Opposites Attract (11 page)

That
offer went above and beyond the call of duty. Troy’s character
raised another notch higher in her already lofty estimation. She
hesitated a moment then shook her head. “I don’t think
he’ll respond well to a stranger. I better go in with you.”

She
bravely pushed her way through the door, holding her breath and
hoping that they wouldn’t walk in on anything more graphic than
they’d already seen. Luckily, Henri’s occupation of the
only stall had seriously curtailed the activities of any amorous
couples. She and Troy were alone with the sink and urinal in the
dingy space.

“
Henri?”
She bent to spy his shoes beneath the stall door, which swung open at
the sound of her voice.

“
Amy,
thank God. I hate that shtupid bitch Kenneth for doin’ this…”
Henri stumbled out of the stall, obviously drunk and slurring. He
halted at the first sight of Troy still holding her hand. Henri
swayed slightly, held onto the stall doorframe to steady himself and
frowned.

She
dropped Troy’s hand. “Henri, this is Maria’s
neighbor Troy. He was kind enough to come with me.”

“
Nice
to meet you.” Troy stuck out one of his XXL sized hands as if
exchanging pleasantries in the men’s bathroom at a gay club was
nothing new.

“
The
pleashure’s all mine.” Henri glanced down at the hand and
shot Amy a knowing look as he took it in his delicate one. Henri
seemed to have forgotten his own trauma in favor of sticking his nose
in her personal life.

On
the way out of the club, Henri whispered in the none too quiet voice
of a drunk, “You know what they shay…big hands,
big…ooof.” The rest was lost as her elbow in his ribs
knocked the wind out of him.

Chapter 3

The
next morning, Troy stood in the laundry room and considered the
events of the prior night as he finally got around to transferring
his wet clothes from one of the washers to the dryer.

The
club had been quite an eye opener. So had the fact that Amy knew the
bartender by name. This was obviously a place she’d been to
before. Although, who was he to judge? Really, where else could she
go to meet other lesbians? It just didn’t seem like her scene.
Little Miss Business Suit in that place was a tough sell in his mind.

He
shook his head and couldn’t help thinking once again what a
crime it was she wasn’t available to him.

Meeting
her friend Henri had been another whole experience in itself. By the
time the unlikely trio arrived back at the apartment building, Henri
was so out of it he couldn’t stand, much less walk. Troy
decided the best course of action would be to leave Henri and Amy in
the lobby with the doorman while he parked her car.

Troy
had sprinted the quarter mile back to the building from the parking
space he finally found and then had to use the fireman’s carry
to get Henri off the lobby couch and into the elevator. Good thing
the guy weighed next to nothing. Still, Troy figured he got more rest
at work than he did on this past day off.

He’d
helped Amy get Henri onto the guest room bed and then left her alone
to deal with whatever happened next. It would surprise him if Henri
hadn’t spent at least some time last night praying to the
porcelain god, if he even made it as far as the bathroom. Poor Maria.
She had no idea what her apartment was being subjected to while she
was gone.

Just
as he was plunking his quarters into the dryer, Amy appeared in the
doorway, looking way hotter than any lesbian should as far as he was
concerned. He took in her tight t-shirt, which did nothing to hide
her assets, and her equally fitted running pants, which emphasized
his second favorite body attribute on a female, before he forced
himself to look up.

Keeping
his eyes above her shoulders didn’t help much since her wavy
hair was barely tamed in a ponytail and she looked cuter than usual
and sexy as hell.

Amy
stopped dead when she saw him there. “Oh, hi. Listen, thank you
so much for last night. I don’t know what I would have done
without you.”

He
smiled. “You would have managed somehow.”

She
shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think that
doorman is ever going to speak to me again as it is after Henri was
flirting with him. I really doubt he would have helped me get Henri
in the elevator and he definitely couldn’t have carried him the
way you did.”

Not
only did she sound impressed by his show of strength, but he could
swear she was eyeing his muscles beneath his black tank top, his only
clean shirt until this load of laundry was done. He mentally gave
himself a shake and reminded himself that his muscles were the last
thing this chick wanted.

“
So,
how’s he doing?” He leaned against the dryer, arms
crossed as he watched her butt when she bent over and emptied the
other washing machine of a load of wet things.

Amy
grimaced as she indicated the stuff she’d just plopped on top
of the washer. “As you can see, he didn’t quite make it
to the toilet last night. Cosmopolitans aren’t as pretty coming
back up as they are going down.”

Troy
couldn’t help but chuckle as she sorted through what looked
like a small bathroom rug, a towel and a few items of clothing.

“
It’s
not funny.” She turned to him but then laughed herself. “Okay,
maybe it is. But I want credit for being a damn good friend.”

“
Duly
noted and given,” he agreed with a nod.

“
Is
there only that one dryer?” She looked around the small room.
When he nodded, she wrinkled her nose. “I guess I can leave
this stuff here and come back later.”

“
Just
throw it in with mine. There’s room.”

She
hesitated. “Are you sure?”

He
stopped the dryer and opened the door. “Of course, I’m
sure.”

“
Thanks.”
A dazzling smile lit her face and made it nearly impossible for him
to look away. “If you don’t stop coming to my rescue, I’m
going to owe you more than I can ever repay.”

“
You
don’t owe me a thing,” he said even as visions of how she
could repay him filled his mind. If only…

Troy
shook his head as he followed her and her shapely bottom out of the
laundry room. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. A damn shame.

