I let out a long groan as I woke up. My head was splitting, my mouth was dry, and my stomach felt like it was being twisted up like a dish rag at a restaurant. Nothing good ever happens when I drink. Sure, it’s fun when I’m doing it, but I always regret it in the morning. I sat up slowly, careful not to make myself too dizzy. The air smelled like syrup, bacon, and coffee.

I grabbed my phone off the nightstand to see I had a text from Nico.

Let you sleep in after last night. Hubby’s making breakfast. Join us when you’re ready

He had to bring up last night. A vision of Johnny in his underwear flashed through my mind and I immediately felt my face turn hot. How could you defile that man with such lewd visions of him? You’re trying to start over with him, Dani. Get your mind out of the gutter and don’t think of him that way. He deserves your respect! You can’t be friends if all you think about is his chiseled, well-toned, muscular bo…ugh this is going to be way harder than I thought. 

Ok, Dani, one step at a time. First step, get out of bed. I swung my legs out of the bed and achingly got to my feet. Alright. Next, I’m going to wash my face, have breakfast, and talk to Johnny about everything. No more misunderstandings. We’ll be friends. Just friends. And friends don’t think about each other naked.

 I could hear Nico and Theo in the kitchen chatting as I walked out of the room and headed across the hall. Theo said something about going on a run with Johnny before someone got here. That means they’re probably leaving soon, right? I better catch Johnny before he leaves! I may not be here when he gets back. I hustled the rest of the way to the bathroom. I needed to get washed up quickly. When I opened the door, I was hit with a gust of steam. 

My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped when I realized what was in front of me. Johnny was standing in the opening of the shower with a towel around his shoulders. Just his shoulders. He stared right back at me. Neither of us moved or said a word. We just locked eyes and stared. I knew what he was worried about. He kept his eyes locked on mine hoping that’s where they would stay.

Don't do it, Dani. Back away slowly and close the door. You saw nothing. Whatever you do, don’t look down. For the sanctity of our friendship and his pride, do not look down.

I looked down.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t see anything.”

Before he could say anything, I shut the door and leaned against it to regain my composure. Why didn’t he lock the door when he was taking a shower?! It's like he didn’t care if people saw him naked. Is he some sort of exhibitionist? That’s the only explanation for why he's always naked. I’m just going to pretend this never happened. Yea that’s it. This absolutely did not happen. I didn’t just walk in on him in the shower. No. That was my imagination. I’m still drunk, that’s all.

I pushed myself off the door and made my way to the kitchen. It was hard to get what I’d seen out of my head. I hate to objectify him, but he was hiding the body of an adonis and that itself was a crime. His abs looked like a pack of toasted buttery King’s Hawaiian rolls. His broad, chiseled chest still wet from his shower glistened in the sunlight as if it were not meant for human eyes. Then here were those perfectly sculpted arms that flexed with every move he made. And what was that between his legs?! Did he carry a club in his pants? No way that thing was his…

“Sausage?” Nico asked as he approached me with a big smile on his face.

“What?!” I practically screamed.

“Did you want sausage for breakfast?” he asked slowly with a raised brow. “I wasn’t sure what you’d want to eat.”

Get a grip woman! He’s talking about breakfast food! Maybe I am the pervert.

“Um, yea, sure,” I said uneasily.

“Come on. Theo will get your plate when it’s ready.” Nico linked his arm with mine and ushered me to the table. “Oh I forgot to tell you my brother-in-law told me last night the lock on the bathroom door is stuck. You can use the bathroom in my room if you need it.”

“Oh, y-yea. Thank you!” Now he tells me.

Johnny must not have gotten the memo. Otherwise, I doubt he’d be letting it all hang out. Then again, he seems really comfortable here. Maybe he forgot I was here and didn’t feel the need to lock it.

“How did you sleep?” Nico asked.

“I slept ok,” I replied. I slept fine, but I kept thinking about someone. Those thoughts will probably get worse after walking in on him. Ugh, how am I supposed to face him now?

“Good. I can take you back to the bar to get your car after breakfast. Give you time to get rid of that hangover.”

“That’d be great. Thank you.”

“Here you go,” Theo said as he placed plates in front of me and Nico. “I wanna apologize again for last night. It was a miscommunication on our end. Johnny lives nearby so Nico thought he was going home, but the idiot drank us dry.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t push him to drink,” Nico sighed. “Johnny only does it when you make him.”

“I did not! You should have heard him, rambling on and on about this girl he’s in love with.”

“Stop that, Theo. You know he’s been having a hard time.” Nico looked toward me with a sympathetic look. “Johnny’s the one I’ve been telling you about. He’s an angel. He only gets like this when Theo here makes him drink.”

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t me this time!”

“What wasn’t you?” Johnny asked as he walked into the kitchen.

He was wearing a pair of black shorts and a grey sleeveless shirt. I tried not to stare, or at least be noticeable about it, but our eyes met and he looked away quickly, fiddling with his thick black glasses in nervousness. Now that the room wasn’t dark and I wasn’t drunk, I could clearly see the massive tattoo that covered his right bicep. A tribal pattern covered from the curve of his shoulder to his elbow. Entwined in the intricate patterns was the familiar image of an eight-pointed sun with three stars surrounding it. He had once mentioned that he connected more with his Filipino roots and this proved it. I never took him for the type to have such a large tattoo or have one at all, but it seemed like there was a lot about him I didn’t know.

