Friends Upgrade (2 page)

One thing he knew for certain, he got rock hard the moment he touched, thought about, or came near her. He just wanted to know if she felt the same.

“That’s what Kate says,” she continued. “The others just agree.” She gently pushed him aside, putting away more makeup.

That brief touch made his body go up in flames. “I see.
All
women?”

Judith paused, her back towards him. “W-what do you mean?”

“I mean, are you one of those many women?”

She turned around, her eyes wider than the makeup compacts she carried. Great, his ego deflated ten notches.

“Doug, you’re my friend, my pal, my buddy. I wouldn’t degrade you by looking at you like some object.”

Please, degrade me
. “So you just see me as a brother?”

“Not like that. Something closer. I would like to think that we’re BFFs.” She smiled at him.

“Hmm.” He thought closer would be the lover category.

“What’s the matter?” Judith approached him, dropping a compact on the way.

“I would think your BFFs wore dresses like yourself.”
And that dress is H-O-T.
Her pink jersey dress clung to her curves like saran wrap, accentuating her full hips, round ass, and juicy thighs. Pink became Doug’s favorite color.

“Doug, we’ve know each other for over ten, thirteen years or so. Everyone can see we’re best buds.”

He didn’t know about her friends, but his thought they had sex every night. It got to the point he had to defend her honor, yet they weren’t doing anything! He picked up the dropped compact. “I know, and believe me, I cherish our friendship. But a guy likes to know if he’s attractive to
all
women, including his best friend. I find you attractive. Let’s face it, we’re two attractive thirty-something young people. No problem in verbalizing that to each other once in a while.”

“Don’t remind me that I’ll be thirty-four next month.” She shook her head.

“I’m staring at forty by Christmas. But I’d like to think I still have it. Call it male ego mixed in with the fear of middle age.” He laughed.

“Look, if it makes you feel any better, I do find you very attractive. You’re gorgeous. What woman doesn’t like the tall, dark, and dangerous looking man, with light blue eyes and the face of a Greek god? It’s just that I see you as a person as a whole, not as a sexual object. And sex ruins everything anyway. Understand?” She walked to the kitchen with the plates she used for finger foods.

“Yeah, I understand. I just don’t like it,” Doug said under his breath.
Greek god? Wow
.

So she’d pulled the old, “sex-will-ruin-the-friendship” thing. Why did women play that card?

He followed her in the kitchen and helped her put the plates in the dishwasher. He would let it go for now. She’d thrown up the roadblock. Translation: R
OAD
C
LOSED
.

“So where you want to go for dinner?”

“Don’t know. I kinda stuffed myself with the finger foods.” She chuckled.

“I have a feeling after walking around the mall, your appetite will return.” He snatched a deviled egg off one of the plates.

“You’re right about that. Okay.” She clapped. “Let me go upstairs and change, and I’ll be ready to go.”

Doug watched as she made her way up the stairs. Her nice round ass, swaying with each step, called to him. Answering, he followed her to her bedroom and found Judith standing in front of her mirror fixing her face. He stood in the doorway watching every delicate movement.

Judith turned quickly, that beautiful face staring at him. “What is it?” She pulled up her curly hair. The mass of thick dark brown spirals flopped around as she pulled them up into a ponytail.

“Just watching you get ready. Kinda sexy.” Doug always itched to touch her hair, and not just to help her put it in a ponytail, but to run his hands through those soft spirals as he made love to her.

She smirked. “I think you could find something sexier to look at than me trying to tame this mane.”

“I think everything you do is sexy.”

She stopped fixing her hair and let it fall to her shoulders. “Doug....”

“Come on. Can’t I throw you a sincere compliment?” He leaned against the doorway, entranced by her primping. He hated it when she tried to brush his comments off as jokes.

“I don’t know when to take you seriously, that’s all.”

So that’s it. Doug thought a moment. He needed to come up with an idea. Whatever he came up with, there wouldn’t be any room for misunderstanding and she would know his true intentions. He needed something good.

“Say, when is your vacation? In two weeks, right?”

