A big THANK YOU! to this site for letting me invade for THE REAL THING tour :) (squishy hugs)
"Why don’t people date their best friends? We’re past the getting-to-know-you part, so we can jump right into the getting to know your body parts."
Ah... my main character made it sound so simple in those sentences ;) But as someone who fell for their best friend, it is not without its hurdles.
Let me take you back to when I was a 15 year old, embarking on her first new job (and to this day I don't know why they hired me at 15. I must've had a great recommendation from my mom, lol) at Jungle Jim's Playland. (Which is basically Chuckie Cheese but with way better rides and much lazier staff.)
There I was, redeeming tickets for prizes when I looked up and saw an adorable guy with about ten kids hanging off his arms (oh his arms!) and they were all begging him to give them more tokens for games. He teased them for a bit, saying he didn't have any more, but he obviously did with his bulging pockets and the "jangle" when he walked. After they all got on the floor and begged, he rained tokens on them and made these kids the happiest ever!
I was swooning under my fuzzy red and white uniform hat. His eyes locked on mine and I fumbled with the tickets, tried to be as good with the kids I was helping as he was with the ones he was tending. He must be there for a birthday party. Big brother, cousin, someone who I'd probably never see again. And he was walking up to me, jamming his hand into his back pocket. I jolted when he hopped the counter and set my time card on top of the ticket counter.
And he uttered the first words he ever spoke to me. "I can finish up if you want your break."
Oh. My. Gosh. This was my boss!
How old are bosses around here? Everyone I knew was either 16 or 80, so I'm instantly thinking, he's a twenty-year-old fart and I should not be thinking how cute he was with all those kids and how his smile really is one of those half-smiles that you only see in movies or read in books. (Fun fact... he actually got hit in the mouth with a baseball when he was younger, so only half his mouth will smile. No joke!)
Anyway, I went to clock out... and ended up talking to myself by the timepunch. Like, out loud talking to myself. I don't remember the conversation... but I do remember looking up and there he was with my other boss, and they're both staring at me like I've lost my marbles. He laughed as he clocked out too, then we walked back to the break room together, my face a bright red tomato as I spurted who knows what just to try to prove to him I wasn't crazy.
We talked the full half hour break... then the rest of that night. Found out he was a freshly graduated 17 year old. (Birthday in the summer like moi.) And he was into Star Wars hardcore! Video games, played the guitar, worked on trucks, and basically awesome. I was sort of against dating at this point in time. Up until him I'd always fallen for my friends and they ended up dating one of my other friends, so I didn't allow myself to have major crushes. He also told me I was too young and he didn't want to date someone he worked with. (He told me this later... like much later... like after we were married later when I asked him what took us so long to get together, lol.)
So instead of dating or getting into a what I thought was one-sided infatuation, we became friends. He soon became my best friend. Talked on the phone daily, we'd carpool to and from work, and then when he quit he still took me to work. And mostly we'd just play video games and I'd make fun of his Princess Leia figurines while he made fun of my Harry Potter clad room.
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| Totally not joking... he still has it, lol |
Then one day, two and half years after we met, we were sitting in the dark theater for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and he leaned over and said, "Is this a good time to tell you I love you?"
That was when I finally allowed myself to fall for my friend, and I kissed him... after the movie, of course. I mean, it was Harry Potter ;)
And the benefits of falling in love with your best friend?
1. You already know their family, so you don't have to do the awkward meet-and-greet with their parents.
2. You already have an in with their other friends too.
3. You've most likely passed gas around each other, so you don't have to worry about that first part of the relationship when you need to hold it in till you pass out.
4. You've been buying birthday presents for each other since you became friends, so there's no stressing out any more than you usually do for gifts.
5. After you've gotten through the hot first part of the relationship when all you do is kiss, you'll still have stuff to talk about or do together when you're not lip-locked.
So that's my own best friends to lovers story and why I love reading about them so much. :) You can catch these two best friends falling for each other in The Real Thing, info below! :)
In this electrifying novel from Cassie Mae, two close friends surprise themselves by shifting from platonic love to sexual attraction.
Eric Matua has one friend—his best friend and childhood sweetheart, who needs a place to stay for the summer. Mia Johnson has thousands of friends—who live in her computer. Along with her email chats and Facebook notifications, Mia also devours romance novels, spending countless hours with fictional characters, dreaming of her own Romeo to sweep her off her feet. When she starts receiving supersweet messages from a stranger who thinks she’s someone else, Mia begins to believe that real love is possible outside her virtual world.
When the two friends become roommates, Mia finds herself falling harder than she ever thought she could. But Eric keeps his desires locked away, unsure of himself and his ability to give his best friend what she deserves in a boyfriend. As her advances are continually spurned, Mia splits her time between Eric and her computer. But she soon realizes she’s about to lose the only real thing she’s ever had.
Advance praise for The Real Thing
“Cassie Mae is awesome! The perfect balance between laugh-out-loud funny and achingly poignant, The Real Thing is the ultimate escapist read. I didn’t want it to end!”—Lauren Layne, author of Isn’t She Lovely
“Watching two best friends figure out how to fall in love makes The Real Thing a summer read of swoon-worthy perfection.”—Jolene Perry, author of The Summer I Found You
“Cassie Mae’s The Real Thing made me want to close out every social media app and electronic device I have, but I couldn’t manage to stop reading!”—Rebecca Yarros, author of Full Measures
Cassie Mae (who dawns the name Becca Ann on occasion) is the author of a few hundred... okay, maybe not that many... books. Some of which became popular for their quirky titles, characters, and stories. She likes writing about nerds, geeks, the awkward, the fluffy, the short, the shy, the loud, the fun.
Since publishing her bestselling debut, Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend, she has published and sold books to Random House, Swoon Romance, and Spencer Hill Press. She has a favorite of all her book babies, but no, she won't tell you what it is. (Mainly because it changes depending on the day.)
Along with writing, Cassie likes to binge watch Teen Wolf and The Big Bang Theory. She can quote Harry Potter lines quick as a whip. And she likes kissing her hubby, but only if his facial hair is trimmed. She also likes cheesecake to a very obsessive degree.
You can stalk, talk, or send pictures of Dylan O'Brien to her on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cassiemaeauthor
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