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  I felt as if I had just fallen asleep when I was awoken by someone knocking on the door. I looked at the clock. Seven thirty in the morning, I hadn’t fallen asleep till after five. I half fell out of bed as I tried to put my track pants on before heading for the door, not even caring that I hadn’t put a shirt on. I opened the door to see Holly standing there, her green eyes staring and me and a big smile. “Good morning. I hope that I didn’t wake you” she said. “I feel bad for not really thanking you for helping me last night.” “No need, I just wish that I could have gotten there sooner” I replied. “Would you like to come in?” I asked her. She looked around for a second before saying “Sure.” I followed her into the kitchen grabbing two cans of coke out of the fridge, handing one to Holly and then sitting on the bench. There was a moment of awkward silence before Holly finally spoke. “So you’re a cop?” she asked. “Oh, I’m sorry is the word cop offensive?” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at her. “Yes I am a cop and no it’s not offensive to use the word cop”.

  There was something about this girl that just brought out a happy side of me and I liked being around her. All that after only seeing her 3 times, I must be going crazy. It was just then that Cooper came walking out of his bedroom in only his boxer briefs saying “Damn those girls from last night were hot. I saw the blonde one after we left last night and she-” he stopped talking once he walked into the kitchen and saw that Holly was standing there. “Oops” Cooper said quietly. “Perfect timing as always Coop” I said to him as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and sat on the couch while that stupid grin of his left his face. “So how do you and Cooper know each other?” Holly asked me. “Well we met in Kindergarten and have been friends ever since. He’s like a brother to me”. Holly just nodded her head at me before saying “Well I should probably go now. Thanks again for everything that you did for me last night”. “Anytime” I replied and then watched as she walked out of the apartment. “Ha-ha weak dude” Cooper said from the living room. I finished what was left in my can before throwing it at him and hitting him in the head. “Ow!” Cooper complained. I laughed to myself as I walked back into my room and shut the door.

  Holly

  A week had gone past since the attack in my bathroom. Spencer and his friend Dante, who Sophie keeps trying to set me up with, have been coming over every day to make sure we are ok and it’s been driving me mad. What happened was scary but I didn’t think that everyone needed to treat me like a child and babysit me either. My director, who is not only my boss but also in charge of running the day care centre, insisted I go on leave from work for the next 3 weeks because apparently I needed some time to relax and deal with everything. I still remember that night like it had just happened. Being in my nice hot shower and then feeling someone grab the back of my hair and pull me down to the ground. I looked up to see who it was but all I saw was a black balaclava and black clothes. After I landed on the floor, hitting my hip on the ground first and screaming from the pain, the man started pulling me back by my hair. It was then that my saviour Logan came in. I didn’t even know that he was a cop until that day but I’m so thankful that he lives next door otherwise god knows what could have happened to me. I’m lucky to have only walked away with a giant bruise on my hip, a broken door and just a bad memory.

  My new favourite part of the day was every morning at about eight. I would go out to check the mail and Logan would always be there too. Every time I turn around and see him standing there my heart starts racing and the butterflies in my stomach starting fluttering around. He was so handsome it was breath taking. Roughly 6 foot 5 with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He has a tribal tattoo that starts at the top of his shoulder and goes half way down his left arm. I remember seeing it the day that I went to his apartment and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. That and his rock hard abs. “Good morning Holly” he said as he grabbed his mail and smiled his heart stopping smile. “Hi Logan” I said back. I went to turn and walk away when I thought that I need to try and find a way to see him more. Without hesitation I turned to him and said “Sophie is having a birthday party tonight at the pub on Smith Street at seven. You and Cooper should come if you’re not busy.” At the thought that he might reject the offer I smiled and walked off. When I got back to the apartment Sophie was sitting on the couch staring at me with a grin on her face. “Have fun getting the mail did you?” Oh my god. Did she know why I always wanted to get the mail? How on earth did she figure that out? Sophie isn’t exactly the brightest at times but of course this she figured out quickly. I smiled as I put the mail on the coffee table and sat down next to her. “So I hope that you don’t mind but I invited Logan and Cooper to your party tonight.” “No that’s fine” she replied. “Spencer isn’t coming anymore because he annoyed me earlier. Hey maybe we can both get lucky. Me with Cooper and you with Logan” she said then winked at me. I just rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the TV.

