“Or you happened across one of the thousands of men who use Timber.”
Shayler glared at her. “Why are you pissing on my parade?”
“You can’t do him, Shay. He’s David’s roommate.”
“And?”
“And you’ll be going there every Friday night to study.”
Shayler took a swig of the opened bottle of wine that always seemed to be on the coffee table. “Is that a bad thing?” She pushed herself off the floor but continued nursing the bottle. “If Kyle’s there, it’s not only an ice breaker, but someone I can keep having sex with. No more dry spells. No more awkwardness. Just sex.”
Suddenly, Kyle’s profile picture of him shirtless at the gym didn’t seem that bad. In fact, he was kind of cute in his own special way. There was a good chance she’d have to spend most of their time having sex bossing him around and explaining what and where a clit was, but that still sounded better than doing some old bartender or grumpy professor.
“Are you considering this for the right reasons?” Ansley asked.
Shayler tossed her a sour expression before typing a message to Kyle.
Wht r u doin rn?
He responded in less than a minute, and the girls—minus Ansley—squealed as Whitney’s phone released a set of techno-sounding beeps.
Kyle: U ;)
There was a collective groan, but Shayler was too fixated on the prospect of sex to mind. Actual sex, not a shameful, drunken romp or a one-night stand. If she wanted, she was sure Kyle would be her new friend-with-benefits, like Garrett last semester but more attractive. The whole thing was kind of a win in her mind. Kyle was a frat guy with a better than okay body, and hopefully a bulk size box of condoms.
She ripped her sweater off. “I need to get ready.”
Ansley trailed after her as the rest of the girls argued over what Netflix show to watch. “Shay, I don’t think this is your best plan.”
Shayler hiked up a pair of skinny jeans, hopping a few times before they came to her waist. “Consensual sex isn’t a good plan?”
“Not if it’s consensual sex with David’s roommate and friend.”
“They’re not friends.”
Ansley’s bracelet clanged on her wrist as she shook her hand. “If Becca was here, she’d tell you this shit is dumb. And you’d listen.”
“But she’s not here because she’s having sex, Ans. S-e-x. You do remember what that is, right?”
“Don’t be a bitch. I’m trying to help”
“Stop standing in my way then.” Shayler buttoned up a plaid top and tied it together at her waist. It was an easy outfit to put back on when she didn’t want to stick around for cuddles after.
“Have you seriously thought about this?”
“No, but I try not to think too much. It’s part of my charm.” Shayler winked before moving Ansley’s body aside, grabbing her purse, and skipping out the door.
Chapter Seventeen
Kyle wanted them to rendezvous at his house, which was convenient since Shayler knew where he lived. Ansley’s words echoed in her brain until Shayler was forced to really contemplate her decision. And the more she thought about it, the worse she felt. Her stomach gurgled for a third time, but Shayler blamed that on the fried chicken sandwich she’d eaten on the way over.
Pulling into the rocky driveway was like deja-vu, except the Prius that’d been parked in front of the house was gone. For the first time since last night, Shayler was able to relax. No David meant more privacy, and maybe some freaky dining table sex.
Shayler walked carefully to the front door, stuffing a loose condom she’d found in the glove compartment into her purse. She knocked and waited. And waited some more. It was taking too long for him to answer, and she was about to climb back into her car and peel out of there like she was auditioning for the thirtieth Fast and Furious movie when the door opened. Kyle stood on the other side, his chest heaving and his skin and hair soaking wet.
“I took a shower,” he blurted.
Shayler grinned and nodded, wondering how many permanent markers he must’ve sniffed as a kid.
“Anyway, welcome to my chateau,” he said, tugging her forward and raising his hand to display everything she’d seen the night before.
“Nice.”
Shayler dumped her purse on the counter and followed his frantic steps to the left of the sitting room, where it seemed his bedroom was. He kicked the door open and slid a couple piles of dirty clothes to the far corner. Not that she minded, it was basically a darker, manlier version of her own room.
His bed was wrinkled and the sheet was pulled up on the side, exposing the yellowing mattress underneath. It looked hard to fix, however, since he didn’t exactly have a bed frame. Shayler tilted her head to the side. If she rolled off the bed, it’d be less of a fall.
“Yeah, this is my room.” Kyle palmed a football that he’d grabbed from his chair. “It’s pretty chill.”
“Yup.”
Shayler tapped her foot on the ground, expecting him to grab and kiss her. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed and patted the space beside him. Shayler grumbled and settled an inch away from him. Putting up with his weirdness would be worth the penetration.
“I’m surprised you were DTF.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your profile on Timber. It said DTF.”
Shayler mentally cursed Whitney for not following directions but flashed Kyle a grin. “I hate complicated shit. I’m not here for drama.” She licked her bottom lip, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“That’s good. I’m not ready to date yet. You know that, right? If we do this, I can’t promise you more.” He clutched her shoulders, squinting his eyes as he exhaled in her face. “You can’t fall in love with me.”
