“Have you fucked him yet?”

“Oh for crying out loud, Christian…” I groaned and threw a couch throw pillow at his head.  Vinnie and I were over at Christian’s for our weekly dinner date and because I’d been spending a lot of time with Kevin, Christian decided to interrogate me.

“So that’s a yes…” Christian said and laughed as he put the pillow under his arm.

“No it’s not…” I told him and took a drink of my wine.  I looked at Josef who was returning to the living room with a fresh bottle of wine.  He refilled my glass, “Tell him to stop picking on me…”

Josef smiled at me then looked at Christian, “Stop picking on her…”

I smiled and blew Josef a kiss, “Thank you…” 

He nodded and refilled Christian’s glass as well as his own before sitting down next to Christian, “What are you picking on her for now?”

“I just asked her if she’s fucked our hot neighbor yet…” Christian stated matter-of-factly.

“Ooh, what did you say?” Josef asked as his face lit up and he looked at me eagerly.

“Hey!  You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Oh honey, I am.  But I’ve seen Kevin and if you’re not fucking him yet you’re insane.  Yesterday I went down to the pool to do some laps and he was down there too.” He fanned himself with his hand and shook his head, “Sweet Jesus he’s pretty when he’s wet…”  I couldn’t disagree, I flashed back to the day that Kevin had been dipped in the ocean thanks to Vinnie and the thought made me sigh.  “He had a treasure trail that was pure heaven…”

“Excuse me, you whore…” Christian said with a laugh.  “You are sitting next to your boyfriend, you know?”

Josef laughed, “Yeah but Kevin’s straight so I get a free pass to look and drool… Kel will fuck him and we’ll live vicariously through her.”

I groaned again and rolled my eyes, “I’m not fucking him.”

“Why the hell not?” Christian and Josef asked in unison and then cracked up.

I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of them giggling like fools together.  They were so in love with one another it was almost sickening.  “’I’m just not…”

“Have you kissed him?” Josef asked after taking a drink of his wine.  The blush that spread across my cheeks gave him my answer.  “You have… good girl.”

“Have you seen him naked?” Christian asked with a giggle.

“No.”

“Damn,” he sighed.  “You’ve got work to do, my love.”

“Yeah I do… which is precisely why I’m not hooking up with Kevin.  I’ve got three weeks before my book hits the shelves, I’ve got plenty of work to do.”  I hid my face behind my wine glass as I took a long drink.

“That’s not the work I was talking about and you know it…” Christian said and rolled his eyes.  “Why must you be so difficult?”

“Because it’s more fun that way…” I said with a grin and blew him a kiss.

“So, Kel…” Josef said with a thoughtful look on his face.  “What’s his story?  Why is he here for the summer?”

“Hell if I know…” I said and shrugged my shoulders.  “He’s just told me that he is here for the summer while Ro’ is gone.”

“That’s it?  What the hell do you two do all of the time you’re together?”

Christian seemed to think that because I’d cancelled on him and Josef once in the past week that it meant I was “always” with Kevin.  It wasn’t exactly true although I was spending a lot of time with the Heartthrob and having a great time doing so.  “We’re not together that much, Chris.  And we just hang out.  We take Vin for w-a-l-k-s,” I spelled so not to get Vinnie all excited about going outside.  “It’s really nothing special.”

“Except for the kisses…” Josef added with a smile.

“Well yeah…” I smiled back.

“Have you Googled him, yet?”

“No, and I’m not going to.  We made a deal to not Google one another for information.”

Christian rolled his eyes at me, “Oh how sweet… Well thankfully I haven’t made a deal with him and I did in fact Google the boy.”

“I don’t want to hear it…” I said and covered my ears.

“He gets his eyebrows waxed…”

“I can’t hear you…” I said still covering my ears.  “La, la, la, la, la…”

“He’s from Kentucky but hasn’t lived there in ages…”

“La, la, laaaaaaaa…”

“And he has a third nipple…”

“He does not!” I said and laughed.

“I thought you weren’t listening to me…” Christian said with a grin.

“I’m not.  Leave him alone.  He’s a nice guy.”

“Don’t you want to know about his wife?”

My heart did a somersault and my head swam.  I wrote it off as too much wine on too little food, but I knew that wasn’t it.  Kevin hadn’t mentioned his wife, Kristin, at all in the time he’d been in Daytona.  He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, but I didn’t know him well enough to know if he ever had worn a ring.  I constantly wondered if I was “The Other Woman” and he was cheating on his wife with me.  But truth be told, I didn’t want to know.  I didn’t want to find out that I‘d been snogging a married man and he’d been hiding his wife from me.  I wanted Kevin to stay perfect so I didn’t ask.  “No.  I don’t want to know.  If he wants me to know, he’ll tell me…”

“Whatever, you little home wrecker…” Christian teased.

“Bite me…” I said and took my wine out onto the patio balcony that looked out over the ocean.  Each of the condos in the building had a balcony facing the beach and the view was by far one of the best features of the building.

