Just Friends Read online Jenika Snow (A Real Man #19)

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Romance Tags Authors: Series: A Real Man Series by Jenika Snow
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Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 15180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 76(@200wpm)___ 61(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
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God, I was getting myself worked up in the middle of class.

I shifted on the seat, trying to calm myself down.

“Hey,” Rita said from beside me and I glanced at her, giving her a tight-lipped smile.

“Hey,” I said in response and hoped like hell she couldn’t see how on edge I was. But the look on her face told me I wasn’t hiding it very well.

“You okay? You’ve been acting so weird since this morning. What’s up?”

I went back to chewing on the end of my pen, a nervous habit I was finding myself doing more and more these days.

“Nothing,” I said and gave her another smile that was totally forced, and I knew she could definitely tell.

Thankfully she didn’t press me, at least not yet.

When the lecture finally ended, I heaved a sigh of relief, realizing how unfocused I was in class. I put my books in my bag and stood, following Rita out. We both had a free block of time before our next class, so we headed out back toward the commons area known as “The Gardens,” a bricked-in courtyard that really didn’t have much in the way of flowers, but for whatever reason everyone called it that like it did.

We made our way to the courtyard. The few picnic tables were already taken, but the stone bench pressed against one of the far walls was free. We didn’t come out here to study, mainly to bullshit about what was going on in our lives, or more accurately, what was going on in Rita’s life since she was far more interesting in that department than me.

I set my bag beside the bench and sat down, leaning against the brick wall and feeling the sun on my face before closing my eyes. I felt Rita sit beside me, the scent of her perfume surrounding me instantly.

I opened my eyes and looked at her. She had her head back against the wall, her eyes closed, and her head tipped back toward the sunshine. If we’d gone to high school together, she most definitely wouldn’t have talked to me. She would’ve been one of the popular girls. I would’ve hung back in the library and watched them drive off to get lunch while I ate my peanut butter sandwich between the fiction and nonfiction section.

But college was so different. The people were so different. Everyone came together. There wasn’t that petty bullshit of cliques and drama. At least none I’d seen.

It was a pleasant change from high school, that was for sure.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I glanced over at Rita. She still had her eyes closed and her head back, but as if she sensed me looking at her, she opened her eyes and made eye contact. “Cause I won’t stop bugging you.” She grinned.

I snorted. “That’s the truth.”

She playfully nudged me. When I didn’t respond right away, when I felt my cheeks heat, I saw the way her mouth parted in an O, as if she’d read me like an open book.

“Oh my God,” she said slowly, her voice low enough that only I could hear. “You finally got with Pope, didn’t you?”

When I didn’t say anything, but felt the smile spread across my face, her eyes widened and she looked around, as if she didn’t want anyone to hear this conversation. She looked more excited than I felt.

Rita glanced back at me, her mouth still opened slightly in surprise. “I got to say, it’s about damn time.”

I nodded, agreeing with the sentiments completely.

“So, how was it? Incredible? Mind blowing? Soul shattering?”

I laughed softly and shook my head, but the truth was it had been all those things and more. I sobered a moment as I thought about what I felt for Pope, how what we had done wasn’t just an exchange of physical gratification. We’d shared our bodies, our souls. We were one and the same, two halves of a whole.

It seemed so incredibly cliché when I thought of it like that, but if I hadn’t felt it, experienced it, I wouldn’t believe it was my reality.

“It was perfect, Rita,” I finally said after I’d been quiet for so long. “I’ve wanted to be with Pope for so long, loved him for that same time. But I guess I was afraid, unsure of the repercussions of being with my brother’s best friend.” At the thought of Jonathan, my throat tightened.

He’d be so happy for me, I knew it. Hell, if he were still alive, he’d probably be the one to push Pope and me together. He would’ve seen how much we cared for each other, told us we were stupid for trying to fight it.

I rested my head back on the brick wall and listened to Rita talk about how happy she was for me, how excited she was that we’d finally gotten together. Although I listened to her, the truth was I was lost in my own little world, my fairy tale.



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