  Cha

  pter Three

  Holly

  “Hurry up Holly otherwise we will be late” Sophie yelled out to me from the living room. I looked at myself one last time in the mirror before sighing, grabbing my bag and leaving. When we got outside of the apartment and was locking the door I heard some laughing and turned to see Logan and Cooper walking out of their apartment. “You guys ready for a night of fun?” Cooper asked us. “Always” Sophie said back to him, then they linked arms and started walking towards the car. “Have I missed something with those two?” Logan asked me. I shrugged and started walking towards my car. “Where are you going Holly?” Logan asked me. I looked at him confused for a minute before saying “To Sophie’s party. Seeing as how it’s her birthday, I’m driving.” “Sophie came over to our place earlier this afternoon and Cooper and I offered to drive. You’re coming with us.” Logan said. I said nothing and tried not to show the excitement and embarrassment that was bubbling up inside me. I thought if I showed it he would think that I’m crazy or something. After all, I had only known him for a few weeks and I didn’t even actually know him that well.

  Sophie and I both jumped into the back of Logan’s truck after Cooper had childishly called shotgun. Logan started his truck and over the low rumble of the engine I could hear his music start playing. It was ‘The Other Side’ by Jason Derulo. I looked at Sophie disbelievingly. Surely he doesn’t like this song I thought to myself. Then out of nowhere Soph yelled “Crank it up! This is our jam!” Logan quickly turned up the volume and then out of nowhere started singing as loud as he could over the radio. “Holy crap he can sing!” Sophie shouted, slapping Logan on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell us?!” Coop laughed at this and simply said “He gets a bit nervous singing in front of people. He must be trying to impress you Holly.” And continued laughing at his friends’ expense. All I saw was Logan’s arm blur across the car and I heard a dull thump as his fist connected with Coops arm. “Ow! Dude too hard” Coop said and Logan, Sophie and I all burst out laughing.

  The trip flew by with all of us having so much fun. It felt like we got to the pub in no time. The music was already blasting and a few guests were standing around looking like they felt awkward. I went straight up to the bar and ordered a drink before even saying hello to anyone. If I was expected to stay here late then I was going to need a few drinks. I ordered myself a shot of Tequila and a Margarita, before I had time to pull out my purse to pay, Logan was standing next to me with money in his hand. “I’ll take a beer as well. This round's on me Holly” he said, smiling at me. “But-“I started to say “No buts.” Logan swiftly replied. “I think you deserve a night to relax and let your hair down” I winked at him “You know I think you’re absolutely right Logan!” He responded with the biggest smile I had seen him have so far.

  It didn’t take long for me to start loosening up and having some fun. Especially with Logan by my side all night. He had only had that one beer at the start of the night and yet he seemed in as good a mood as I was and I had drank a lot more than him. I was surprised
that I was having so much fun. There was a couple having a fight in the corner because some guy thought he could get away with kissing another girl right in front of his girlfriend and 2 fights had already been broken up so far, but I didn’t take much notice of that. I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of Logan. He didn’t seem to enjoy dancing very much but said yes to dance with me every time that I asked him to. I look over to see Cooper and Sophie tearing up the dance floor. I knew that Sophie was good at dancing but I had no idea the talent that Cooper had as well. Some moves that they did looked like it was choreographed and they had been dancing together for years. Then Sophie would dirty it up by grinding up against him. “Classy” I muttered thinking that no one else had heard me until Logan started to chuckle. When everyone had left and it was early in the morning, Cooper and Sophie came staggering up to us. Cooper started hugging Logan and Sophie kept telling me how much she loved me and how hot Cooper was. “So, I think it’s time to leave now” Logan said as he got to his feet. “I couldn’t agree more” I replied.

