A CUP OF TEA
NEIGHBORLY GESTURES: A CUP OF TEA
A short erotic neighbors and ex in-laws to friends-with-benefits story
Copyright © 2024 Leto Armitage – All rights reserved
Publisher: Libertalia Press
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 DEDICATION 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
I dedicate this series to Mr. Rogers. Fred Rogers taught generations to “love thy neighbor” on his children’s show. He may not have approved of all the ways they love each other, but I think he would approve of the real affection between them and the bonds they form.
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 DESCRIPTION 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
When your enemy becomes your neighbor, and your neighbor becomes your community, everything becomes… complicated.
A month has passed since Shannon and Adam’s first “negotiation.” She’s been avoiding him. No more angry notes. No more interactions. She just waves as she jogs past.
Adam expected that to be the end, but then he opens his door to find Shannon sitting on his curb, wincing from a twisted ankle. Being neighborly means being helpful. Being Adam means being too damn curious for his own good. An afternoon of whiskey and honesty later everything’s changing.
Enter Coffee Club.
Five neighbors, all working from home, meeting for a morning coffee before the work day begins. There’s Harley with the purple hair, tattoos, and a gaming obsession. Risha who’s rebuilding her life after divorce. Karlee with the quiet warmth. And then there’s Shannon who’s organizing everyone with the same precision she brings to everything else.
But she’s been carrying a secret. A diagnosis. Something small and treatable that was caught early. Still terrifying enough for her to reevaluate every choice she’s never made. Every adventure her twin sister had that Shannon envied but never pursued. Every desire she buried under propriety.
When she texts Adam with a new offer, he has to face an uncomfortable truth. He’s stopped hating her. In fact, he’s not sure what he feels anymore. Except want. And something that might actually be compassion.
Some relationships evolve from enemies to lovers. Shannon and Adam’s is… something else entirely. It grows in the spaces between Coffee Club mornings and Thursday night encounters. It has Greg watching videos with pride, Adam buying crates of whiskey, and Shannon discovering that serving someone can mean taking power for yourself.
Neighborly Gestures: A Cup of Tea is the second in a five-book series of short stories where character development meets escalating heat, and found family becomes as important as the main relationship.
Content Guidance: Explicit sexual content, power dynamics, praise kink, service submission, husband participation with boundaries, health catalyst themes, found family, and mature characters making informed choices. All characters are consenting adults.
Perfect for readers who love: Character evolution, found family dynamics, praise kinks, negotiated desire, community building, suburban settings with depth, series that improve with each book, morally grey characters becoming genuine, and escalation that earns emotional investment.
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 EXCERPT 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
Fate has a strange sense of humor. A month had passed since I made the delightful video of Shannon keeping her part of a very naughty deal. My ex-sister-in-law had since avoided me. Mind you, we had barely talked before, and we had no more reason to do so now. She had even stopped leaving me angry notes about my failings as a neighbor. I had expected that to be the end of our interactions.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the front door to pick up my food delivery and saw her sitting on my curb. She was wincing and rubbing her leg, and I am far too curious sometimes. Far too weak. This is not my problem, I thought, as I walked up to her to see what was going on.
“Hey, Shannon.”
She ignored me, but I stood behind her until she said, “Hello, Adam.”
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“Please, leave me be.”
“Kind of hard to when you’re sitting in my yard.”
“I just twisted my ankle while I was jogging, that’s all.”
“So bad you can’t hobble next door?”
“Well, I’m not here because I was hoping you’d come out to harass me.”
I thought about jabbing her, but I decided to be a little more mature for a change. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Greg will come get me.”
“Does he still work downtown?”
Her back moved as she took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, he does.”
It would take him an hour to get home, maybe more. “Which ankle?” I asked, moving to face her.
“My right one. Why?”
I offered her a hand. She looked up at me, and her eyes darted from my hand to my face.
“Come on, I’ll help you into your house. Then you’ll be out of my yard and I can leave you be.”
She didn’t move.
“Look, I know you don’t like me, but let a neighbor give you a hand just this once.”
“Like the last time you helped me?”
“Wasn’t I upfront about everything, then?”
“You were a bastard.”
“Stop being stubborn, Shannon. Take my hand.”
She made a face at that, but she did reach out to grab my hand.
I pulled her to one foot, stooping so she could put her right arm around me, and then we hobbled to her house together. I helped her to the couch, and she told me to leave her there, but I ignored her.
It had been a while since I last was there, but the house layout was the same as mine. I put the paper bag with my lunch on the table and went looking for supplies. I gathered a zip-lock bag and filled it with ice to put on her ankle, a few ibuprofen, a bottle of Scotch, and a glass. Shannon had always liked a good single malt.
I returned to the couch and put everything down within easy reach of her, but she was more interested in my bag.
“What’s in there?”
“Lunch.”
“Do I smell fries?”
“You do.”
I had ordered my food from one of those places that fill the bottom of the bag with fries, so there was plenty in there. She motioned for it, so I pulled the bag over and sat next to her.
Shannon reached her hand in and pulled out a handful of fries. They disappeared into her mouth one by one.
“So good. So, so good,” she murmured. “I haven’t had fries in ages.”
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 REVIEWS 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
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