She blinked. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
“Wonderful. Really wonderful.” He rubbed his hands together. “Shall we get started?”
“Wait, that’s how you’re gonna hit on me?”
“Didn’t we already agree to doing it? Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Yeah, but I’m also a human being. I need some organic foreplay to happen before you’re getting anywhere near these”—she pointed to her boobs— “or this.”
“Fair enough.” Kyle brushed his hair away from his face and leaned in, keeping his hands on her shoulders.
Shayler gave in to the kiss. He was eager, his tongue sweeping into her mouth before she could think about opening it. It wasn’t that awful. Kyle tasted like cotton candy lollipops that’d been rolled in sugar and covered in maple syrup. He moved his hands down to the end of her shirt and yanked on the tie.
With a sigh, Shayler undid the elementary knot and buttons. Men were so bad at undressing her. He slid the fabric off, pulling down on her bra straps like they were levers to a slot machine. Tensing her arms, she hoped he got the signal that he wasn’t close to seeing the girls yet. Did he think she was that easy?
Thinking the word made her inhale sharply, but Kyle took it as a sign to make out with her earlobe.
“You like that baby?” he whispered, lapping at the crease.
Actually, she didn’t mind it too much. Every now and then, his tongue would rub against the sensitive spot on her neck, nearly making her moan. For that, she undid her bra and let it fall to the floor. Kyle pulled back, assessed, and attacked her breasts. She grimaced as he palmed them like basketballs and squeezed. Maybe she should tune out until it was time to actually have sex, she thought. It’d been so long, foreplay wasn’t going to cut it.
At some point, Kyle pulled down her bottoms so that she was left only in her black panties. His hands were okay roaming her skin, and she liked that he bit down on her lower lip, but it was still so … standard. He teased her hips with his fingers. She felt nothing. She didn’t coo or moan or shout his name. Her thighs didn’t tingle, and she definitely wasn’t soaked with anticipation.
He pushed her back and climbed on top, wiggling out of his baggy gym
shorts. Apparently, Kyle wasn’t a boxers or briefs kind of guy. If anything, at least she could say his dick was normal. Not scary big, not too small, not curved all the way to right or covered in bumps. Moving her panties to the side, he pressed against her core and she had to remind herself to arch into it.
“Wait, condom,” she said, pressing her hands on his chest to stop him.
“Condom?” he echoed. “I’m clean.”
“Didn’t ask that. You still need to wear one.”
“Why? Aren’t you on the pill?”
“I take a shot every three months.” She tugged her hair out from under his arm as he rested his face next to hers. “But you still gotta bag it.”
“I don’t have any.”
“You’re a twenty-something-year-old male in college, and you don’t have a box of condoms in your room?”
“I used them all.”
She sighed and heaved herself off the bed. Thank God she’d found the one in her car. “I’ll get it.”
“You have condoms?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as if she’d scandalized him.
“Uh, yeah. But if that bothers you, I’m fine with getting the hell out of here.”
“No.” He sat up, shaking his hair. “No judgement here. Do your thang.”
Shayler grimaced and crawled out of the bed. Sex with Kyle wasn’t much different than most of the experiences she’d had in high school and her freshman year of college, but it felt so tedious now. She walked to the kitchen where she’d left her purse and rummaged for the tin foil package.
She pinched the ends of it, prepared to traipse back to Kyle’s room, rip it open, and slide it down his length. But then the door opened, and she dropped it on the floor in order to cover her boobs with her crossed arms. It was official, the universe hated her. If only she could figure out what she did to piss it off so much.
David set his keys on the counter, right in front of her, his reaction slow. His wide-eyed gaze ran down her body as his jaw slacked. Shayler turned her body into the counter, hoping to hide most of her body. At least her nipples were covered and her panties were still on.
“Hi,” she said with an awkward, toothy smile.
Standing basically naked in front of David’s door with his gaze locking on hers was not how she’d pictured tonight. And yet, it was still better than Kyle dipping his tongue in her belly button and telling her she tasted like the cinnamon cookies his grandma baked for Christmas.
“Uhm…” David fumbled with his stance, going from crossing his arms to sticking his hands in his pockets.
Shayler kicked at the condom, hoping to hide it from his sight. Not that that mattered as soon as Kyle’s door opened. The second she heard the click and his heavy footsteps, she knew she was doomed. She wondered how much it would hurt to fling herself through their sliding glass doors.
“You get it?” Kyle asked. Shayler pivoted as he gave his roommate The Nod, hoping he’d notice her panic and sweep her back to his room. “Hey, dude.” Kyle’s arm circled around her waist as he bent down and snatched the packet off the ground. “Ready?”
Shayler stared at the floor. Maybe she could sacrifice some animals or something in order to stop the embarrassment. Or sacrifice Kyle, since, at that second, she wanted nothing more than to slice off each of his limbs with a dulled, rusty razor anyway. Her tongue was heavy and stuck, like she’d swallowed most of it, and her body itched like she’d caught a case of full-body crabs. If that was a thing.
