by Erin Havoc
Liz huffs, standing up straight and relaxing her arms next to her body. “Seriously, Cherry. Pack your stuff. You’re coming with me.”
Shoving the bag back at her, which she easily catches, I drop my attention back to my book. “Nope.”
“Okay. Give me one, just one good excuse for not spending the weekend with me.”
Liz has been my best friend since kindergarten. I love this girl, and I want to do everything in my power to make her happy.
But traveling to her brother’s place and spending a weekend with her family is not one of those things. She’s not seeing this now, but once I get there and everything goes awkward, she’ll admit it.
Even being friends for so long, my relationship with her family is not the best.
In my defense, neither is hers.
Her father is quite distant, but he’s the easiest to deal with. When we’re around him, he’s always doing something business-related, so I can read and Liz can watch Netflix on her phone and everything is in peace.
Her mother is the perfect opposite. Liz always had problems with her. She’s quite… judgmental.
And her brother?
Her brother is a whole different story.
Sighing, I put the bookmark between the pages I’ve been reading and lay the book down. “I don’t want to make it uncomfortable, Liz. I don’t mind spending the weekend here.”
“You’ve always spent the Holidays with me!”
“And I have spent the Holidays with you. FYI, we’re in January.”
She crosses her arms again. “Yes, but we’ve postponed Holiday celebrations because of some business deal my father had.”
Frustration claws its way up my throat. “It sucked the past years, Liz. Your mother doesn’t like me.”
“My mother doesn’t like anyone, Cherry! Get over it! With you there, I have some company. I have someone to talk to.” She juts her lower lip out. “Please!”
I shake my head. I’ve thought this all over. Her mother is tough, but she’s not the main reason I don’t want to go. Yeah, she always points out my weight, my hair, and my clothes, but she points out Liz’s too. And we’re complete opposites - I’m curvy while Liz’s skinny. I’m blond while Liz’s dark-haired. I’m always in jeans while Liz leans to dresses. Her mother is never satisfied.
“If I’m not there, there’ll be less awkwardness, I’m sure of it.”
“Awkwardness?” She curls her nose. “What awkwardness? We’re either fighting or ignoring one another either way.”
I sigh. Maybe if I… told her the truth?
No. No, I’m sure she’d just tell me to suck it up. Which I know would be good advice.
She’s my best friend but I’m pretty sure she’d be kind of mad if she learned the reason I’ve never dated. The reason I’ve never even liked a guy from school.
I’m not ready to tell her I’ve been pinning for her brother since I first met him. I don’t feel like telling her I’ve had a gargantuan crush on him for years and years and he pretty much spoiled any other man for me without ever giving me a second glance.
So I decide on half the truth.
“Look, two years ago I spent the Holidays with you, remember?” She nods. “The overall awkwardness between me and your brother could be cut with a knife.”
My cheeks warm up. I had last seen him when I joined college. He had spent some years abroad and, when he came back, it wasn’t the warmest reunion.
He looked at me with a strange face all the time. He didn’t talk to me at all. It was like I was a nuisance.
Maybe he thought I would eventually grow out of the whole spending-the-Holidays-with-the-Pratt’s. Yes, I’ve been doing that ever since my parents passed away, but maybe he thought I’d stop once I became an adult.
I could picture him asking Liz if I had nothing better to do than intruding on his family time.
Last year, he skipped Holidays. He was going to show up at first, and I’m pretty sure he gave that up as soon as he learned I’d be there. Again.
Liz’s brows knit over the bridge of her nose. “Your problem is with my brother?”
A flush crosses my face. “Yeah. He was definitely bothered by my presence the other time. So bothered he skipped last year’s. I don’t want to get in between your family time, Liz. Spend the weekends with your parents, then come back. I’m okay with being alone.”
She shakes her head again, harder this time. “No. Never mind my brother. He never said a thing against you, Cherry. He was bothered with something from work. Last year, he skipped because of work.”
I cock a brow. “You sure? Because he backed off the moment he learned I’d be there.”
Liz drops on the bed, next to me. “Cherry, he has no reason to dislike you. No one has. My mother complains because the world is not good enough for her. Let them be. Come make me company.” She closes her fingers around my knee. “Please?”
I bring the book up to my chest. As if it’s going to protect me from her pleading.
“Liz,” I beg, drawling out her name. “Let me stay.”
She pouts. “Are you going to let your best friend in the whole world drive upstate in the snow? By herself?”
Ouch. That hits a nerve.
Huffing as I drop my head back, all my walls come crumbling down. “Alright! Alright, I’ll go!”
Liz squeals and jumps over me, wrapping her arms around my neck. She presses a kiss to my cheek before she jumps back up.
“Perfect! Pack your stuff, we’re leaving in an hour!”
I have a whole list of other excuses I could try, but I drop them. Guess I’ll just have to put my big girl panties on and suffer through the weekend. At least I’ll be able to see Tyler again.
I wonder how he’s doing.
2
* * *
TYLER
I’m screwed.
