Lovely Shades of Me

MISS

Josh handed me my toiletry bag and a pink flannel shirt on a hanger.

"PINK Josh?! Really? Pink!" I thought he knew me better than this.

"It was all that was clean." He shrugged his square shoulders.

"Bullshit. BULLshit!" The words rolled out of my mouth in a deep southern drawl. For whatever reason, swear words just had more of a twang in my mouth that others.

"I know for a fact there are at least 3 baskets of CLEAN clothes in my room."

"First of all, how the sans hell am I supposed to know whats clean and what's dirty in that pig pen of yours? Second, even if I DID know what was clean, this meeting is too important for you to wear some wrinkled ass shirt from the bottom of the hamper. And you know its okay for women to wear pink sometimes. Girl, don't get me started." It was too late though, he was already started. 

"Do you need me to stroke you ego a bit?" Oh Lord, I had gotten him ranting.  "Do you need me to tell you, that you look hot in pink? What do I need to say to you to get you to stop complaining and start strippin'?" I didn't dare say it, but he was super sexy when he was this irate. 

"Alright, don't get yourself in a tizzy," I huffed, but it was too late. He kept on like he didn't hear me.

 "Finally, you could have picked out your own damn shirt if you hadn't volunteered to come do this job for the pastor. So I think the words you were lookin' for are thank you."

"Correction: volun-TOLD. I did not volunteer for shit!" I started to defend myself, "My mama heard the pastor carryin' on yesterday in his sermon about that attic fan and she took the liberty of offering my services. Convenient how she suddenly loves my work when it suits her..."

"That's your mama." Our mutual disdain for my mother had cooled Josh off. 

"Thank you," I put my hand on his arm. I was acting like an ungrateful brat. It was way outside the realm of Josh's job description to fetch my clothes. I had zero right to complain, even in jest.  

"And you know I don't HATE pink. I'm not  butch, despite the rumors." I know I wasn't telling Josh anything new, but I still felt like it needed to be said out loud.

Not that there was anything wrong with lesbians. I respect lesbians. I just ain't one of them. I barely like my own vjay-jay, so getting close to one that belonged to someone else was just out of the question. But more power to them. The way I see it , love is love. I just don't like people tellin' me who I should and shouldn't love based on what I choose to wear and what I do for a living. I hated being in the middle of all of the small town gossip. 

I knew all the nosy nellies will be talking about how Ryan-Alexander swore in the pastor's house AND wore pink today. Lord, this town needs a better football team.


"I know. You can be prissy and girly when you want, but you don't want investors or homeowners thinkin' you're just some Joanna Gaines... needin' a husband to help run YOUR company. I know. I know you are your own perfect whole person." He said with a wink and a smirk. "But if you learned how to use a hanger every once in a while you wouldn't be forced into wearin' a pink shirt."

I sighed as I started lifting up my completely soaked shirt over my head. I tossed it in the back of my pickup. Even though I was wearing a sports bra and a tank top, the door of my super duty RAM wouldn't have been enough to shield me from the eyes of any other guy. Don't get me wrong there was absolutely nothing between Josh and I, but he was the only guy to ever see me naked.

We had been naked in front of each other since we were practically babies. Josh had seen it all. Although I will deny this until my last dying breath, especially to my mother, we had even fooled around a little. Okay more than a little. Josh and I.... we helped each other discover ourselves. And well, when there has been a need or if curiosity got to be too much, we found ways to fill it with each other. And boy did he know how to fulfill those needs.

 I swear, there was nothing there. No romance. No feelings. No sexual tension. Yada yada. yada. None of that messy bullshit. Just two friends learning about each other and helping each other. It was completely platonic.

At this point he didn't even flinch at the sight of my exposed midsection when my tank temporarily rose to my belly button as I lifted off my over shirt. His eyes didn't linger for a second. I grabbed the toiletry bag and found a pack of cucumber melon wipes and started wiping as much as I could.