  Logan

  I put my arm around Holly to help her as we walked up to our apartments. Sophie and cooper were walking with arms linked, staggering everywhere and giggling loudly. When we got back to the girls’ place Sophie and Coop ran straight past us yelling night and then going in to Sophie’s room and closing the door. I stood in the door way just staring at Holly. “Are you sure that you don’t want me to come and help you into bed?” I asked Holly. “How easy do you think it is to get me into bed Logan?” she replied. We both laughed and then Holly stood up on her tippy toes and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. She stopped for a moment and I could feel her warm breath on my face. I could hear my heart start to race and I thought to myself why am I so nervous? I turned my head slightly towards hers. “Holly do you have any con-“Sophie had popped her head out of the bedroom and was looking straight at us. “Ha. Oops” she said and went back into the room. I let out a big sigh and kissed Holly on the cheek. “Goodnight Holly” I said. “Goodnight Logan. Thanks for tonight. I had fun. And you have to sing for me again soon” she replied winking at me. She turned and walked away from me, forgetting to shut the front door. I smiled to myself as I watched her walk into her room and plonk herself onto her bed before locking the front door for Holly and going back to my apartment knowing that I wouldn’t be seeing Coop again tonight.

  I woke early the morning after the party but just stayed there for an hour thinking about everything that happened last night. A smile crept up on my face when I thought about what almost happened between me and Holly last night but then I felt a little disappointed that I didn’t end up kissing her. I decided to get up and make some breakfast for the 3 hung over people. Coop was always super grumpy if he didn’t have a greasy breakfast the morning after a night of drinking. I made everyone some bacon, scrambled eggs and toast and took it next door. When I got there Coop was in the kitchen attempting to make some coffee. He looked terrible. “Good morning princess” I said to Coop as I shut the front door. “I made some breakfast” I said as I looked at the zombie cooper that was walking over to grab the plate of food from me. Without saying a word he took the plate and sat down at the table. It was then that Sophie came out of her bedroom wearing only shorts and a bra. “Did someone say breakfast” she said while grabbing a plate of food and joining Cooper at the table. Was she really going to stay dressed like that? I felt so uncomfortable so I decided to just go back to my apartment. As I turned and went to head for the door I heard a little voice say “Good morning. Who made breakfast? It smells really good”. I turned to see Holly standing in the doorway of her bedroom dressed in shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt. Even though she had just woken up and her hair was a little frizzy and going in many different directions she still looked so beautiful and made my heart race. I held out her plate of food for her. She grabbed the plate but before I let go I went to kiss her on the cheek. As I did that Holly pulled away. Why would she do that? She seemed so eager last night. Could she have only wanted to last night because she had been drinking? Did I read the signs wrong? This all became very awkward and confusing very quickly. I let go of her plate and took a step back. The expression on her face looked like I had just done the craziest thing and she hadn’t moved an inch since she pulled away from me. I had to leave before I embarrassed myself even more. “I’ll see you guys later” I said as I walked out the door and back to our apartment.

  Cha

  pter Four

  Logan

  I sat on the couch in the living room with the TV on, even though I wasn’t watching it and ran my fingers through my hair. I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened. I kept trying to figure out why she would pull away. A few minutes later Cooper came and sat down next to me with his half eaten breakfast and before I could tell him that I wasn’t in the mood for whatever smart ass thing he was about to say to me he turned to look at me and asked “So, what happened between you and Holly last night?” I didn’t turn to look at him when I said “Nothing happened Coop. Just let it go”. Coop looked offended. “What’s wrong with you Logan? We have been best friends for years. You always talk to me about everything, especially women. Why won’t you just tell me what happened between you guys last night?” He was right. I did always talk to him about everything. Even the sappy and romantic stuff that made us both feel so uncomfortable to talk about. We were both always there for each other. But this was different. I had never felt for any other woman, what I feel for Holly right now. I turned on the couch so my body was facing in Coop’s direction. His expression went from offended to worried. “Nothing happened between us last night but it almost did” I explained. “I nearly kissed her but then Sophie came out asking Holly for a condom”. Coop managed to fight off the smile for a total of about 3 seconds and then he was laughing. I glared at him a little and he stopped laughing and took a deep breath. “I’m good. Keep going” he said. “That’s it” I replied. “Sophie interrupted the moment we were having so I just kissed her on the cheek and said goodnight. But today when I went to kiss her on the cheek again she pulled away from me as if what I was about to do was the craziest thing that I could do. I’m really confused” I said. Coop just sat silently for a second before saying “Look man, just give her some time before you try to kiss her again. She could have been a little embarrassed because nothing actually happened between you guys last night and then you try to kiss her today like you’re her boyfriend or something. And you did it in front of me and Soph. I can talk to her if you want. Holly are I are close now. She’s like the little sister I never had” Cooper said. I just laughed softly at him and said “Yeah, ok then Coop”.