“Yep. Two weeks of sitting around not doing a damn thing.” She smiled from ear to ear as she pinned her hair and finished putting on her makeup.

Doug walked into the room, but stopped directly behind her to watch as she put on her lipstick. The deep red cream smoothed over her luscious lips, making him lick his own.

How many nights had he tossed and turned, thinking about those lips all over his body. Thinking about that gorgeous mouth wrapped around his shaft. He’d come to the conclusion a long time ago that Judith had the perfect mouth. It complemented her tawny smooth skin, large doe eyes, and high cheekbones that accentuated her African-American and Indian heritage. Mother Nature couldn’t make anything more beautiful.

She put on some eye shadow, which made her eyes really pop.

A true beauty and his best friend, but he wanted her to be more. He’d wanted more since three summers ago when they went to Italy, but she’d hooked up with an Italian-American visiting his grandparents, and didn’t break up with the punk until last summer. That had to be the most wretched time in his life. He had to feign happiness for her every time they’d shown up.

This plan of action would take careful wording and preparation.

“You’re just going to stay home and do nothing? What kind of a vacation is that?” He sat on the edge of her bed.

“A vacation away from screaming customers and crazy bosses.” She turned and grabbed her purse, which sat beside him.

“Nah, that’s no good. You should at least do
something,
that way when you come back from vacation you won’t feel as though you wasted your time.”

“I just want to rest. You know how busy it is at that place.”

Judith landed a job as an insurance adjuster, becoming one of the best in her company, and the West Coast, for that matter. But the title came with more responsibility and more customers. Sometimes she would come home, call him and fall asleep on the phone. She needed this overdue vacation badly.

“You do realize that you will be just as busy at home, even though you are trying to relax.” Doug helped her on with her jacket.

“How so?”

“Think about it. You still have to get up and cook, clean, things like that. If you really want to do nothing, I have a better suggestion.”
And it’s one that will have you alone with me.

“A maid?”

They took the elevator to the parking lot and got in Doug’s Porsche. Doug laughed as he helped her inside before sliding in the driver’s seat. “No, not a maid, but close,” he said as they drove off.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. There’s this new bed and breakfast that just opened. It’s in the Santa Rosa Hills, near the vineyards and it overlooks the ocean.”

“I heard about that.”

“Really? What have you heard?” He might have to go to plan B if she knew anything about this place. Only problem, he didn’t have a plan B.

“Not much since it just opened, and I’ve been too busy to check it out. And honestly, I never considered going there. I don’t have enough time to make plans like that.”

Judith, the dedicated workaholic. That had to change. “You have time now, and I’m going to make sure of it. I hear the views are spectacular. They have a day spa and they wait on you hand and foot.”

“Sounds like heaven.” She sighed wistfully.

“I think it’s perfect. All you have to do is check in. They do the rest.”

“Hmm, maybe I might look into that.”

Look into it, my foot
. Doug wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip through his hands. This would be the first time in years they had time together—alone. “Tell you what. Let me take care of all your vacation arrangements. I’ll be your personal travel agent. Just leave everything up to me.”

“You are too good to me. I can’t even begin to know how to repay you.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way, hon.” Doug smiled.

They arrived at the mall and figured they must be giving stuff away. He had never seen so many people milling around the place without it being holiday shopping time. After window-shopping at a few new stores, they finally made their way to the handbag boutique.

Judith made a beeline to the purse she coveted. “Isn’t it dreamy?”

Doug looked at it. Not that impressive, he thought. But then, what did he really know about ladies handbags? This had leather croc embossed details with different colors, from blue, orange, red and green. Nothing spectacular. But it brought a smile to her face and that’s all that mattered.

She took the bag to the counter. The clerk went to the back and brought out a new one, all wrapped up and in a gift box.

“That will be eight-fifty-two, twenty-nine,” the clerk said with a hint of haughtiness.

Before Judith could get out her checkbook, Doug whipped out his credit card.

“Doug....”

“Happy birthday, hon.”

