Her Best Friend's Brother(23)

Giggling Mel shook her head. “You know anything I own would look positively indecent on you.” It was true.

Libby’s much more pronounced bust line had long ago put an end to any closet sharing. “Maybe your mother?” But Libby knew that Mel had inherited her figure from Mrs.

Marchetti and she was unsurprised to see Melanie shaking her head a little mournfuly. The coffees hadn’t been iced for several hours now, but the liquid was stil cold that combined with her embarrassment caused her breasts to tighten and increase her embarrassment.

Ever the gentleman, Parker reached behind his back grabbed a handful of cotton and dragged his own shirt over his head. “Here you go Libby.” He tossed it across the room to her and Libby retreated to the halway bath room to change and rinse the coffee out of her shirt. Parker was tal, and his shirt fel below the hem of her shorts. Cinching the material closer to her waist, Libby tugged the elastic band out her hair and used it to knot the excess material at the smal of her back. When she returned to Mel’s room Parker was flexing his, now bare, muscles and taunting John fo r letting himself go. Libby stood for awhile in the doorway just watching her friends. Soon they would al be in New York and she would be in Talahassee.

“Think you have enough clothes?” John laughed as he carried a heavy armload of garment bags over to a pile of suitcases. It had taken al morning, and part of the early afternoon to get her completely packed up. Libby would have been sorry for volunteering except she was remembering how much fun the four of them could have together.

“A girl likes to look her best you know.” Mel answered sweetly and stood on her tip toes to give him a peck on the cheek

John swept her off her feet into a big bear hug.

“Babe you can have al the clothes you like, but you know you look your best in nothing at al” He gave her butt an exaggerated squeeze to make his point.

“Dude! A little propriety if you please.” Parker made a big show of averting his eyes. “Let’s start taking some of this out to the truck Libby.” He handed her a smal pile of boxes, and hefted a heavy suitcase into each of his own hands. “You’re going to leave me alone with those two walking hormones for a ten hour car ride!” Are you sure you don’t want to ride back with us?

“Sorry, I have my own packing to do. And I have plans this weekend anyway.”

“With Brian?”

“What!” Libby dropped the boxes she was holding a little harder than she had planned and spun to face Parker. “I’m sorry, what?” She tried to ask again more composedly.

Parker’s eyebrows drew close together. “That’s your guy’s name right? Mel mentioned him, but she isn’t always good with names.” Libby’s heart lurched when she remembered thinking something similar about her friend during the Stephanie/Effie conversation. In the end it hadn’t realy mattered what her name was; except perhaps that she had been able to forgive her Aunt Stephanie for having the bad luck of sharing a name with Tony’s girlfriend. Al that had mattered was that Tony had a girlfriend. And okay they had only lasted one summer, but that was a lot longer than any of Libby’s boyfriends had lasted. This wasn’t saying much since Libby had never realy had a boyfriend. How pathetic, she reflected, 19 years old and never had a real boyfriend.

“Libby? These are kind of heavy could you…” Snapping out of it, Libby stepped aside so Parker could unload his arms into the back of the moving truck. “I didn’t mean to bring you down. Mel mentioned you were seeing someone, and I just thought he might be helping you with your packing. If he isn’t coming I could stay an extra day and help you.” Libby’s eyes darted to Parker’s face. She had felt so bad about unintentionaly leading him on her senior year. He must have realized what she was thinking.

“Calm down. I am not making a pass at you. I just thought that if you have as much luggage as Mel…”

“J. Lo doesn’t have as much luggage as Mel” Libby quipped. “Brian is in Florida, and I am mostly packed and ready to go-- but thanks for the offer. Besides how would you get back to New York?”

“I am beginning to think missing out on this road trip

“I am beginning to think missing out on this road trip would be worth the price of flying commercial.” Parker grinned. Parker had a nice grin. Actualy, Libby mused as she folowed him back up the stairs, Parker had a nice everything. Tal and slim, he escaped appearing awkward and lanky with confident graceful movements. He had the kind of muscle tone you might get from swimming or running. He could have been a dancer she thought. Some male balet dancers were straight right? Who was that guy from Dirty Dancing? Libby was pretty sure he had been a real dancer. Yes Parker was certainly nice to look at. It was a crying shame that she couldn’t convince her heart to beat even a little faster when he walked in the room, or persuade her skin to tingle whenever she heard his voice. If it weren’t for those little details Parker would have been a perfect candidate for mister right.