Free Cocktails & Dreams by Autumn Markus

couldn’t even think about while awake without giggling and blushing. As a result, she woke up hung over, frustrated, and wanting to be anywhere but near Nicholas. Jena had no idea how she was supposed to spend the day with him and not attack him.
    One cold shower later, Jena was dressed and making coffee when Leisa straggled into the kitchen with a hand over her eyes. Her usually perfectly styled blond hair was sticking out in all directions, and the T-shirt of Travis’s she was wearing had slipped off one shoulder.
    “Why the fuck is it so bright in here?” she muttered, grabbing a cup out of the cabinet and glaring at the coffeemaker that wasn’t quite finished brewing her drug of choice.
    “It’s called ‘morning,’ sweetums.” Travis walked slowly into the room and sank down in a chair, resting his elbows on the table and dropping his head in his hands. “Jen, remind me why that’s our shitty day ritual.”
    Jena grinned. “Because today will be so awful that yesterday will seem bearable, I think. Breakfast, anyone?”
    Travis groaned and rested his head on the table, while Leisa actually growled. Jena was feeling pretty perky now that she’d had time to wake up and take a couple Tylenol. She poured herself a bowl of cereal, got coffee for them all, and studied her friends, who were both curled up in quasi-fetal positions, hunched over the coffee cups they clutched like lifelines.
    “Since I wasn’t paying attention, what time are we supposed to be at Nicholas’s?” Jena tried to sound uninterested, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
    Both Leisa and Travis whined as she spoke, and Leisa hissed, “ Ssshhhhh! Stop screaming, Jena, for the love of God! He said he’d call—”
    At that moment Jena’s phone trilled, and they both screeched and ran for Travis’s room. Jena yelled after them, “Take a shower— not together —and get dressed, you two. You got us into this.” She flipped the phone open on the third ring said hello.
    It was Nicholas, and after a brief conversation it was established that, yes, they were still coming over, and, yes, he would be providing lunch and beer, whether they expected him to or not. He and Conor had dinner plans, so whatever could be done before four o’clock or so would be great.
    There was a short silence where Jena thought Nicholas would say goodbye, then he started talking again. “So…are you guys really sure you want to do this? I mean, I can probably manage okay. Leisa sort of takes over, doesn’t she?”
    “Yeah, sort of,” Jena replied sarcastically, and then she chuckled. “You shouldn’t have much trouble with her taking over today, though. She and Travis have hangovers from hell. We had a little too much fun last night.” An image of Travis doing the “oak tree” while Leisa rode on his back whooping flashed in Jena’s mind, and she laughed aloud.
    “Did you guys go out last night after work?”
    “Nah. Just Thai food, Silent Bob, and lots of rum here.”
    “Sounds like fun,” he said wistfully. “How do you feel?”
    “Surprisingly well for someone who was dancing around in her underwear just a few hours ago.” Jena winced when her mind caught up to her mouth.
    Nicholas was quiet for a second, and then he chuckled. “Jena, I hope your verbal filter never starts working. The visuals…” He groaned, and Jena laughed.
    “All right, pervy, enough of that. We’ll see you in a little while.” Jena hung up, grinning. Maybe this would be okay. She’d just have to pretend that night in San Francisco never happened, and maybe they could be friends like they had been years ago.
    Just as Nicholas had predicted, Jena and her friends found that his roommate had unpacked the kitchen utensils he needed, all the video games in the world, and his own room, and left everything else in the boxes in which their possessions had traveled. Nicholas did what he could and directed Jena, Leisa, and Travis in setting up the other rooms. By the time