X-Treme Measure by S. N. Garza, Stephanie Nicole Garza

“Don't pretend like you haven’t noticed. He watches you. He can't keep his eyes off of you.”
    “Ashley, you are definitely seeing things. Besides Daniel doesn't see me as anything anyway.”
    He interrupted me by asking, “Do you want him to see you as anything?”
    I scoffed, not wanting to answer but instead I rolled my eyes and lied. “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because.”
    Ashely lifted his eyebrows, waiting for a better explanation than the one I gave.
    “That’s all I got."
    He just laughed and shook his head. “You sure about that?”
    “Ashley, he doesn’t see me as anything but a neighbor anyway who watched his kid when he was in a jam. That’s all it is. Was. I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. We are strangers.”
    “Strangers that are seriously hot for each other.”
    “Am not.”
    “Oh, sweetie. Your inner child is showing. Don’t whine and just acknowledge it.”
    “Yes. He’s good looking. But he has baggage—
    “His daughter?”
    “That and I’m young enough to be her sister.”
    He just rolled his eyes.
    “That’s not the point. That doesn’t mean anything. Nothing is ever going to happen out of it.”
    “Of course it doesn’t. And of course it won’t.”
    I rolled my eyes right back at him and let my inner angry child out. “I’ll be in my room, Ashley. Thanks for the lively and sparkling conversation.”
    “So spicy in the midnight hour. FYI—he’s just as into you as you are into him, girl.”
    I turned, grabbed a bottled water from the fridge and hurried to my room. I closed the door and tried to shake off the feeling of being cornered. It’s not like I had feelings for the guy. I didn’t know him.
    Daniel was just the neighbor. Albeit, a very hot one, but he did have baggage to bring into a relationship and it’s not like he’s ever really said what he did for a living. I mean, he’s could be some mafia guy. Mafia? Ugh. Great imagination there, Moriah. He didn’t know about my school situation or about my parents. Look at his mother! She was perfectly put together. Beautiful and youthful for a woman in her fifties. My parents? Ugh.
    Eh. Speaking of which, I’ve ignored them for long enough. They’ve called every day since the day I was ‘supposed’ to be home weeks ago. I hadn’t really wanted to reach out to them yet. With the move, picking up every spare shift I could so I could make some school money, I had barely enough time to relax. And my birthday was just around the corner.
    How was I supposed to celebrate my twenty-second year of birth? The girls at work wanted me to go with them for a night out on the town. Rosa mentioned X-Treme Measure, a club where men did the stripping and dancing. It made me curious, but I didn’t know how I was going to take a bunch of men and their…uh things, flapping in the wind in front of my face. Hopefully by then I’ll be too shit faced. If I even drink.
    I didn’t really drink. Well, hardly ever. Like never, okay? Ugh. Whatever. Maybe I will just drink it up. She did mention we would have a designated driver. Her sister wasn’t into that scene so she was going to drop us off downtown where the strip club was located, then pick us up later that night.
    I didn’t have anything to wear either. I never went to clubs. The few guys I’ve dated had been nerds. So our ‘having a good time’ was the library, or art/history museums, which were awesome. I actually loved it. That’s how I discovered the Discovery Green Park.
    So while I can’t say I didn’t enjoy those guys, I can say the intimacy wasn’t what I thought it would be. Nothing sparked and my toes didn’t curl in rapture. Whatever. Romance books were so full of shit about that.
    I walked to the bed and crawled on top of the covers. Pulling out my phone, I opened the camera and then flipped the screen so it looked at me. I looked…boring. Pretty in a plain kind of way.
    Nice teeth, straight nose. Even with glasses I didn’t look bad. My eyes