Read Bottled Up: April Fools For Love for Free Online

were supposed to leave! And even if your boss didn’t get ahold of you, all you were supposed to do was take your clothes off, not take advantage of my friend.”
    Betty pushed the man she’d been ready to take into her bedroom back. Her libido was at war with her brain, and as Nate’s pecs flexed under her palms, she nearly cried out at the horribleness of it all. She had been given another chance with him. She’d been about to scratch an itch she hadn’t been able to reach for a decade…and her roommate had poured cold water all over them. But there was more mortification to be had.
    The suit with Velcro, the glitter… Nate’s suit slipped more and she caught sight of his neon green g-string before he pulled the fabric over himself. “You’re a stripper?” She squeaked.
    “I wasn’t going to go through with it when I realized you recognized me. I was going to fix the sink.”
    Like that made it better? He really thought that made it better?
    Betty hopped down. Nate Dallas didn’t miss her. Nate Dallas didn’t regret walking out on what they could have had. No, he’d been paid to be here. But she had to hear him say it. “Weren’t going to go through with what, Nate?”
    Ang picked up Betty’s tank top. “He was really just going to fix the sink?” she asked.
    Betty slapped the fabric out of her hand. She was already without a shirt. This confrontation was going to be over really soon, and then she’d climb into a shower and let the hot water wash this shitty day away.
    Betty watched her roommate pick up the shirt again and fold it before putting it on the counter next to her in case she changed her mind and wanted to cover herself.
    Ang huffed. “Betty, look…I hired a stripper from the Bently Bombers to pretend to be a plumber. I thought it would be a funny, sexy April Fool’s Day prank. It was dumb. I’m sorry.” She looked at Nate and cocked her head to see his abs around the fabric that had slipped away. “Although I have a greater appreciation for why you still masturbate over a high school romance.”
    Betty pinched the bridge of her nose. Not only was the guy she put up on a pedestal for long, a stripper…she’d been dumb enough to not realize it. “Okay. I am completely mortified, and I really want you both to leave now.”
    “Betty…” Both Nate and Ang said her name at the same time, and then looked at the other like they were both pissed the other was apologizing.
    There was a knock on the half wall behind them.
    Another plumber stood with another tool box. “Is this a bad time? The super sent me up for a clogged drain. The door was open.”
    “Of course it’s a bad time,” Ang yelled. “She’s topless!”
    Betty grabbed the tank top and put it on then. She noticed Nate had stepped between her and the real plumber’s line of vision. Why would he care if someone else saw her topless? She felt her heart twist at the thought that there might be something between them still, but she was too mortified to think about it.
    “I’m leaving,” she told him.
    “I’ll go with you.” Both Nate and Ang said the same thing at the same time again.
    It was messing with her head. This whole situation was the weirdest she’d ever been put in. Someone needed to pop out from behind her couch and inform her she was on candid camera, because seriously, the only way this moment could be topped was to have it televised.
    “I am leaving,” she repeated. “By myself. Ang, stay here so the actual plumber can fix the sink. Nate…I think you’re off the hook for dinner.”
    “Well, it looks like you already gave him dessert, anyway,” Ang said with a raised brow. “But…” Ang grabbed Betty’s arm. “Was he really trying to fix the sink when you jumped him?”
    Betty pulled free. “Argh.”
    Her purse was on the hook by the door along with her keys. She took off. She’d head to the book store and buy enough to fill a basket. She needed to escape into someone else’s reality. Hers