Elizabeth has the ability to screw me up at the last minute. And that’s old news. She used to forget she had to buy something for school, or that she had a test, or that she needed a ride, and I’d be the one stepping in to help her through it. My parents are quite distant, and they’ve always been, so the big brother usually takes the role of helping the little sister.
I love her. She’s a fantastic person. But I sure wish she’d stop doing that.
She told me Cherry wasn’t coming this year. So I RSVPed and even invited them to my new place. They still haven’t seen it. I’ve been living here for a couple of years, but I don’t think Liz has ever driven this way. Even if she’s just a few hours away in Boston for college.
My parents live some states to the South, and I was surprised they accepted to come.
But all of that was because Cherry wasn’t coming.
I re-read the message, sure my eyes fool me.
Hey! Put an extra place on the table, Cherry is coming too! xx
I should have expected. I should have known Liz would find a way to bring her along.
Yes, Cherry’s her best friend and she has no family left, so it’s understandable she’s been spending the Holidays with us for all these years.
But last time I saw her, it was hell to conceal my real thoughts about the woman she had become.
To be precise, I had to change into jeans to hide the erection I sported any time I saw her.
The worst case of blue balls in the world. A whole weekend based on a painful erection that wouldn’t pass.
I had never jerked off so much. It was torture.
From imagining her heavy breasts around my cock to her round ass jiggling under my hands. I could almost taste her on my tongue.
Just from reading her name in the message, my cock has an instant reaction. It jerks to life, pressing against my fly, begging for release.
Pressing my fingertips against my eyes, I sigh. Cherry is lust embodied. She sets my whole body aflame, my heart skipping a beat, and I’ve never been one for dating.
But I can’t have her. She’s younger, way younger. As in eleven years younger. She
was a kindergarten while I picked out a college.
And she’s my sister’s best friend. It’s so fucking wrong I can’t even put it into words. Liz would never want to see me again if she learned the dirty things I imagine myself doing to Cherry. My parents would no doubt pin me for a perv.
Gripping the phone, I press down on my erection with a hand. This is going to be one hell of a long weekend. All I have to do is find a way to keep my hands off that thick body of hers.
3
* * *
CHERRY
Squinting to the street in front of us, I brush a hand against the windshield to clear up the fog.
“Slow down,” I tell Liz, eying my phone in my hand. “There’s a curve up ahead, we’ll turn right.”
Liz grins at me. “See? Aren’t you glad you came along? You’re protecting your dear friend from crashing her car and dying because she’d be looking at the GPS!”
A scowl forms in my face. “Liz! Don’t say something like that!”
“Like how?”
“Like it’s nothing!” I grunt, turning back to the GPS. “Whatever, I am glad, in fact. It’s snowing harder than I expected.”
“It is, right?”
We’re both leaning forward, squinting to the snowflakes hitting the glass. The sky above is an angry shade of gray that tells me the snow isn’t stopping anytime soon.
“Can I tell you a dirty secret?” Liz murmurs against the wheel, without looking at me.
“Of course,” the answer bursts from me without a second thought. She is my best friend, after all. Even if I’ve never told her my own dirty secret.
Her lips are pressed in a thin line as she shoots me a side-glance. “I insisted on your coming because I’m exhausted from my mother’s antics. When it’s just her and me, she gets so annoying I’d rather die. It always ends with screaming and hurting.” She sighs, “When you’re with me, it’s easier. She kind of shares the mean comments between the two of us, and I can turn to you and complain. It’s way easier when you’re with me.”
My heart swells with affection. I reach out and take her wrist in my hand. “Liz, you could’ve just told me that. I would’ve come without a second thought.” I realize how much of a selfish person I’ve been, just because I have a crush on her brother. She’d have to bear worse things in my absence. “Sorry if I wanted to stay behind. I didn’t know she was being this bad to you.”
“You’re not mad I’m using you?” She laughs. “You’re too good, Cherry.”
“No, I’m not,” I add in a murmur, looking back down at the GPS. “You want me there to support you. That’s what friends do. We’re almost there.”
Liz takes one last turn as we approach the address — an apartment block in what appears to be an expensive neighborhood. Tyler has always been a simple guy, walking around in jeans and a T-shirt, never flaunting his money, though I knew he had it. Last I heard, he was sitting on the board of directors in a finance company.
“Let him know we’re here, Cherry,” Liz gives me her phone as she drives over the causeway and approaches a security guard. She rolls down her window, and the cold air makes me grit my teeth as she gives our names to the man.
I unlock her phone, find the messenger app and then Tyler’s contact. I have to pry my eyes from the tiny picture next to his name, holding back the drive to click over it and check him out.
Though my fingers are numb, I quickly type “I’m here”. Before I send it, I delete the whole thing and type “we’re here”. It’s for the best for him to know that I have come too. For him to prepare himself to receive a person he disagrees with the presence in his family weekend.
Hesitation curls in my stomach as the security guard lets us in and we drive to the underground parking lot. We park in an area reserved for guests, stepping out of the car before I can feel any regret.
I’m here for Liz. That’s what matters.
We pick our bags and haul them over our shoulders before looking around for the elevator. Liz hooks her arm around mine.