Vinnie followed me out onto the patio and made himself at home on a lounge.  I smiled at him and then watched the waves trying not to think about Kevin and his alleged wife.  It didn’t work for long though because within moments I heard Vinnie’s tail smacking the lounge as he began wagging it and I looked at him to see what had his attention.  It was Kevin, who’d apparently chosen that moment to step out onto his own balcony, or Roland’s as it were.

“Well hello, Stranger…” he said with a smile.

“Hey…” I smiled back and I felt that all too familiar tingle rush through my body just looking at him. 

“Hey, Vinnie…” he said reaching over the wall to pet Vinnie’s head.  Vinnie licked his hand and I chuckled thinking about how when I saw Kevin I typically felt like licking him too.

“What’cha been up to?” I asked and then took a long drink of my wine.  I hadn’t seen him in like a whole day and I imagined him saying something like, ‘Oh, I’ve just reunited with my wife, I’m going home to her in the morning… How about you?’

“Reading…” he smiled.

“Oh yeah? Anything good?”  I knew books, I could talk about books.

“Yeah… it’s your book.”

“Mine?”  I asked with a shocked face.

“Yup… I was at Publix the other day picking up some food and I saw it so I bought it.

“You didn’t have to buy it, I could have given you a copy,” I said with an embarrassed smile.

“Nah, it’s cool… I’m supporting your work this way.”

I shrugged but smiled, “Whatever… so which book is it?”

“Tuesday Morning… it’s amazing.”

More blushing and embarrassment on my behalf.  “Thanks.”

“I’ll probably finish it tonight… Oh and my mom wants your autograph.”

I looked at him and couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear once I saw the grin on his face, “Oh yeah?”

He nodded, “I told her on the phone the other day that I’d met you and she went on for ten minutes about how much she loves your writing and wants your autograph.”

“That’s sweet…” I smiled and looked into my wine glass.  It was amazing how interesting the inside of a wine glass was when I was feeling embarrassed.  “I’ll hook her up… I’ll even send her the new book.  I got a box of advanced copies in the mail today to taunt people with.”

“You’ll be her hero…”

Christian walked out onto the patio totally oblivious to the fact that Kevin was standing there, “Dude… are you that pissed off at me?  You’ve been out here forever… I didn’t mean it, I just think he’s hot and you should…”

“Christian…” I said and practically ran to cover his mouth with my hand.  I knew for a fact that had I not put my hand over his mouth he would have said something to totally embarrass me.  “You know Kevin, right?”

Christian’s eyes grew wide as he looked over at Kevin and then he laughed behind my hand as he pushed my hand away, “Hey there, Neighbor!  Sorry, I didn’t see you there…”

“No problem… how are you?”

“Good… hey, have you eaten dinner?  Josef is cooking a feast for us… you’re welcome to join.”

“Oh I don’t want to intrude…” Kevin said politely.  Such a gentleman.

“You’re not intruding if you’re invited.  Come on, we should have invited you anyway… We get Josef to cook for us at least once a week and tonight is the night for this week, we’ll have enough food to feed an army. ”

I smiled and looked at Kevin, “Josef’s a big famous retired chef, and he’s amazing.”

“Exactly… and you’d be a fool to pass up a free Josef meal… Hop the wall and come join us,” Christian added.

Kevin nodded and smiled, “Okay… you’ve twisted my arm.  But at least let me bring a bottle of wine…”

“We never turn down wine, do we Kel?” Christian asked with a grin.

I held up my half empty glass, “Heck no… bring it on…”

An hour and a half later we’d downed another bottle of wine and stuffed ourselves with the feast that Josef had prepared for us.  We practically rolled ourselves from the dining room into the living room and all got real comfy on the couches in the living room.  I kicked back on one couch, my head resting on the cushions as I curled my legs up onto the couch with me and Vinnie plopped himself next to me to snooze.  Kevin shared the couch with us while Josef and Christian took the opposite couch.

“I honestly can’t remember when I’ve eaten so much food…” I sighed.

“Me neither…” Kevin added with his own sigh.  “It was amazing though… thank you again for inviting me to join you.”

“You’re quite welcome…” Christian said. 

Josef stretched out putting his feet on the big thick wooden coffee table that sat in the middle of the couches, “We do this once a week.  While you’re staying here you should make it a habit to join us.  Roland typically joins us if he’s in town so you might as well take his place.”

I rolled my head to the side and looked at Kevin, “We don’t always eat this much… we eat well, but not in such bulk.”

“That’s good.  I’m not sure if I’m even going to need to eat again until next week,” Kevin said and laughed at his own joke.  It was adorable.  “So, Josef you used to cook in New York?”

“I did…” Josef said as Christian decided to lie across the couch resting his head on Josef’s thigh.  Josef’s fingers played in Christian’s brown wavy hair while he spoke.  “I had my own restaurant for ten years and then decided that I didn’t want to do it anymore.  The restaurant is still there and technically it’s mine, but I’m down here of course so I’m not there watching everything like a hawk.  Every now and then I go up and check on things though.”

