Free Friend Zone by Dakota Rebel

 
    Chapter One
     
     
     
    “So, what piece of crap movie have you chosen for us tonight?” Sage came barreling through my front door with a case of beer in one hand and his keys dangling from the other.
    “Gee, thanks,” I snapped as I met him to take the booze to the fridge. “As you well know, I have excellent taste in cinema. Just because you refuse to acknowledge anything that doesn’t have Bruce Willis in it doesn’t mean my movies are crap.”
    “Yes, it does,” he said as he placed a chaste kiss on my forehead and snagged a bottle from the box before I could put it away. “Fine, what critically acclaimed snooze-fest did you choose for our viewing pleasure?”
    “ Wrath of Khan ,” I said smugly as I tucked the case onto a shelf in my nearly empty fridge.
    “I take back every cruel thing I’ve ever said about you,” he replied, his voice full of awe.
    “Yeah, yeah. Go set up my DVD player.”
    “That’s why you really invite me over here,” he huffed as he walked away. “You’re too damn short to reach the cords of your own electronics.”
    I watched him walk out of the kitchen, and my eyes traveled down to his ass. He was wearing a pair of loose-fitting jeans that hung perfectly off his narrow hips. My lip was between my teeth as he stepped out of my line of sight, and I bit down hard enough to shake me from my admiration.
    Sage and I had been best friends for almost ten years. I had no right to be looking at his ass or thinking about his hips, thighs, hands, eyes or any other part of him. And I certainly didn’t have the right to have been thinking of such things, and more, for the last year.
    We’d started this stupid movie night as a way to entertain each other if we both happened to end up dateless on a Saturday night. It used to be a once a month occurrence, but for the last six months, we’d managed to spend every weekend together watching movies, drinking beer and just enjoying each other’s company.
    Sage really had no excuse for his dry spell. He was smart, funny, handsome and employed. Guys like him were a hell of a catch if one could snag him. He explained his datelessness away to the fact he only dates really smart girls, and he hasn’t found one lately to meet his standards. Since his last two…girlfriends, I guess, were not exactly Mensa members, his sarcasm was not lost on me.
    I wasn’t about to complain though. While I had no desire to ruin our friendship by suggesting it change to accommodate any sexual frustrations I was currently experiencing, I wasn’t about to turn down any chance to hang out with him. If he was content to sit in my apartment every Saturday and argue over my taste in movies, he was welcome here.
    “Yo, Teagan!”
    “I’m like six feet away,” I said as I walked into the living room. “You don’t have to scream. What the hell do you want?”
    “The batteries in your remote are dead, and I can’t get past the menu screen on the player.”
    “Well, damn, I don’t have any more.”
    “Go steal the ones out of your vibrator,” he said.
    “Very funny,” I huffed, but I felt the heat creeping up my neck as embarrassment flooded me.
    “Ha!” He pointed at me and grinned. “I knew it. Get your ass in there and steal me some batteries, woman—unless your magic wand takes D-Cells or something.”
    “Shut the fuck up,” I grumbled as I grabbed the remote out of his hand and shook the batteries loose from the sockets. “I’ll throw them on the charger, and they should have enough juice to work in a little bit.”
    I walked away, seething at myself for showing him any emotion at his mention of sex toys. I’d said way worse things to him during the course of our friendship, so I had no idea why such a simple joke would get that kind of rise out of me.
    I plugged the batteries into the wall charger and turned around, bumping into Sage’s chest in the process. I hadn’t even heard him move up behind me.
    “Jesus,” I said as I put a hand to