  We turned and watched TV for a little in silence before it finally hit me. “Ummm Coop” “Yeah” Cooper replied. “So, Sophie asked Holly for a condom last night”. “Yeah” Cooper said dragging out the word. “Well Holly never gave her one, so what did you do because I know that you wouldn’t have passed up sex with Sophie” I said. “What makes you think that Holly didn’t give us a condom” Coop asked me. “Well I saw Holly fall onto her bed and pass out before I left last night” I replied. “So you watched Holly fall asleep before you left last night and now you wondering why she is being all weird with you” Cooper said while laughing at me. “It wasn’t like that Coop and you know it” I said. “Will you just answer me?” I was beginning to worry a little now. Why wouldn’t he answer me? Coop let out a sigh before turning to look at me and saying “We didn’t use one. She has some sort of-“. I didn’t let Cooper even finish what he was saying before getting angry and said “Are you freaking crazy man? I can’t believe you. How did you not learn from last time?” About 2 years ago Cooper was sleeping with some red headed bimbo that he met at a bar. One drunken night he was out of condoms so he just decided not to use one. A few weeks later she was knocking on the door, crying saying that she thought she was pregnant. Turns out that she wasn’t but once she had left Cooper went to the supermarket and brought about a hundred
and fifty dollars’ worth of condoms to make sure that never happened again and here we were, going through it all again. “Just let it go man” Cooper said turning back to look at the TV again. I just shook my head and walked back into my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

  A few days later I was at the station looking through some surveillance tapes when the Chief came up to me and handed me a puppy. “Here, it’s a puppy” the Chief said to me. “Ummm yeah I can see that” I replied still trying to figure out why he had given it to me. “The puppy was recovered when we were going through the guys’ house for that drug bust thing that we did. It has nowhere to go so I’ve decided you and Cooper can have it for now” the Chief said. Before I could even say anything else the Chief turned and walked away. I looked into the eyes of the puppy that the Chief had just given me. We didn’t have anything for a dog. No food or food bowls. Nothing. I grabbed my jacket and keys and headed home. When I got there Cooper was already home. He didn’t say anything. He just stared at the puppy that I was holding in my arms. I put the puppy on the floor and watched it chase its own tail before running into a wall. Oh great. The puppy was crazy. “What the hell is that?” Cooper asked me. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a puppy” I replied. Coop scoffed before saying “Yeah, no shit. Why is it in our apartment?” I was going to explain but I really couldn’t be bothered so I just said one word “Chief.” Apparently that was all the information that Coop needed because he just shook his head and said “You are going to need to go and get stuff for that thing. I’m not doing it.” I was annoyed at him for a few seconds before thinking and hoping that maybe Holly could come with me. I smiled and walked over to the girls’ apartment. Holly answered the door and a smile spread across her face when she saw me. “So the chief gave me a puppy today to look after for a while and we don’t have anything for it. Cooper won’t help me get what we need so I was hoping that maybe you could come with me and help me pick some things out” I told Holly. The smile never left her face when she said “Sure. When do you want to go?” “Well, now” I said. Holly walked over to the coffee table grabbed her bag and looked at me before saying “Let’s go then.” This girl was truly amazing.