“You wearing a sleeveless shirt to show off because there’s a woman here?” Theo teased.

Johnny rolled his eyes as he grabbed a plate and started getting food. “I left it here last time. I got grease on the other one,” he sighed. He sat across the table from me with his breakfast and coffee but avoided looking at me. “When were you going to tell me the bathroom door was broken?”

“You’re the one that did it last night. Nearly snapped the thing in half,” Theo said as he sat to eat. “How’d you know?”

The tops of his ears turned red. “It, um, wouldn’t lock. I didn’t realize it until after I showered.”

“Oh no, someone could have walked in on you,” Nico gasped. “Johnny, I know it’s weird for introductions after everything that happened last night, but this is Dani. She’s the girl I’ve been telling you about that works with me at the coffee shop. She said she takes a robotics class too. Maybe you know that jerk that’s been giving her a hard time. She said he would ignore her, act like he knew more, then flirted with her like he was God’s gift to women.”

Nooo!!! Panic ran through me as Johnny slowly looked up at me. He didn’t need to hear a name to know that it was him that Nico was referring to. 

“N-Nico, it’s ok,” I stuttered. “You don’t have t…”

“It’s ok, see how big Johnny is? He’ll take care of that guy. Right, Johnny?”

Nico stopped talking when he heard Theo chuckling. The look on Johnny’s face made me feel worse than if he had been angry. He looked so hurt. He already thought I hated him, but now he had to hear about how I was talking trash about him to my co-workers.

“Oh,” Nico muttered when he realized that Johnny was who I’d been talking about. “Does she know the girl that rejected you right before you were going to ask her o…”

“Please stop,” Johnny interrupted as he covered his face.

Theo couldn’t contain his laughter anymore. He was cracking up so much that tears were coming out of his eyes. Johnny didn’t find any of this funny at all. He must feel humiliated after everything that’s happened in the last, what, twelve hours? He must really hate me at this point. I’ve caused him nothing but pain, heartache, and trouble. Lots and lots of trouble.

“I don’t get it,” Nico whispered to me.

“I think he was talking to you guys about me like how I’d been talking about him,” I explained. 

Johnny dropped his utensils and pushed his plate away, confirming my statement to Nico.

“I’m not hungry anymore,” he announced as he stood up.

“Hey, cut it out,” Theo said as his laughter started to die down. He grabbed Johnny’s arm, preventing him from leaving. “We’re all adults here. Don’t be so sensitive all the time. So what if she talked shit about you. Wouldn’t be the first time someone did that. And you.” Theo called as he looked toward me. “You can’t honestly say you didn’t know he had a thing for you.”

“Ay, putang ina mo,” Johnny cursed as he yanked his arm back. “Nanung problema mu? E ka manyara.”

I was shocked as Johnny launched a tirade in another language. He was so mad, he kept switching between Tagalog and Kapampangan. I’m pretty sure he was tossing some Korean in there too, but he was talking so fast I couldn’t be sure. Theo had stood up and was trying to defuse the time bomb he had lit the fuse to, but honestly it seemed like a lost cause.

“Oh he’s pissed,” Mateo said as he sat beside Nico and grabbed some bacon off his plate. I was so caught up in watching Johnny, I didn’t even realize the other man had even walked in the room. He looked over at me and held his hand out to me. “We met the other day. I’m Mateo.”

“Nice to meet you again,” I chuckled at the situation.

“Sorry about last night. As you can see, my brother likes fucking with Johnny. I’m waiting for the day he slugs Theo. Big man’s a sleeping giant.”

As gentle as the giant that Johnny was, I knew Mateo was right. He and Theo were just shouting at each other, and I could see the veins popping out of his arms and neck. He kept really good care of his body, but didn’t seem to want anyone to know about it. He was easily four inches taller than Theo. He made the Latin man look like a child next to him.

The shouting was getting louder and I was afraid Johnny might hit his friend now that there was no one stopping him. I needed to do something before it got out of hand.

“Seojun,” I called as I touched his arm. Everyone immediately went quiet as they turned their eyes to me. “It’s ok. He’s just teasing us. Just sit down and have breakfast with me.”

“Did she just call him what I think she did?” Mateo whispered to Nico.

“Who’s Seojun?” Nico whispered back.

I wasn’t sure if what I was doing would work, but I had to try. “You’ll sit, right?” I kept my voice as steady and gentle as I could. “Have breakfast with me. Please?”

“Ok,” Johnny sighed, making everyone around the table gasp. He sat down again and acted as if he hadn’t just freaked out on his friend.

Hm. Calling him Seojun got him to not just calm down, but also listen. I’ll have to remember that.

“What just happened?” Theo asked.

“I think she tamed the beast,” Mateo teased.

“Se…I mean, Johnny is just a little worked up,” I tried to explain. “Friends should be able to calm each other down, right?”

Johnny raised a brow when he heard the word “friend.” It’d be easier to get him to give me a chance to be his friend if I suggested it already. We can hammer out our differences when we aren’t surrounded by his friends.

“They do,” Johnny agreed as a smile crept across his face. He tried to hide it by taking a drink of his coffee.

“Fair enough. Quick question though,” Theo probed, “do friends usually walk in on each other in the shower and stare at the other’s penis?”

I let out a gasp as Johnny spit out his coffee and started to choke. I really need to stop drinking.