Modern Girl's Guide to Friends With Benefits (4 page)

Modern Girl Tip #3 It's Not For Everyone:
When it comes to sex and relationships, everyone is different. Take a good look at yourself first before approaching your friend. Can you be in a sexual relationship without expectations? If you're prone to jealousy or possessiveness, FWB might not be for you.

Megan made her way down to the main lodge, still feeling tense and on edge from the night before. It had been childish of her to flash Peter like that, but he should have just left her alone. She was in the hot tub, enjoying the last of the wine, and all she wanted to do was relax for an hour before going to sleep. But she should have expected that things just weren't going to go her way. People talked about how hard milestone birthdays were. Well, Megan's thirtieth sucked so far.

Her friends—Julia, Beth, and Kim—were already waiting for her by the time she reached the lobby, and it looked like they had been there for a while. "Am I late?" she asked as she got closer.

"We've all come to expect it," Julia said, giving her a hug. "All you missed was breakfast."

"Crap. I completely spaced on breakfast. At least our appointment is at ten, so technically I'm not late."

"Don't worry about it, sweetie," Julia said as she got up. "And I am sorry about the room fiasco last night. Simon didn't tell me that Kim was coming this weekend. They wanted to surprise you."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she was surprised," Kim said and kissed Megan on the cheek. "Happy birthday, doll."

"Sorry about last night. I'm glad you made it." Megan hugged Kim back and then moved on to her other friends. Funny that even now, most of her friends revolved around the three men in her life. Kim worked as the lead designer for her brother's company. Beth was married to Matt, her surrogate brother. And Julia… While she'd like to take credit for fixing her work friend up with her brother, their connection happened months before Megan pushed the issue. They didn't get together much these days. Everyone was busy, so this girls' day at the spa was badly needed.

"I talked with the desk this morning, and they found me a room. So you two," Kim turned to Julia, "and you two can have the cabins all to yourselves."

"I feel left out. I didn't get a visit from Kim in the middle of the night," Beth said. She plastered on a false pout and crossed her arms over her swollen, pregnant belly.

"Trust me, I would have rather skipped the whole thing myself," Kim said. "I work with those guys. There's enough drama in the office. I don't need to be in the middle of their domestic lives, too."

"Oh, office gossip," Beth said, clapping. "I've been so bored since I went on leave, and it's only been a week. I'm not sure how I'll be able to last six months away. I must live vicariously through you, so tell me everything."

Julia pulled Megan aside. "Kim told us that you and Peter got in a fight. I almost came over to make sure everything was alright, but Simon insisted that you two could figure it out. So did you?"

"Don't worry about us," Megan said and headed down the hall to the spa. "It's just how we do things. We fight. We make up."

"Sure sounds like foreplay to me," Kim said under her breath.

Beth barely choked back a laugh and elbowed Kim. When Megan turned around to glare at them, they smiled innocently.

"This isn't healthy," Julia said and touched her shoulder. "If you spent more time talking things out and less time ribbing each other, maybe you wouldn't fight as much."

"We weren't fighting," she assured Julia, and then she went on for Kim's benefit. "We weren't doing anything else, either. Peter and Matt are my surrogate brothers. But Peter's also my best friend. He knows me too well, and sometimes he doesn't know when to quit."

"You should have seen the way those two were going at it last night," Kim said. "But it's nothing new. When they aren't fighting, they're inseparable. I'm giving even odds that they are either going to finally kill each other or fuck before the weekend is over. I wish they'd just get it over with. This 'will they, won't they' thing is getting old."

Megan turned and shot her supposed friend a withering glare. Maybe a girls' day wasn't such a good idea. She could have gone with the guys. They didn't speculate about her personal life, such as it was. "Well, you should just check the 'won't' box. We're friends, nothing else." Not that she wouldn't be open to a change. It just wasn't going to happen. She'd tried to get with Peter a long time ago and he wasn't interested. Keeping things platonic was easier. Or at least safer.

"Why not?" Kim asked. "If I had a hot, sexy guy like Peter who'd drop everything for me in a heartbeat and fly across the country to hang out, I'd be all over that. Plus, if you were banging him maybe you wouldn't be so uptight right now."

Deciding to let Kim's last comment go, she checked in at the desk and they were ushered back to the pedicure chairs.

"So what did happen last night?" Julia asked. "Kim came banging on our door at two in the morning looking for a place to sleep."

"She used the term manwhore," Kim offered helpfully. "And accused him of trying to sleep with me."

"Well, in my defense, I didn't know it was you," Megan said, sinking down into the chair. This conversation needed to end. She should have just slept in.

"So you were jealous!" Beth said, as though she'd cracked the case. "Maybe Kim is right and you just need to go for it. Men can be really dense sometimes. If you have a thing for him, you should tell him how you feel."

"There's nothing to tell," Megan snapped, exhausted by the conversation. Why wouldn't they just leave it alone? "We're friends, and friends call each other on their bullshit. He's always picking up girls when we go away, and since we were sharing a room, I didn't want to spend my birthday weekend listening to him bang some random chick the whole time."

Julia, the voice of reason, jumped in. "Okay. Maybe you should stop pulling the tiger's tail. Besides, Beth, aren't you the one who's always going on about how having guy friends doesn't mean you want to sleep with them?"

"Sure, men and women can be friends," Beth said. "There's nothing wrong with it. I have tons of guy friends from work, but Megan and Peter aren't like that. They are way too close to be just friends."

"I treat him like I would either of you. Is that so wrong?"

"Sorry, hon. You two do look awfully relationshipy from the outside," Julia said.

