Chapter 9

Sienna yanked off her shoes and resisted the urge to throw them at the wall. The nerve of the man! She’d been working up a good steam, and he’d looked at her with those anguished, blue eyes, and she’d melted. Why the hell did he have to be so goddamn flawed? She’d always had a soft spot for flawed men.

“Yeah, and look where that’s gotten you,” she said to herself. “Nowhere. That’s what. Idiot. Flaming, fucking idiot. In capital letters.”

She shrugged off the dress and pulled on shorts and a tank top then walked around her house, watering the plants. As she watered, she turned on the Save the Last Dance soundtrack and danced.

“Hello, Viola,” she murmured to the African violet on her mantle. “How are you doing? I hope you like this water.”

She had just finished up watering the plants when her doorbell rang. Wondering who the hell could be ringing her doorbell at—she checked the clock—one in the morning, she cautiously opened the door.

“Hi,” Brian said, shivering on her porch. “How’s it going? Mom told me where you lived. I came to get my birthday present.”

Sienna’s brows lifted. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I went through every present in the last hour, and I didn’t find a single one from you. I thought you might have forgotten it at home, so I came to get it,” Brian explained.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?”

Brian shook his head. “Nope. Pay up.”

“Okay, first of all, I wasn’t even planning on going tonight, but your mom insisted. And, second of all, I thought, why bother getting the guy, who can buy himself everything, a present? I mean, seriously. So, no, there really is no present,” Sienna finished.

“Fine, okay, that’s fine,” Brian said. “Then I have a request. There is something you can give me that doesn’t require buying anything.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“One night.”

“Excuse me?” Sienna felt outrage bubbling inside her.

Brian grinned. “Stop being so dirty. I want one night to talk to you. Just talk. I feel this incredible connection to you, so I want to develop it.”

“Well for God’s sake, come inside, before I freeze standing here,” Sienna grumbled as she let him in and hung his coat on the coat rack.

He wandered around the living room and looked at everything. Then he turned back to her.

“Wow, this place is gorgeous. It’s very you. All the flowers and colors.”

“Yeah, I personally like the red, yellow, and orange, too,” Sienna muttered, then yanked a robe out of her closet and pulled it on, so she wouldn’t feel naked around him. The man had a way of doing that to you when he looked at you. Especially if you were only wearing a tank top and shorts.

She watched Brian plop down onto a couch and grin at her.

“Well? Talk,” she said, irritated. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do with you! Jesus. Did you want something to drink, too? Water, soda, cocoa, coffee, alcohol?”

“Nope, just you. Sit, sit,” Brian patted the couch next to him. “Let me just say first that,” he winced at the look she gave him as she sat next to him, “it takes me a lifetime to be comfortable around a woman. It takes me six months of dating to be able to feel comfortable enough to kiss her. But, since we’re not dating and don’t plan on it, I feel like I can talk to you.”

“Wait. Who said we couldn’t date? Or is this a rule you just made up?” Sienna wondered, irritated with herself for asking the question.

Brian looked surprised. “Well, I thought—don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” Sienna felt more annoyed thinking of Scott. The bastard. “We broke up in October. He’s in New York.”

“Oh, well, then, I mean…if you want to date, I guess we…” Brian trailed off, confused. “What the hell is going on? I mean, seriously, I think you’re attractive, but, I, well, I like what we have. I like being able to just talk to you like we did the last time.”

“We’re not the same people we were seven months ago,” Sienna murmured. “It’s okay, Brian. I’m just cranky. So, tell me,” she began. “How did it go with Kevin?”

Brian brightened instantly. “Everything is fantastic! Seriously, I just groveled, and we talked through a lot of what we were feeling. A lot of it is misunderstanding, and, now, we just have to work our way back. I have to talk to all the guys. I think I’m going to start with Nick. I really need him back. Then, I’ll find Howie and AJ.”

“Good,” Sienna smiled. “I’m glad it’s all going to start working out. I told you all it would take is time.”

“Yeah,” Brian said. “I wanted to thank you for talking to a complete stranger for three hours when you really didn’t have to.”

Sienna shook her head. “Brian, seriously. If I hadn’t wanted to talk to you, I wouldn’t have. I felt like talking to someone, too. And, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have made a new friend,” she added.

