Working_Out Read Free Page B

retrieved a half full bottle of wine from the refrigerator and two cups then rejoined Shelby in the living room. She poured them both wine and handed a cup to Shelby. “Drink up, schoolgirl.”
    Shelby accepted the glass. “Mac’s in major lust with you.”
    Which made it so difficult to keep her distance. Maggie called him Jameson. She frowned and glared, keeping a tight watch on his many ex-girlfriends to remind herself she didn’t want to join their ranks.   
     “And you want him , bad.” Shelby refused to shut up. “But that might be because you’re so asexual now.”
    Maggie groaned and drank. She had been doing her best not to talk about her lack of a sex life, but the booze and need to share broke her restraint. “I know. At first it was hard, but now it’s getting easier to not want sex.” At least, when I’m not around Mac. And that scares me. “I’m almost thirty. What’s going to happen when I’m in my forties and fifties? All my good years will be gone, and I’ll go through the change and never want sex again. I’ll be a dried up has-been.”
    “Not to hear my mother tell it.”
    “I love Mimi.”
    “Yeah, well, she talks too much.” Shelby winced. “Trust me. She way over-shares. But here’s a good thing. She told me that since I’ve found a man she finally approves of, she’s decided to work on your sorry love life. She and Ron are going to find you the perfect man.”
    A vision of Mac wearing a white towel and not much else danced across Maggie’s vision. “Great. I suppose this is payback for me helping you find your true love.”
    “Yep.”
    “You don’t have to look so gleeful about it.” Maggie frowned. “I mean, you got Shane out of the deal. You owe me.”
    Shelby smirked. “Oh, I intend to pay you back. In spades.”
    “Hell.”
    Shelby chuckled. “I’ve been feeling up your obsession for weeks now.”
    Maggie huffed. “He’s not my obsession. And might I remind you that you’re a professional. I thought legitimate massage therapists were more clinical about their patients.”
    “Well, I’m not giving him happy endings. Those I save for my man.”
    Maggie snorted with laughter. “You need help.”
    “And I get it regularly.” Shelby wiggled her eyebrows. “Did I tell you about Shane helping me out at work? God, that man is sexy.”
    Maggie stared, wide-eyed. “By helping out, you mean…”
    “He had me naked and splayed out on a table. My own personal massage.”
    “You, Miss Professional, had sex in your clinic? Oh man, I am so jealous. Tell me.”
    As Shelby shared a few naughty details, like the good best friend she was, Maggie felt both stunned and envious of her friend. Shane had certainly brought out the adventurous girl in Shelby, and it was about time. Shelby had been so hurt by her ex that it had soured Maggie on relationships as well. Shelby’s pleasure showed Maggie that not all men were scum-sucking jerks.
    Maggie longed to have someone to trust, to fill her emotional and physical needs and validate her sense as a woman. For so long she’d tried dating men who turned out to be all wrong, and those mistakes triggered a fear that she’d never find someone special. She had looks but no great wealth, and someday her looks would fade. Most men didn’t take her seriously because of her blond hair, that and being an artist. Even in this day and age, stereotypes remained. For all that men complimented her face and form, she had yet to find a significant other.
     “…so then he flipped me over, and I’m all out of breath, and he—”
    The front door opened, cutting Shelby off mid-sentence. Shane walked in and stopped short at seeing them both lolling on the floor with a bottle of wine between them. He stared hard at Shelby, who wore a pair of tights and a tank without her bra. Then he blinked at Maggie, who wore her favorite ripped jeans and a soft, holey tee-shirt.
    “Please tell me I didn’t miss any girl-on-girl action.”
    Shelby