“Thank you for coming,” she smiles as she takes her phone from me. “I’m dying to get out of this cold!”
“Me too. My fingers hurt,” I chuckle as we enter the elevator. “What floor?”
“The 22nd.”
“Wow, that’s pretty high up.” I tap the numbers in the keypad.
The word “password” blinks up in the small screen above the numbers. I frown to it.
“Password?” I ask Liz, still clinging to my arm.
“Oh!” She unlocks her phone and swipes at the screen of her chat with Tyler. “Yeah, he’s sent me that one.”
Password-protected, uh. This is so high-end.
We type in the password and the elevator takes us up without a sound. Before we know it, the doors open into a small hallway. There are only two doors in here, and it’s so much warmer than in the car.
There’s a small sideboard against the further wall with a vase full of orchids and a mirror above it. That’s all in the hallway apart from the doors and cameras.
As Liz approaches the door number one with decided steps, I shoot a quick look to the mirror, fixing my hair. My cheeks are pink from the cold but my hair’s still holding the curls I made before leaving.
I know I’m being silly. He’s a much older man, apparently rich, and my best friend’s brother. I’m an English major. That’s it. And I’m only a major because I managed a scholarship.
One can’t blame a girl for dreaming.
Liz rings the doorbell while I’m patting my hair in place for no reason. It’s just Liz’s brother. He’s seen me growing up. He wouldn’t look twice my way.
The door opens before I’m ready for it.
“Hey, Ty!”
“Hey. I’m glad you girls made it before the storm hits.”
His words are casual and his tone is easy.
But it has my whole body alert, my skin warm, my fingers tingling.
And maybe this weekend is going to be harder than I expected.
4
* * *
TYLER
My grip on the doorknob is what’s keeping me grounded.
I know I must resist her. I know this is all shades of wrong.
But the moment my eyes find her, I’m a goner. My breath hitches. My heart’s skipping like a motherfucker.
And my cock is the hardest it has ever been.
I let Liz hug me though I keep a distance. I’m swallowing hard, forcing myself to get a fucking grip.
Cherry’s cheeks are bright red from the cold. Her golden hair is curled away from her face, and I take her in, her beautiful eyes and her plump red lips. She’s covered in a heavy winter coat and yet, it manages to make her look hot. Her round hips and marked waist can’t be hidden. Can’t be concealed.
“You remember Cherry, right?” Liz chuckles, jutting a thumb out over her shoulder. “Even if you skipped family Holidays last year.”
If I remember Cherry. I scoff because all I’ve been doing since two years ago is trying to forget her.
Trying to forget how much I want her. How much I thirst for a single taste of her.
Balancing what I should do, I bare my teeth in my best impression of a smile. I want to hug her. Feel her curves against my body and smell her scent. I want to press my hard-on against her and let her know I’m barely holding back. And just because Liz’s here.
What I should do, because I’m pretty sure my whole body is going to combust if I touch her like that, is nothing. I should nod and welcome her inside and run the hell away to the bathroom so I can jerk off.
That could come off as rude. Liz would freak out too. She’s already asked me a couple of times to treat Cherry well.
If only she knew how well I wanted to treat Cherry.
So I shoot out my free hand, while the other still grips the doorknob until my knuckles bleach. “Hey, Cherry. Good to see you again.”
Cherry steps closer and opens the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. She curls her
small fingers around mine and shakes my hand. “Good to see you too, Tyler.”
Her fingers send a shiver up my body, and fuck, my cock is furious with me. It’s screaming for me to take this woman. To ignore how forbidden she is and just take her.
Gritting my teeth, I pull back and wave them inside. The two stand gawking at my place. I’ve never been one to show off my money, but I’ve had investors in, several times, and I decided it would be good to show them how well the company managed to pay me. How well the company was faring so I could live like this.
“Damn, Ty, this place is awesome.” Liz stretches a grin, dropping her bag and taking her coat off. “It’s huge, but it’s still so warm in here.”
I lift a shoulder in a shrug. “You know I’ve never been one to freeze my ass off. Even less when I’m at home.”
Meeting Cherry’s eyes, I notice she’s gripping her bag, and not freeing herself of her heavy coat. Conflicting desires war inside me.
I want her to take it off. I want every glimpse of her skin and her frame. If that’s all I can have, I want it.
But it’s for the best if she doesn’t. My mouth’s dry. My hand’s still warm where her fingers curled around mine.
“Where are we going to stay?” Liz picks her bag up and ambles toward the inner corridor, her gaze darting from side to side, taking the place in.
“This way,” I motion and take the lead. She’s barely arrived and I’m already having problems to deal with this. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.
“What’s this?” Liz’s voice rings from behind me. I stop and look over my shoulder, finding her staring into my office.
“Just a home office. Sometimes I have to do some work over the weekends.”
“Fancy as hell,” Liz chuckles, looking over her shoulder to Cherry. “Don’t you think, Cherry?”
Cherry’s eyes are wide as she sees something inside the place. I mentally check all the things I have in there, hoping there’s nothing that would scare her off.