For
the following hour, he somehow managed to get his mind off of the
forbidden fruit and enjoy the basketball playoffs, right up until it
was time to get his laundry out of the dryer. Then the unattainable
temptation that was Amy, or rather her thong underwear, insinuated
themselves into his already yearning mind.

He
stood in the laundry room with the impossibly small hot pink article
in question dangling from one finger. He hadn’t wanted to touch
them. Really, he didn’t. But they were clinging to the back of
his sweatshirt when he discovered them. What was he supposed to do?
Troy immediately pushed aside the image of her wearing them.

“
You’re
the wrong gender, O’Donnell. Remember that.” Then a
horrible thought struck him—he would somehow have to return the
thong to her. Oh God, how was he supposed to do that?

In
a desperate course of action, he dumped his own clean clothes on his
bed and then buried the undies in the bottom of the laundry basket
under the bath mat and towel. But the thong wasn’t the only
intimate thing she had washed. There was also a temptingly lacy white
bra, size 34C. Okay, so he had looked. And a tiny off-white tank top
that he was pretty sure she’d been wearing under the blue suit
jacket yesterday.

Then
there was a small looking black silky t-shirt that he thought he
recognized as what Henri had been wearing the night before. Troy
hadn’t worn a shirt that small since middle school.

He
made sure the bra and tank thingy were as well buried as the thongs
and rang her door bell, laundry basket in hand.

As
Amy opened the door he hoped he didn’t look as guilty as he
felt.

“
Oh,
thank you. I wanted to get to it first and fold your laundry for you
as a thank you. You beat me to it.” She opened the door wider
and took the basket.

“
That’s
okay. Really.” Yeah, that was the last thing he needed, having
the image of Amy touching his tighty whities in his head. Not to
mention the few ratty pair of underwear that should be thrown out but
he saved for laundry emergencies. No woman should be subjected to
those.

“
I’ve
got a fresh pot of coffee on and sleeping beauty has yet to wake. Do
you want to join me for some?” the little minx offered
innocently.

“
I’d
love to join you for some.” Some what, he didn’t specify.
Instead he followed her into the apartment and sat on a stool at the
island in the kitchen. There really wasn’t another option since
the couch was covered in stacks of papers. “What’s going
on over there? Looks like your briefcase exploded.”

Amy
paused in her pouring and glanced over. “I know. I tend to
spread out when I work.” She handed him the cup. “Cream,
sugar?”

He
shook his head and drank the coffee black. “Why are you working
on a Saturday?”

“
Nothing
else to do. Besides, there’s only some stupid basketball game
on television.” She shrugged and sipped at her own mug.

He
didn’t respond to the basketball comment. “And if you
were at home, in your own apartment, what would you be doing then?”

“
Work,
laundry, maybe food shopping if I wanted to get really wild.”
She waggled her eyebrows.

Amy
joked, but to Troy she sounded lonely. “Don’t you hang
out with your friends and do things?”

“
Yeah,
sometimes. But all of my closest friends are in relationships and I
kind of feel like a fifth wheel when we hang out. I do get out. Just
last week my neighbor who’s an artist had an opening at a
gallery. And then there are always the release parties for the books
I publish at work… God, I sound like a real loser, don’t
I?” She sighed. The pity he felt must have shown on his face.

“
Not
at all. So that’s what you do, publishing?”

She
nodded.

“
That
explains the mass amounts of paper and how you know Maria.”
Hey, wait a minute. Maybe she only knew Maria through her publishing
company. Maybe she wasn’t…

That
unrealistic hope died when Amy said, “Yeah, I published her
first book. But actually, I knew Maria’s partner Elena through
a mutual acquaintance. That’s why Maria chose to send the book
proposal to me.”

“
Oh.”
Yeah, there went that little dream. Amy had probably dated Elena’s
ex-girlfriend or something.

A
loud moan announced Henri as he shuffled into the room, wrapped in a
blanket like a mummy. Amy jumped to clear the couch since it seemed
he had every intention of laying down there, papers or not.

“
I
think I want to die.” He moaned to further enforce the
statement.

“
How
about some fried eggs, greasy bacon and a big Bloody Mary to settle
your stomach?” Amy smiled sweetly.

“
No
rest for the wicked, I see.” Henri squinted at her through
bloodshot eyes. Then he turned his gaze to Troy. “Run, my
studly hero. Save yourself from the witch’s wrath.”

Troy
laughed. No need to feel sorry for Amy. She had good friends,
interesting though they were.

“
I
think I’m safe but I’d better get going.” He downed
the last of the coffee and stood. “Thanks for the coffee.”

Troy
left and Amy watched the door close behind what could possibly be the
perfect man. She could see the white picket fence now…

“
So
did we have a little sleepover last night with Mr. Studly?” The
bucolic vision blurred at the sound of Henri’s sniping. “Where
did you get him, anyway? Hunks-R-Us? Are they having a sale and can
you pick me up one?”

She
turned to face the blanket covered lump on the couch. “No, he
didn’t sleep over. He just came in for coffee and to bring me
the laundry. He lives across the hall and he’s a fireman. He
helped me with the cat when I got here… Oh my God, where’s
the cat? I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“
Calm
down. He slept with me last night. Which brings us back to Mr.
Studly, the cat-loving fireman who does laundry and why
he
didn’t sleep with
you
last night.”