy
rubbed his skull. “You suck.”

“Don’t
be an idiot,
Troy
.
When have we ever avoided talking about something?” Josh pointed at him.
“Never.
And you know it.”

Troy
sighed. Josh was right, it was just— He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. “Can
we table this for now? I’m still having my little freak-out, in case you didn’t
notice.”

Josh
pursed his lips for a moment, then his expression eased and
Troy
knew everything with them would be fine.
“Yeah, okay.”

Thank
God. “Good,”
Troy
said, opening his door. “Heads up, your mom is outside and on the warpath, it
looks like.”

“Josh
Andrew Kim! You haven’t called me in two weeks. I had to call
Troy
to get you to come to dinner. Your best
friend,” she paused to smile at
Troy
,
“is better at calling me back than my own son. Why is that?”

Troy
grinned as Josh cringed against the side of the car. This was going to be
awesome.

“I’m
sorry, Mom. I was really busy,” Josh said, ducking down to give her a hug.

Troy
knew it wasn’t being busy so much as wanting to avoid his mother’s eagle eye.
She’d know as soon as she set eyes on Josh that he’d met someone.

“
Troy
! Why did I have to
wait for Mary to invite me to dinner to see you?” another woman yelled from the
porch. “Get in here right now and give me a hug!”

What
the hell was his mother doing here?
Troy
winced at the tone of his mother’s voice and glared at Josh’s mom as he walked
around the car. “You sold me out, Mrs. Kim. How could you do that?”

She
swatted him on the arm. “How many times have I told you to call me Mary? Mrs.
Kim makes me feel old. And your poor mother deserves some of your attention.
She’s my best friend. We stick together, you know.”

Troy
rubbed his arm, pretending her swat hurt. He pouted at her.
“Calling
you Mary feels weird, Mrs. Kim.”
He glanced at the porch where his
mother waited,
greying
brown hair pulled back in a
ponytail. “She may be your best friend, but you still sold me out.”

Josh
chuckled. “Suck it up,
Troy
.
We’re both going to pay now.”

And pay
they did. As soon as they sat down to eat, Josh’s mom started grilling them.

“You’ve
met someone, haven’t you?”

“Mom,
stop. I’m trying to eat here,” Josh said around a mouthful of meatball.

“Don’t
talk with your mouth full. And
Troy
can answer as well as you can,” she smiled sweetly at him.

Troy
choked on his lemonade. “Mrs. Kim—”

“Mary,”
she interrupted, frowning at him.

Troy
cast a look of entreaty at his mother, but she just smirked silently. He
sighed. “Mary. Why do you think we met someone?”

“Because
neither of you called us back. We were forced to collaborate,”
Troy
’s mom explained. “Why else would you not
answer your phones?”

“Mrs.
Marshall, we weren’t trying to avoid you,” Josh said, the traitor.

Troy
kicked him under the table.

Josh
elbowed him back.

“Oh my
God, it’s like they’re twelve all over again,” Josh’s mom said, a hint of
mock-terror in her voice.

Troy
’s
mom laughed. “It’s kind of cute. They’re not usually this squirmy.” She turned
to Josh. “You can call me Linda, you know.”

“It
feels weird to call you Linda,” Josh said, making
Troy
feel a little better. At least he wasn’t the only one.

“Mom,
I’m a grown man. I don’t squirm,”
Troy
said, sharing a look of misery with Josh. Even Mary’s homemade meatballs
weren’t worth this interrogation.

“Honey,
we were worried. That’s all,” his mom said.

Shit. She’s playing the guilt card.
Troy
glanced at Josh. His best friend nodded slightly. Yeah, Josh knew it, too.

“Who
did you meet? Are they nice?” Mary asked.

Josh
sighed. “Her name is Felicity. She’s very nice.”

Troy
winced, waiting for it.

“What
about you,
Troy
?”
his mom asked.

He
swallowed another bit of meatball. It felt like a lump of lead going down.
“What Josh
said.
” He didn’t elaborate. The longer he
could draw this out, the better.

His mom
frowned. “What do you mean?”