Free Intimate Friends by Claire Matthews Page A

knew that she never would have made it through her break-up with Greg if Noah hadn’t been around. While her girlfriends had all shivered with righteous indignation on her behalf, Noah had been his calm, gentle, goofy self, taking her mind off the pain, staying up to watch Star Trek reruns with her when she was lonely, telling her she was too skinny after she’d put on six post break-up pounds. He reminded her so much of her brothers, only sweeter, and a little nerdier, and much smarter.
    “So, what’s up this weekend?” Noah asked nonchalantly, placing his bagel on the corner of her desk and pushing his glasses up, his reflexive habit. One day she was going to staple his frames to the bridge of his nose.
    “Oh, God, don’t even,” she moaned dramatically. “Lunch and shopping with my mother." She made a gagging sound. "Then packing my stuff up for storage, grading a thousand essays, and a full-body shave.” Noah blushed, and she grinned. She loved embarrassing him, he was so easy. “How about you?”
    “Oh, about the same,” he murmured. “I mean, minus the packing, shopping, and full body…whatever.” His head dipped in that geeky, halting way that she loved to provoke in him. When he looked back up, she cursed the fates that gave a 31-year-old man with glasses the longest eyelashes she’d ever seen on anyone short of a department-store mannequin.
    Emma gulped another sip of coffee and grabbed her papers for her first period class. “So, that leaves you grading all weekend,” she noted, and he nodded, murmuring the word “yup”.
    Poor Noah . God, she knew weekends were hard for him since his divorce last year. She hated Jenny for breaking his heart, in that fierce, sisterly way that you…well, that you hated girls who broke your brother’s heart.
    She had a flash of brilliance. “Hey, why don’t you come over Sunday night? I’ll make some dinner, and we can watch Babylon 5 .” She knew from experience that Sunday night was the Night From Hell for single people, particularly those who had suffered a break-up.
    “Um, only if you let me cook.” He grinned, pulling the huge stack of papers from her and slinging them casually under his arm as they walked into the bustling hallway. He was so sweet like that, always helpful…such a gentleman. God, how could that idiot Jenny have left him?
    “I think I resent that,” she said, eyes squinting up at him.
    “Hey, if you stay out of the kitchen, we both stay out of the hospital,” he teased, then jogged ahead of her to avoid the slap of her tote bag against his back. He stopped at her classroom, dropped off her papers on the front desk, and headed out to teach his calculus class, but turned at the last minute to raise his wrist and tap his watch, reminding her of their trip to the car dealership at lunch to change her oil. On his way around the corner, he turned too fast and tripped, making Emma giggle. Gosh, he was sweet. She needed to find him a girlfriend.
    ****
    Noah dropped his pen, pulled off his glasses, and rubbed his tired eyes with the pads of his thumb and index finger. He couldn’t grade another exam without wanting to put a gun to his head, so he got up, ambled to the refrigerator, and pulled out a beer. He hardly ever drank beer, so the first few sips went to his head quickly, and he sat on the edge of the couch, his body humming, though not unpleasantly.
    He scooted back and propped his bare feet on the coffee table, imagining how Jenny would react, then not giving a damn how Jenny would react. He was free to put his feet on the coffee table, drink beer on a school night, run around in his boxers, and eat Chinese food over the sink whenever he pleased. Not that he ever really did most of those things, but still. Emma would be proud.
    Emma.
    He took another swallow of beer, then let his head collapse back against the couch cushions. He was going to her house on Sunday. He was going to cook, and watch Babylon 5 , and laugh and joke and