The Right Kind of Wrong: A Brother's Best Friend Romance by Fabiola Francisco (open ebook .TXT) 📗

“Sounds like a plan.” Easton guides us out of Toro after paying, and I lead the way to the next bar.

We laugh as we drink our beers, take a ton of pictures, and eat a lot more delicious food. This beats vegging out on the couch with my bag of chips. Having Easton and Faith here, even if for a few days, will help me get out of my recent slump and weird mood. Not to mention, it will distract me from Camden and the ghost of his hands I still feel on my body.

When Faith asks if I’ve met anyone, I shake my head with my nose scrunched up and take a sip of beer.

“There are cute guys, though.” She looks around the current bar we’re in, a more modern place that’s filled with more tourists and a combination of different languages swirling around us.

“Yeah, but I haven’t met anyone really worth getting to know.”

“I’m sure you’ll meet someone,” she says with a smile.

“You’re okay single. Don’t settle for someone who isn’t worthy of you,” Easton pipes in, and I roll my eyes. Big bro protector kicks in, and I can’t help but giggle.

I’m an adult, and I’ve been making my own decisions for a long time. Besides, it’s not like I’ve ever just fallen into bed with someone for the sake of it. Until recently… I remind myself that’s no longer the case after the night of the wedding. I shiver at the memory and chug what’s left of my beer.

Tonight is about family, fun, and more booze than I should consume, not about remembering a fling and getting caught up in emotions I have no business having.

chapter 6

Camden

Fuck me. And not in the, I’m fucking whoever I want and thoroughly enjoying it. It’s more along the lines of my life is a mess for the first time, and it has to do with the woman who’s staring back at me from my phone screen, holding a glass of beer with her brother—my best friend—and his wife.

I haven’t seen or heard from her since I walked off the airplane in New York. I’ve been so busy with work and helping Logan with Hotline Hookup, the dating app. When Mallory, Owen’s business partner and girlfriend, found out I had flown to New York from Everton, she about jumped out of her skin with excitement, telling me how her cousin lives there. Her cousin, Lia, is Knox’s sister-in-law. Small, small world. I couldn’t believe it when she told me.

Now, I’m back in my apartment in Richmond, daydreaming about Allyson and her full lips and soft hands. I’m so hung up on her, I haven’t so much as been able to flirt with another woman since the wedding. No one even catches my eye.

Instead, I’m following Easton’s Instagram like a creepy stalker, looking for any glimpses of Allyson in his photos, wondering if she’s slept with anyone else or if she’s also thinking about me. Searching for her account, I check to see if she’s posted any new pictures, and I groan when I see a photo from a few hours ago in her story. She’s still in bed with the caption, Someone bring me coffee and a pastry. Her sexy pout lures me in, and her swollen eyes remind me of the morning she woke up freaking out because of what we did.

My fingers itch to send her a private response, a joke about repayment if I took her what she asked for, but I don’t. I stop myself. Because as much fun as it was to tease her, I’m now torturing myself in the process.

Adjusting myself in my sweatpants, I make my own coffee and grab a banana. I have work to do, even on a Saturday, but all I can think about is hitting the gym in my building and burning some of this pent-up need.

Tonight, I’ll go out for drinks and distract myself. There’s no future for Ally and me, not even another night in the sack, so there’s no point in holding on to a memory that will eventually burn to the ground in a pile of ashes. Or make my life go haywire like a spazzing computer on the verge of burning out. I’ll end up in a pile of crap just like that computer if I even consider another night with Allyson. Easton will make damn sure of it. And I can’t betray my friend more than I already have.

I pull at the roots of my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. It’s all fun and games until you fuck your best friend’s younger sister. I’m unsure of what’s right or wrong—fess up to Easton and deal with the backlash or keep it to myself, risk him finding out, and make the betrayal even worse.

I finish off my coffee and change into my workout clothes, taking the stairs down to the gym as my warm-up — nothing like running down twenty-four flights of stairs to get your heart pumping and mind clear.

By the time I make it into the gym, I’ve built up a sweat. Stalking toward the treadmill, I begin running until Allyson is a distant memory and the only thing straining are my thigh muscles and my furiously pumping heart.

- - - - -

Allyson

I stare at his name on my story insights on Instagram. He looked at my pictures. He’s been keeping up. That thought shouldn’t excite me, but knowing that Camden has been thinking of me, at least enough to look at my Instagram account, makes me uncharacteristically giddy when it really shouldn’t. I’m thousands of miles away. There’s no real chance at anything, and even if there were, there’s still the issue with my brother. I’m not sure how he’d react to me being with Camden, in any sense of the word. He knows Camden too well to probably be okay with me…