Seducing her Brother's Best Friend

“I’ve got a plan,” Carol Murphy announced to her two best friends.

Emma and Ginny had been Carol’s best friends since they’d all been ten, and Carol had always told them everything. She was a little nervous about this though. Her hands felt slightly cold, so she picked up her mug of tea in both hands to warm them up.

The three of them were sitting in a corner table at Tea for Two, the tea shop in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia, that Carol and Ginny had opened earlier last year.

Ginny, blond, gorgeous, and always smiling, arched her eyebrows. “It’s not a Man-Fast, is it? Because you know how well that worked out for Emma.”

Emma slanted her friend a look of mock indignation. “Hey, I managed it for a couple of weeks.”

“It’s not a Man-Fast,” Carol said firmly, trying to bring them back to the topic before they got completely distracted. “I’ve basically been on a Man-Fast for the past year. It’s been more than a year since I’ve even had a date. I’ve succeeded in a Man-Fast far beyond Emma’s dreams.”

She was making light of the subject, but it really was rather depressing to think she’d gone so long without a date. A couple of guys had asked her out in that time, but they were men she barely knew and had absolutely no interest in.

She would be twenty-six soon. She had a good life—with a lot of great friends and her own small business, which was doing as well as could be expected. She was reasonably attractive with long, reddish-brown hair and gray eyes. She could stand to lose about fifteen pounds, and she wasn’t nearly as pretty as her two best friends, but still…

She thought she was a nice person. She didn’t know why no one wanted to go out with her.

“It’s not because men aren’t interested,” Ginny said as if she’d read Carol’s mind. “It’s because you don’t put yourself out there.”

“I try!”

Emma laughed. “I know you think you’re trying, but I don’t think guys know that you are. Guys are sometimes kind of clueless—”

“Sometimes!” Ginny said with an ironic snort.

Emma narrowed her eyes. “Sometimes they are. Your attempts are all so subtle they don’t even know you’re trying to flirt. You can’t be subtle.”

Carol thought about that and wondered if it was true. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that her friends were just trying to make her feel better, but they were usually honest with each other. She was shyer than Emma and Ginny. She was naturally less likely to put herself out there for other people to judge. Maybe that was part of her problem. “I don’t want to embarrass myself,” she admitted.

Ginny chuckled. “See, that’s your problem. You’ve got to be willing to embarrass yourself if you want to really flirt.”

Carol cringed at the visual of her doing something like that—flirting so obviously that everyone would see it.

She was by nature a listener rather than a talker. She loved baking and taking care of people and supporting those she loved. She didn’t like being the center of attention, and it felt unnatural whenever she tried it.

Maybe that was why she’d always gone unnoticed by men.

Or maybe they just weren’t that attracted to her.

“So, what is your plan?” Emma asked. She’d always been the most practical and organized of the three, and she was the one who usually kept them on topic. “Are you going to put yourself out there more? Maybe you should join a dating site or something.”

Carol had thought about that. She’d been thinking about it a lot last year, but then in September something had changed.

She didn’t just want a man.

She wanted one man in particular.

She’d never admitted it to anyone though, and now that the moment was at hand, the words stuck in her throat.

Ginny frowned. “What’s the matter? Surely your plan isn’t that scary.”

“It is,” Carol said. Seeking some sort of distraction from her rising nerves, she looked around the shop and noticed a woman was waiting at the counter. Rachel, one of the college students who was working for them, was clearing up dishes from tables on the other side of the room. “Hold on. Let me take care of her real quick.”

She walked over to the counter, smiling at the woman waiting there. The woman was a frequent customer, and Carol recognized her immediately. She was small and blond and incredibly pretty with a quirky, straight-laced sense of style. Today she wore a sweater-vest over a blouse and a pleated skirt.

“Sorry about that,” Carol said with a smile. “I don’t think Rachel saw you.”

“It’s no problem,” the woman said. She didn’t look impatient or annoyed, so that was a relief. “Do you still have that chai I had last week?”

“Yes, we do! It was really popular, so we’re going to stock it regularly. To go?”

The woman nodded her assent and waited as Carol prepared the tea in a to-go cup. “It’s not very crowded today.”

“No. Wednesday afternoons are always dead for some reason.”

“But business is going pretty well?”

Carol glanced over and saw that the woman seemed to really want to know. “Yeah. We’re doing great.”

“So you’re not going to close anytime soon?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Oh good. I was so happy when you opened up.” The woman flashed her a quick, intelligent smile. “My apartment is right upstairs.”