“Uh, about that,” Brian began. “So, I know you gave me your number, but, umm…”

“You didn’t call. Ever,” Sienna finished for him. “Don’t worry, Brian. I only wanted to hurt you a few times for not calling. It’s all right. Besides, it’s not like we’d known each other very long either.”

“I know, but I’ve never been able to talk to anyone that openly in a long time,” Brian said. “So, I thought it was unfair to not call you.”

“Why didn’t you call? Or drop by the shop?”

Brian resisted the urge to squirm. “I didn’t think I would fit into your life anywhere.”

Sienna seemed confused. “What? Why not? It never hurts to have a new friend.”

“Yeah, but it’s not friends I wanted to be,” Brian muttered. Then decided to bite the bullet. “I was attracted to you, and I still am. But, at the time, you were with someone, and I was an emotional wreck.”

“And now?”

“Huh? Oh, um,” Brian bit his lip. “Sienna, I’m still attracted to you, and I wouldn’t mind having a relationship with you. But only if you wanted to, of course,” he added in a hurry.

“Brian, I’m not going to lie and say I’m not attracted to you, too. Or that I haven’t thought about you. A lot,” she admitted. “But, the thing is, the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to date you.”

“Wait. What? Why the hell not? If you’re attracted to me, and I’m attracted to you, I don’t see what the problem is,” Brian wondered.

“I like challenges. I’d rather be your friend than your girlfriend, even while I’m attracted to you. Besides, you live in Atlanta, which is a ways away. I don’t do long-distance relationships,” Sienna added.

Brian mulled it over. “So, we’re still friends? How about friends with benefits?”

“Nope. It would ruin the friendship angle because one of us would want more, and it’s exactly what I don’t want happening. To be frank, I just got out of an eighteen month relationship. The last thing I want to do is get into another one,” Sienna explained.

“Okay,” Brian said. “I can deal with that. So, friends.” He held out a hand.

“Friends,” Sienna replied, and shook his hand.

Brian smiled. “Well, friend, what shall we do now?”

“We aren’t doing anything anymore, tonight,” Sienna answered. “I’ve got to be at the shop in six hours. So, I need to go to sleep. Soon.”

Brian shrugged. “Well, some other time, then. Do you want to have lunch sometime? I’m going to be in town for a while.”

“How long?”
Brian sighed. “I’m thinking about moving home because Atlanta has bad memories. I mean, I’m keeping the house I’ve got down there. But, I want to spend the next couple years, or more, back in Lexington.”

“Huh. So, are you planning on buying a condo or an apartment?”

“Probably. Unless I find something cozy or whatever,” Brian replied.

Sienna nodded. “Well, if I hear about anything, I’ll let you know.”

Brian stood. “Thanks. Really. I appreciate it. And the fact that you let me in after one in the morning,” he added with an apologetic smile.

“No problem,” she said. “I’m glad to see you again, Brian. Seriously. We should do that lunch sometime soon. You’ve lost weight.”

“It’s been a long seven months,” he answered simply.

“You don’t have to explain,” she told him.

Brian shook his head as he grabbed his coat and pulled it on.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. It’s that I do and will, but over lunch sometime soon.”

“Okay,” Sienna agreed. “How about the day after tomorrow? Are you busy from noon to one?”

“Nope,” Brian answered. “My days here are a blank slate. I can do whatever, whenever. So, noon on Saturday works. Do you want me to meet you at the shop?”

“No, I don’t work Saturdays,” Sienna explained. “Just come by here around noon.”

Brian nodded. Then opening the door, he turned back to her.

“Good night, Sienna.”

“’Night, Brian.”

And the door shut behind him. As it shut, Sienna wanted to kick herself. She had spent four months thinking about dating him, and, when he said he was attracted, something in her said no. She realized that she didn’t want to date him—or not yet. She liked their current relationship and imagined it would only get better. After all, now that they both knew how they felt about the other, they’d probably work extra hard to decrease the tension. It would be a fun friendship, Sienna imagined. Then, remembering that she really did have work in the morning, she turned off the lights and music and crawled into bed.

***

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