Cat Snips - a Short Story Collection by Cat Johnson by Cat Johnson

Last Friday night.”
Obviously anticipating this wasn’t going to be a short
conversation, Jeff threw the unopened foil package on the nightstand
and leaned back against the headboard, hands clasped remorsefully in
his naked and rapidly deflating lap.
    “ While I was visiting my
parents in Florida?”
    “ Yes. I was out drinking
with some of the guys from work and this chick at the bar was giving
me the eye. I didn’t even notice at first. The other guys did
and invited her over. She’d obviously had too much to drink.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t intend for anything to happen, but
she was too drunk to drive and she lives on my way home. I ended up
driving her home.”
    Jeff didn’t elaborate about
what happened when they arrived at her place. He didn’t have
to. Meg felt ill. She must have looked ill too, because Jeff jumped
to defend himself. “Hey, we agreed we’re not exclusive. Remember? We’re fuck
buddies, Meg. Rule number one clearly states that it’s okay if
either of us hooks up elsewhere as long as we wear protection. And
you were gone for two whole weeks and didn’t even call me once
to say you’d gotten there alive and your plane didn’t
crash or something. How was I to know you weren’t with some
southern boy down there?”
    “ Well, I wasn’t,”
Meg spat. In fact, she hadn’t even considered it.
    “ Well, I didn’t know
that.”
    She let out an unattractive
sound. “Yeah, like that would have stopped you.”
    Jeff’s mumbled something
that sounded like, “It might have.”
    “ What?”
    “ Nothing. Look, I’m
here now, aren’t I? This doesn’t have to affect you and
me at all. We’re still friends who scratch each other’s
itch once in a while, just like we agreed months ago. Right?”
    Did that sound sarcastic? Bitter,
maybe? And what right did he have to be either? He was the one having
sex with someone else. Meg folded her arms across her chest
defensively. Yeah, that itch thing had sounded good when they’d
come up with it. So had Rule Number One. Neither was sounding so good
anymore.
    Meg remembered the night vividly,
the beginning of the “friends with benefits” agreement.
She’d rented a DVD. A chick flick that Jeff had grudgingly
agreed to watch with her since he’d had no other plans for the
night.
    It turned out the movie had some
pretty hot and heavy love scenes in it, leaving Jeff with a hard-on
he tried to hide with the throw pillow and leaving Meg wet and
wanting.
    It was that night the “two
friends scratching an itch” theory had been born. No strings.
Still friends. Still single and available, but they fucked each other
when the need arose. Yeah, it had seemed like a really good idea
then.
    Not so hot right now though,
since she’d always thought she’d be the one to find
someone else first. Maybe even fall in love and then she would end
this side thing with Jeff, while still keeping his friendship, of
course. She’d probably even have him be part of her wedding
party when the time came. The best of both worlds, sex and
friendship. But to have him beat her to it...
    Meg swallowed the lump suddenly
in her throat. “Are you going to see her again?”
    He shrugged casually. How
the hell could he be casual about this? “I have her number. Maybe. I don’t know. Why? I thought
you wanted—”
    “ I know what you thought,”
Meg bit out.
    “ And?”
    “ And I don’t know.”
Meg had a bad feeling she was pouting.
    Jeff crossed his own arms. “They
are your rules, Meg. You made them. You have to live by them too,
just like I do.”
    The bastard had her there. But
dammit, this was no time to be logical. She screwed her mouth up
unhappily. “I know.”
    Jeff let out a loud breath. “So
does this mean I came all the way over here, after being woken up out
of a dead sleep, so I can get bitched at and not have sex?”
    She considered the nauseous
feeling in her belly and the strange tightness in her chest. She was
totally not in the mood anymore. “Yup,