“What is the restaurant called?”

“Gnosh…” Christian said with a chuckle and I smiled.  “Cause when you go there all you can do is stuff your face.”

Josef rolled his eyes, “It’s Noche’.  Forgive Chris, he’s a bit foolish when he drinks too much.”

“You own Noche’?” Kevin asked with a surprised look on his face.  “I’ve been there, it’s amazing.  No wonder tonight’s dinner was so great.”

“Thank you, again,” Josef said and smiled.  Despite the fact that he was an amazing and pretty well known chef, Josef was still shy and often didn’t believe compliments when they were given to him.  Sorta like me when people tell me that they like my books.  “But yeah, the restaurant is my baby.”

Christian piped in, “Josef worked there when he was still in cooking school and was taught all of the tricks by this chef named Roma who owned the place at the time.  Roma, that was his last name not his first… I always forget the guys first name… whatever, so this Roma dude took Joey under his wing and pretty much made him the main uh… what’s the word I’m looking for?”

“Apprentice…” I said grinning at Christian’s inability to tell a story when he was drunk.

“Yeah… so Josef was the star pupil and eventually was running the place.  But then Roma was diagnosed with the big C and after a year he died.  Roma left the whole restaurant to Josef making him one of the youngest chefs in the history of Manhattan to have a five star restaurant.”  Josef rolled his eyes again as Christian told the story and I winked at him with a smile.  “So Noche’ was this major success before but once Josef took over it just blew up and was one of those places that had month-long waiting lists to get a reservation to…”

“But when Christian and I were students at NYU Josef decided to do a very cool thing,” I said jumping in.  “He set aside a section of tables that could only be reserved by students.  So Christian and I would try our best to make sure that once a month one of us were on the reservation list so we could go feast.  After the first two or three times that we ate there, we met Josef when he was walking around the restaurant greeting people and seeing if they enjoyed their dinners.  Christian promptly fell in lust with Josef and applied for a job at the restaurant so he could be around Josef more.”

Josef laughed, “He was the worst server I’ve ever had work for me…”

I laughed along with Josef and Kevin smiled listening to us, “Yes, but they fell in love and then Josef fired Chris and we stuck to just eating there.”

“So how long have you guys been down here?” Kevin asked. 

“About five years.  We followed Kellie down here.”

“They couldn’t live without me…” I smiled and took a sip of my wine.  The food was settling, I had room for wine again.

“Very cool…” Kevin said with a nod.  His arm was resting on the back of the couch and he absentmindedly reached out to push a stray curl out of my face.  “So what’s your story?  Why did you leave New York?  Not that I’m blaming you, this place is a hell of a lot more beautiful and peaceful.  But I seem to recall a bright eyed girl telling me at a party a long time ago how much she loved living in New York and how it inspired her writing.”  He smiled at me and those damn green eyes of his twinkled in the light of the candles in the room, I swear they did.

I didn’t typically spill my story to just anyone but I’d been drinking a lot that night and well, Kevin was hot and had a way of looking at me and making me want to tell him my deep dark secrets to him so when he asked, I started talking.  “I couldn’t stay there after 9/11.  I tried, but I couldn’t do it.  I’d been there for eight years by the time I left, and it’ll always be one of my homes, but I had to leave.”

Kevin nodded and touched my temple with his fingertips, “I get that… I didn’t live in the city until after 9/11 but I bet it would have been hard to stay if I’d been there when it happened.”

I nodded and my head was suddenly filled with images of my brother.  Good images, happy ones of things we’d done and shared over the time that he lived in New York with me.  Those things quickly vanished though as I relived watching the Trade Center buildings fall to the ground from my apartment window knowing that as I watched I was watching my brother die.  My eyes filled with tears and I closed my eyes.  One tear ran down the cheek that was thankfully facing away from Kevin and I wiped at it quickly hoping that he didn’t notice.  It was simply too early to start crying on him and I wasn’t ready to talk to him about Sean.  I looked across the way to Christian and gave him a look that said, “Help me before I tell him my whole story and sit here crying all night!”

He sat up and smiled, “So… who wants dessert?”

Okay so he wasn’t the best at smooth transitions, but he was my best friend and I loved him.  “I totally forgot about the cake!”  In celebration of my latest book being done and about to hit the stores Josef had made his famous carrot cake for us for dessert. 

“Are you kidding me?” Kevin laughed.  “More food?”

“Oh it’s not food…” I said with a grin.  “It’s sex in a pan.  It’s the most erotic, orgasmic combination of ingredients that you’ll ever put in your mouth.  Once you taste it, you’ll forget that you were ever full and you’ll forever be addicted.”

“She’s right…” Christian said as he stood up and started toward the kitchen to get the cake.  “I get a hard on just thinking about this cake.  Kevin, you’re going to love it.”

I laughed like a fool as I watched the look on Josef’s face and he shook his head, “And that’s the man I’ve committed my life to…”