Sleep was a luxury Sammie Barrett couldn't afford.
Sometime around 2am she had given up, desperate to leave the bed that still smelt of her earlier orgasm and thoughts of Jake and showered, diligently washing the racy, sexy Sammie down the plug hole. Two large mugs of coffee later and she was wide awake, curled up on the sofa waiting for Rosie to come home and sanity to return.
Jake Edwards was too much temptation.
There were just certain things you didn't do. You don't sleep with your friend's exes, you don't flirt with their husbands or boyfriends and you sure as hell don't try to seduce their brothers!
Okay, so Jake had been her teenage crush, the one male she gravitated towards however shyly. Furtive peeks at him in his swimming trunks had flung her headlong into her initiation into masturbation. At 15, Jake Edwards had made her a women, his beautiful grin as she and Rosie left for the school disco made her feel like a princess. At 17, it was Jake who held her hair as she vomited copiously after ingesting too much cider at a house party and sweetly wiped her face telling her she'd be okay.
And at 21... her 21st birthday party, held in a local pub where Rosie had decried that Sammie had to kiss 21 men or forfeit all her gifts, well Jake had been the only man she wanted to kiss and the only one to decline. Even now, she recalled his sad smile as he hugged her and told her she was special and beautiful and... He'd kissed her forehead and wished her a Happy Birthday before sending her out into the room to kiss a myriad of strangers, a dark look on his face.
Sammie had spent months brooding on that look, trying to find something meaningful in it and failing. Soon after she met Richard and the rest was history, Richard who treated her nicely and screwed her with military precision and left her wanting.
Sammie sniffed as the tears started to fall, Richard wasn't a bad man, he just wasn't the right man. He never had been and never could be. For Sammie, it had always been Jake but even at 15, Sammie knew that her best friend's brother was out of bounds. So why the hell was she here now, at 28, still playing with fire.
It wasn't that Rosie would disapprove; in fact Sammie was fairly certain she'd be delighted that Jake wasn't screwing around like a tomcat or still pining over evil Olivia. Even Jake's parent's would be happy, they'd always treated Sammie like part of the family and still did, they'd probably be over the moon that they'd hooked up.
And that was just the problem. Sammie took a slug of her now cold coffee, what exactly were they? For her part Jake was everything. The love of her life, the only man to make her feel... anything.
She adored him, his humour, his almost six pack abs, the fact that at 6'2" he made her 5'7" frame seem dainty. She loved that he was so honest in his intentions, that he used words that shocked and aroused her. Placing her cup on the coffee table Sammie sobbed, allowing her tears into free fall. She loved him... and that was definitely not a good thing at all.
She had no idea what Jake wanted. He'd left years ago to move to America following the love of his life and had returned months ago, broken and intent on fucking his pain away. Sammie wanted to help him more than she wanted her next breath but at this point she didn't know whether she fell into friend or fuck buddy territory. Neither one would end well for her.
Blinking dumbly Sammie sat up on the sofa as Rosie breezed into the flat. A glance at her phone told Sammie it was just after 6am and Rosie had that freshly fucked glow about her. Sitting up she took a moment to enjoy the flicker of shame on her best friends face,
"What time do you call this Rosie Puds?"
"Samurai... What are you doing up?"
"Well I was waiting for my best friend to get home safe and sound and intact. So... how was he?"
Rosie shrugged as she popped a coffee pod into the machine and pressed the button. Sammie stared at her, amused that she could act so high and mighty when just hours before she had been so unrestrained... with Jake.
Coffee made, Rosie flopped onto the sofa next to her, the tiredness visible on her face,
"Dating sucks Sammie! I may never do it again! Online he seemed great, funny, smart, just the right side of suggestive. We had a few drinks and I'm thinking this could be great, he looked like his profile picture and he seemed to have all his own teeth. We agreed to have dinner and dinner turned to more drinks and when he asked me back to his I was totally up for it!"
Sammie reached for Rosie's hand and squeezed,
"The sex was good Sammie. Better than good. He did everything right. Lots of kissing and stroking, he went down on me and he made me come! And as he entered me, I actually trembled. I've never had a man that big before and I was shocked at how full I felt. He actually held my face in his hands as he did it, kissing me and calling me beautiful as we screwed..."
"And..."
Rosie sniffed and Sammie hugged her, bundling her up in her arms as Rosie's tears spilled down her cheeks,
"Within minutes, he was out of bed, wrapping the condom in a tissue and telling me his wife was due back from her night shift in 20 minutes and that I had to leave...For fucks sake Sammie! Who does that?!"
Sammie held her as Rosie sobbed and trembled in her arms, angry beyond measure that her spunky confident friend could be so hurt by some assholes action's. She thought of Jake, of his kindness, his patience and felt her nipples bud. Pulling back she wiped Rosie's tears away and collected their empty cups,
"This needs something stronger than coffee Rosie Puds. Tequilla?"
...
Stock taking was a pain in the ass at the best of times, but hung-over? Sammie looked down at her inventory sheet and swallowed, to call it a hangover may be an overstatement, she was fairly certain she was still drunk.
She and Rosie had sunk half a bottle of Jose Cuervo as Rosie threatened Armageddon on her date's oversized genitals before Sammie poured her into her bed. Thankfully Rosie had the day off but as Sammie stood under the shower spray, each bead of water hitting her skin like a malevolent bullet , she thought of the callousness of Rosie's beau and the sweetness of Jake.
Hours later, after calling home and finding Rosie's mood brighter, Sammie stared down at the stock sheet and sighed. 11am and the fog of alcohol finally lifting she felt physically better but still as heartsick. She wanted Jake, that wasn't in doubt at all. But she wanted Jake in the hearts and flowers, happily ever sense and that made it trickier.
No-one could predict the future and whilst she knew they would have fun in the interim, Sammie just didn't see Jake as a long term bet. And then what... One of them would have to move out, friendships would dissolve and she'd end up sobbing into her wine glass listening to The Smiths as Rosie told her of the multitude of women he took to his bed.
Sammie wasn't a fling type of girl, Richard had been her first and only lover and aside from a few drunken snogs over the years, she was the archetypal Good Girl. Rosie and Sophia may have the confidence to date and screw with abandon but Sammie wasn't cut from the same cloth. As much as she wanted Jake to make good on his promises it would probably be wiser to end it now, before anyone, namely her, got hurt.
Grabbing her bag Sammie decided to grab an early lunch and see if Sophia wanted to join her. Switching on her phone she stared down at the list of notifications on the screen. Jake!
Blindly she tapped in her passcode and held her breath as she scrolled through,
"Morning Sammie. Have to admit I slept like a baby... but would have been even better if you'd been in my arms when I woke up... x"
