Opposites Attract by Cat Johnson Page A

fears, the thing he’d never even told his
best friend, the thing he barely admitted to himself. Best to avoid
her as much as possible.
    With
that resolution made, he blew out a breath filled with sheer
frustration. His mind may know Amy was a lesbian and there was no
hope for them, but other parts of his anatomy weren’t quite so
quick. He headed for the shower to deal with them.

Chapter 5
    Troy
was sprawled on his couch munching on pretzels and watching TV when
his doorbell sounded. His heart skipped a beat as he considered that
it could very well be Amy. After spending a restless night trying to
not think about her or that kiss, he didn’t need the temptation
of her standing in his doorway.
    He
breathed a sigh of relief when he opened the door to find Antonio
Sanchez standing there, a six-pack of beer in his hand. He must have
looked surprised because Antonio stopped in the doorway.
    Antonio
glanced around the apartment. “Is this all right? My wife has
her book club at my house today. You told me I could come over to
watch the basketball game. You’re not entertaining a girl or
anything, are you?”
    Troy
laughed at that. “No, I’m not entertaining. I just forgot
what day it was. Hard to keep track when I’m off. Come on in.”
    Antonio
popped open two longneck bottles and stowed the rest in the fridge.
He handed one off to Troy and had just made himself comfortable in
the recliner when the doorbell rang again. Antonio raised a brow.
“You expecting someone else?”
    “ No.”
Troy got up again, but he knew there was pretty much only one other
person it could be. His suspicion was confirmed as he opened the door
and Amy stood there, his clean and empty pot in one hand and a
plastic container filled with chili in the other.
    “ Hey,
Amy.” His heart rate kicked into double time at just seeing
her.
    “ Hey.”
She seemed shyer than her usual cheerful self. Troy figured from her
reaction to him that she was regretting what happened too. It made
him feel even firmer about his decision to make sure it never
happened again.
    “ I
brought back your chili pot and the leftovers. You…um…forgot
them last night.” She raised her gaze to search his face.
    “ Thanks.”
He took the things from her and pointedly avoided eye contact. Just
when the lack of further conversation could have gotten really
uncomfortable, Antonio jumped up from the chair.
    “ Is
that Troy’s world famous firehouse chili? I’ll take that
off your hands. I’m Antonio Sanchez, by the way.” Antonio
shook hands with Amy.
    “ Yeah,
it is. I’m Amy.”
    “ Nice
to meet you.” Antonio wasted no time grabbing the chili from
Troy and headed for the microwave. Thank God for Antonio, hungry grub
that he was. At least it was a distraction from the obvious tension
in the room.
    “ That’s
my friend Antonio from the firehouse.” Troy hooked a thumb in
the direction of the kitchen.
    Amy
laughed. “Yeah, I gathered that.”
    “ Thanks
for washing the pot for me. I didn’t mean to leave it for you
to do…” He let the sentence trail off. What could he
say? I was just running away from you so fast I forgot it?
    She
jumped in. “It’s fine. I owed you for the laundry and for
rescuing Henri and helping me with the locks and saving the cat—”
    He
held up a hand. “I told you, you don’t owe me anything,
but thanks anyway. I hope you kept some chili for yourself.”
    She
smiled. “Yeah, luckily there was about a bowlful that didn’t
fit into the container.”
    Her
eyes darted from the game on the TV to the open beers and pretzels on
the coffee table. “Well, I’m going to go and let you guys
get back to your male bonding. Nice to meet you, Antonio.”
    “ You
too,” Antonio called back while noisily searching through the
kitchen drawers.
    “ Bye,
Troy.” Her eyes rose to his again.
    “ Bye,
Amy. Thanks again.”
    She
nodded and turned back toward her apartment across the hall. Troy
closed the door behind her with a strange