"When I first started at Millennium, I actually thought you two were married," Kim added. "The touchy-feely stuff is bad enough, but only people who are in love fight like that." She leaned over and said to Julia, "My first week on the job, the guys invited me to happy hour. It's their way of welcoming new employees to the company. Megan was there, flirting with a guy at the bar, and Peter almost stroked out watching them. When she went to the bathroom, he flew over to the bar and I thought he was actually going to punch the poor guy."

"Ick. I remember that night," Megan said. "He's lucky I didn't find out about his little stunt until weeks later."

"Sweetie, you two need to find a happy medium," Julia said. "You can't keep doing this. One of these days you're going to have a fight that you can't come back from."

Megan slumped into the oversized chair, hoping that the dissection of her relationship with Peter was over. She loved the girls, but they didn't really understand her friendship with Peter. He was like a brother. A brother she thought was hot and wanted to kiss, but a brother nonetheless.

However, now she was starting to think they could have something more. Megan had harbored the biggest schoolgirl crush on Peter for years. He was her champion, and she'd always imagined that they'd end up together. Years of girlish fantasies fueled that obsession until she finally made a fumbling attempt at seduction when she was a senior in high school. He turned her down flat and dashed any hope she'd had for her happily ever after. But she was older now and knew that sex didn't have to end in a lifelong commitment. They could have a casual sexual relationship and still just be friends. Right?

"You should just tap that and get it out of your system," Kim said, bringing her back to reality.

"Oh, my God. Can't we talk about something else?" Megan turned to Kim and smiled. "How's your dating life going? Met any interesting guys in New York? I've heard they have an interesting
club
scene there?"

"I'm still getting settled in and I haven't had a chance to really explore," Kim hedged.

Megan had discovered by accident that Kim had a particular taste in men. She'd been doing research for a book and was invited to a private club. Kim was the last person she'd expected to find there, in little more than lingerie, tied and on display. It wasn't something Kim advertised, and it was the perfect tender point for prodding.

"Oh, really? So you haven't had time to meet people? I hear the city can be hard to
master
all by yourself," Megan said. "Do I need to talk to Simon about keeping you
chained
to the desk? He can be so
dom
ineering when it comes to business. Maybe if you
beg
—"

"You know what?" Kim broke in before she could go any further. "I think what you have with Peter is great. I wish I had a guy friend like that."

Julia eyed the two of them. She either didn't catch the subtle hints or was too polite to question what was going on. "So, how's the new book going?" Julia asked, transitioning the conversation to more neutral ground.

"I'd rather talk about my relationship with Peter," Megan said dryly.

Outside of her editor and Peter, the girls were the only people who knew about her books and pen name. They were incredibly supportive, but this weekend her writing troubles were the last thing she wanted to think about.

"That good?" Julia said. "Well, you know I'm always happy to read for you."

"Before you could do that, I'd have to have an actual story instead of a series of random scenes written." Megan sighed and picked through the nail colors. She'd come to realize that her writer's block was just a symptom of a more complex problem. Here she was, celebrating her thirtieth birthday, and she was directionless. In her writing and in her life. She didn't know what to do next.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Kim asked, dragging her back to the conversation.

"There's not much to be done. These last few months have been exhausting. I don't like my story, but the publisher wants me to finish it or I'll have to pay back my advance. The renovations on the house are more time consuming than I thought they would be. And school has been a nightmare. The dean wants me to update my course syllabus to meet the new standards, and they've added another lit class to my rotation."

"I don't understand why you're still teaching," Kim said. "It's not like you need the money. I bet if you'd quit and just focus on your writing, your stress levels would go down."

"But then she'd lose her cover and would have to tell her family where she really makes all her money," Julia pointed out. "No more running off to teachers' conferences."

"I still can't believe that works," Beth said. "How many teachers' conferences can you go to a year before it gets suspicious?"

"You'd be surprised," Kim said. "Last year, it was eight. Wouldn't it be easier to come clean?"

"I thought this was my birthday getaway, not 'let's dissect Megan's personal life' weekend," she snapped. "Could we please change the subject?"

"Good idea. Let's talk about tonight. I found this brilliant club," Julia said, directing the conversation again. She was always good at playing peacemaker. That's why everyone loved her. "It's set up like an old-time speakeasy. Megan, you've been on this vintage kick lately, so I thought you'd enjoy it."

Julia brought out her phone and showed them photos of the bar. It was beautiful. The perfect escape from reality. So why not bump up the fantasy a bit?

"Since we have hair appointments, why don't we go all-out and get our hair done vintage-style?" Megan said with a devilish grin. "I could wear this. With some finger waves and the right makeup, I can put together a fifties feel. And Kim can wear the red A-line dress I had picked out for tonight. It's just the right shade for your coloring. With you at my side, we can really kill it."

"There's a ton of seriously ripped ski gods crawling this hotel," Kim said, warming to the idea. "I could let it drop where we'll be tonight and maybe we could get some action."

"I thought tonight was all about us hanging out and relaxing?" Beth said. "Not picking up guys.

"And give up a chance like this?" Kim said. "I saw these two guys heading to the gym this morning. Oh, my God! I think their abs had abs. I wouldn't mind passing along some invites if it was possible to get in between that action." She put a hand to her forehead and swooned dramatically.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Julia asked. "It's not like we're at home. This is a vacation town. It could be dangerous picking up a strange guy at a bar."

Megan choked back a laugh. Julia was the last person to talk about picking up strangers in bars. It was exactly how she met Megan's brother, Simon.

"Stop being such a mother hen," Kim said. "Just because you're getting some regularly doesn't mean the rest of us single ladies have to starve."