Just Human

Just Human by Kerry Heavens

Book: Just Human by Kerry Heavens Read Free Book Online
Authors: Kerry Heavens
Ads: Link
Although it would’ve been great to live with her, I didn’t want to be constantly defending myself to jealous boyfriends, it was already a problem I had, even at separate addresses. She’d have also been a threat to any potential girlfriend, had there been many. So she moved in with her girlfriends and I moved in with my buddy, Scott.
    We stayed close though and formed a small, tight group. I’d briefly dated one of Jen’s friends and it didn’t end well, so for a while, we had a rule that we wouldn’t date each other’s friends. Things changed, however, when I came home and discovered her and Scott asleep together in his bed. It turned out that they’d been carrying on for a while and it was serious. They were just waiting for the right time to tell me, worried I would be mad. I was anything but mad, it was great to see my two best friends together and the rule was just to protect our friendship against casual flings. This was something different. They were clearly in love and before long Jen was my roommate after all.
    We lived happily together for a year and then, one night, Jen’s birthday, when we were out celebrating, Scott popped the question and Jen said yes! I knew it was time to move out and let them be together. I’d been freelancing since graduation, making a name for myself. So I took the plunge, got my own place and set up my own software development company, working from home. Scott and Jen married a year later and I was best man.
    Since then, not much has changed. Business has been good for me; I can pick and choose my projects, work when I want to, or when I need to. Scott does a similar job, but for a big corporation; he’s more of a steady pay check kind of guy. Jen runs a clothes store with her mom. She and Scott haven’t had any children, despite trying, so are now looking into their options. It’s been hard to watch Jen’s sadness at not achieving her dream of being a mom, but I’m certain they’ll get there.
    “Got time to chat?” I ask, handing her a coffee.
    “Well I have to open up, but if you help me bring some boxes up from the basement, you have a deal.”
    Jen switches on the sound system and opens the door. I help her carry a small metal bench outside and place it in front of the window. She winds down a large blind to shade the window and as she busies herself with switching on a baffling array of lights around the place, I fetch the boxes from the basement. Once we’ve finished, we sit at the small couches by the changing area. In any other circumstances, I would be out of my comfort zone in this place, but I visit Jen here all the time and I’ve long overcome my macho worries about sitting on a pink sofa among vintage floral scatter cushions.
    There are no customers; this part of town doesn’t warm up until later. We have her laptop across our knees and are looking at the basic profile of one Olivia Harper.
    “Is that her?”
    “Yeah, she looks really different. She’s pierced her nose…and lip! Wow.”
    “She’s pretty.”
    “Yeah, she always was. She looks really different, but it’s her.”
    I stare at her. I want to see more, but I can’t unless I add her and she accepts. I’ve purposely never searched for her. In fact, I’ve never looked up anyone else I knew from England either, mainly because I wasn’t bothered, but also in case they were friends with her.
    “So?” asks Jen, looking at me expectantly.
    “So, what do you think I should do?”
    “Well, what do you think you should do?”
    “God, Jen. I don’t know. You know what it did to me, leaving her behind.”
    Jen looks at me pensively for a moment and then opens her mouth to say something. Closing it again, she changes her mind. I watch her, waiting. She starts again.
    “Can I ask you something?”
    “Anything.”
    “Why have you never settled down?”
    I laugh. “I don’t know, I’ve never met the right girl I guess.”
    “Maybe…maybe you have met the right girl…but you had to

Similar Books

Dead Men

Stephen Leather

Absolutely Lucy

Ilene Cooper, Amanda Harvey (illustrator)

Calamity Mom

Diana Palmer

Going Within

Shirley Maclaine

The Shepherd's Voice

Robin Lee Hatcher