Blended Ch 3

“I think it’ll be OK,” Piper tells Riley, bathing her in a glowing, reassuring smile that she knows will bring comfort to the perky redhead.

She takes that in and sighs. “Yeah. I just get nervous.”

“But you could impress Shondra with some signups. You gotta bring people in.”

“How?”

“You know how.”

Riley scowls. She’s not blind or stupid; it hasn’t escaped her notice over the years that she has physical attributes that men like to look at. Some women, even.

“It’ll be fun,” Piper tells her. “Flash that package around. Get the MILFs all hot and bothered.”

Riley blushes hotly. “I don’t think it works like that.”

“Make it work like that. Seriously. You think this goes better with nervous meltdown Riley or with hot, confident Riley? Get in there and have some fun with it. Thirst trap everybody.”

“Seems like it’d be easier for you to do all that. You’re popular.”

“You’re stressed all the time, and that makes you prickly. You’re hard to approach. You’d be popular too if you relaxed a little.”

“Popular with dudes.” Riley self-consciously reaches back and smooths her shorts over her rage-inducingly peachy bottom. She’s so shortsighted that she can’t see how that would be to her advantage. But that’s one of the things that Piper likes about Riley: she’s utterly fixated on getting her rocks off, but she’s otherwise about as wholesome as a person can be. A more calculating individual would know the power of networking. Popularity with guys creates openings to the women who are interested in those guys. Those women have friends. Riley could get as much action as Flynn Stackwell if she could just get out of her own way, but that would never happen. Riley will fall in love with the first woman who sleeps with her, and that’ll be that. Piper hopes she’s a keeper, whoever she is. It’s hard to watch Riley hurt over and over as she pines after straight girls who don’t notice her. Seeing her get her heart broken will be even worse. Maybe Piper can coax her into going to therapy.

But first, they need to deal with this work situation. “Give the people what they want, Riley. Wear some leggings.”

She grimaces. “I’ll be all bulgy.”

“Doesn’t do me any harm.”

She peers at Piper suspiciously. “You don’t really date, though.”

That’s not exactly true. Piper and Patty left their home and their schools behind to move in with the Jamesons. In fact, Piper had been quite serious about her sweetheart at the time, and had tried to make it work long-distance. But long-distance is difficult at the best of times, and it didn’t survive high school. Piper is neither introverted nor celibate, but she carries enough complicated feelings—resentment of the move, the remarriage, the heartbreak—that she’s not in a hurry to get serious again anytime soon. She has a little situationship with a foreign exchange student at UFG, but that’s on ice during the summer when that person is on the other side of the world.

Riley folds easily. “You’re probably right. I’ll get you a shirt.”