“Oh, Doug, thank you.” She stood on her tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek.

How nice, Doug thought wearily.

The clerk rang up the purchase, placed it in yet another fancy bag and handed it to her. As Doug headed out the store, he overheard the clerk whisper to Judith, “He’s a keeper.”

Doug could have thumped his chest in the middle of the mall.

At the food court, he and Judith decided there wasn’t anything there that made their mouths water. “Let’s go to the sushi bar up the street,” Doug said, as he turned up his nose at the various food places.

“Okay.”

Once there, they took a private booth instead of the bar. Doug and Judith grabbed their sushi menus and studied them.

“Thanks again.” Judith said. “That was so sweet of you. I can pick up the tab for the bed and breakfast.”

“No way. Consider that as part of your birthday present.” Doug reached for the pencil to mark his menu. “And speaking of your vacation, would you like some company?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I thought about leaving the shop for a couple of weeks myself. I have enough work to leave the guys. They don’t need me there at the moment.” Doug marked his menu and set it aside while waiting for Judith to make her choices.

“Wow, when was the last time
you
took a vacation?” She put more of her packages on the floor so she could sit more comfortably in the booth.

“That’s my point. I need one, too. I can’t be detailing cars twenty-four/seven you know.”
And I just want a few moments with you—alone.

“So, you’re actually considering coming to a bed and breakfast?”

I’ll consider going to Iraq, as long as you’re there.
“Sure, why not? Guys like pampering, too.”

Judith nodded. She marked her menu sheet for the sushi she wanted and handed it to Doug, who then handed it to the waiter.

“You know, it might be fun. I would love your company.”

Like another girlfriend, he mentally groaned. “Great. Then I’ll make reservations for both of us tomorrow. Since we’re calling two weeks in advance, we should be able to decide on the packages we want. They have themes, you know.”

“You’re the travel agent,” Judith said. “Try to make sure we have a room right next to each other. If this place is that popular, it might be hard to do, so calling two weeks in advance is a good idea.”

Doug smiled to himself. “Yeah, it might be real hard at that. I hope I can swing it. Just remind me first thing in morning.” Of course no matter how early he called, there would only be one room available for the both of them.

Perfect.

Chapter Two

“Back to the old grindstone tomorrow,” Doug said, driving back to Judith’s condo.

“Ugh. And I was enjoying myself. You know I have a calendar on my wall at work, and I cross off the days. It looks like a prison calendar marking off the time for my release.”

Doug laughed, giving her the warm fuzzies as usual.

“The days will fly by before you know it.” He pulled into her parking lot.

Judith gathered her all her packages together while he got out of the car to open the door for her.

Judith glanced at her watch as they headed for the lobby, trying to get a better grip on her stash. “Wow, I didn’t realize how late it was.” “Here.” Doug grabbed most of her bags. “Let’s get you upstairs and tucked into bed,” he teased.

She smiled, as she watched him juggle her bags. Always the gentlemen. Chivalry will never die on his watch. At the door, Judith took out her key, unlocked it and walked in. Doug moved past her and placed her packages on the couch, doing a quick scan of her place.

Judith shook her head. “All clear?”

“Hey, you never know. Someone can come pass that security guard.”

“True.” She stretched out her arms and yawned. “I’m pooped, so let me take a bath and hit the sack.” She took off her jacket while walking Doug to the door. “Thank you again. That was too sweet of you.” She stood on her tiptoes again, aiming to kiss the corner of his mouth.

This time Doug redirected the kiss. He grabbed her face with both hands, taking her lips in his mouth. It was a deep, slow, sultry kiss. A kiss that said more than, “I’m your best friend.”

Judith’s brain cells attempted to reconnect. She didn’t know what to do with her arms at first. Let them fall to the sides or wrap them around his neck? She slowly crept them up and wrapped them around his neck, allowing her fingers to find their way to his thick dark, wavy mane. After raking her fingers through his hair for a few seconds, she slid her hands down and found his face, rubbing over the scruffy surface of his impending five o’clock shadow, some of it tickling the palms of her hands.