“You… You guys?” David pointed between the two of them.
Shayler shook her head. “Uh, not … you know, nothing serious.”
But Kyle nodded. “Yeah, us guys, and you’re kind of interrupting.”
She stepped away from Kyle’s grasp and clenched her arms tighter to her body. “Go wait for me.”
“But—”
“Wait!”
“Okay.” He loped all the way back, shifting the tiny package between his fingers like he was a two-star magician at a birthday party.
“Wow,” David said, rubbing his neck. He shut his eyes. “Why don’t you go, and we’ll pretend like none of this happened.”
“Back to Kyle’s room?” For some stupid reason, the suggestion made her blood boil. If she’d been able to do so without showing off her boobs, she would’ve clenched her fists and stuck them on her waist.
He peered at her, his gaze staying strictly on her face. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Yes. It is”
“So why aren’t you going?”
Shayler’s heart sped up as accusations flew around in her mind like it was a pinball machine. Next time, she was going to give Ansley’s suggestion a try and think before she did something like this. “I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“Because I just don’t want to.”
“You sound like a child.”
“Yeah, well you … you … you’re a stupid head!”
He chuckled, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Good one.”
“Why do you keep rejecting me?” she asked suddenly.
Seeing him was too much, and she was in front of him with a tiny slip of black lace covering only her lower half and he wasn’t even looking at her body. Was she unattractive? Gross? Did he think her curves were fat or unappealing?
“Shayler.” He shook his head and took a seat on one of the dining table chairs. “I told you, I don’t want casual sex.”
“I don’t get it. Don’t you like sex?”
“I like it more with someone I love.”
Shayler willed her stomach not to rid itself of the junk food she’d consumed. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“And you want to be my friend because you really want to? Not because you want in my pants or you’re trying to seduce me or something?”
“I just want to be your friend.” He rested his elbows on his knees. “If it’s too hard for you, or you can’t—”
“Oh, please. I’m not some fucking lovesick puppy. I think you’re hot, and I think we’d have good sex. I’m not doodling your last name in my notebooks or drawing hearts on my mirror with lipstick.”
“All right, then.”
“So friends?” She wanted to offer him a hand, but instead she bit her lip and tilted her head.
He nodded twice, and Shayler had to clench her teeth at the heat that burned through her the longer he held her gaze. She was so close. All she had to do was drop her arms and straddle him. He could tear her panties off, grab her, and push her against the wall. She could imagine his mouth on her breasts as he pushed himself inside of her… Shayler coughed, more wet in that moment of delusional daydreaming than the entire time Kyle had been drooling all over her.
“Friends,” he agreed. “But do you think you could put your clothes on?”
She laughed. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“I’m still a man, Shayler.”
Shayler’s stomach dipped so low she thought it might fall out of her. “Fine. But only if you grab them for me. Oh, and tell Kyle I caught the flu.”
“Deal.”
Chapter Eighteen
Shayler had never seen so many different versions of the color purple. She stared at the confetti, balloons, and paper decorations that covered her dining table. Derek plopped into the chair beside her, nearly knocking over her extra-tall glass of iced coffee.
She snatched it away and took a sip, shivering from the caffeine rush. “Why do I need to store all this?”
“Rebecca’s always at my place and, obviously, Ansley can’t keep them at their place.”
“Why not rent out a storage unit?”
“Come on, it’s not that much stuff.”
“Derek, it looks like you robbed a party store and took everything. Is that a fucking dancing flower?” She gestured to the pink and white velvet flower that sat next to him.
“It sings happy birthday,” he said with a grin. “She’s gonna love it.”
“G
ood God. Don’t you have friends that can take care of this crap?”
“Damion was gonna hide it all for me, but Rebecca was digging around in our supply closet to mop the floors a couple weeks ago. She’d find it.”
“Tell her they’re for someone else.” Shayler picked up a package of confetti shaped like the number twenty-one and frowned.
Derek ignored her. “Anyway, I was gonna give it to Ansley’s friends to hold, but I don’t know them too well.”
“I was your last choice?”
“Shayler”—Derek waved his arm—“look at your place.”
She spun around. It wasn’t that bad. There were magazines, food wrappers, and old cans scattered on the floor and tables, sure. But they hadn’t had a case of cockroaches in a whole month, and she’d even washed the windows last semester. Of course, she’d been drunk on Goldschläger at the time and ended up projectile vomiting on one.
“You know that anywhere good enough to keep this crap neat is probably because Becca cleans it,” she said.
“What am I supposed to do? Aside from my girlfriend and Damion, everyone is a filthy pig.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
He glared at her. “I need this to go smoothly.”
“Why is some party a big deal to you?”
“Because.”
She took another sip of her drink. “She already forgives you.”
“Shay, do—”
“Don’t call me Shay.”
Derek huffed. “Shay, do you know how much I hurt Rebecca? Do you know what she looked like when she yelled at me at the frat?”
Shayler grimaced. She hated thinking about winter break. Rebecca had become a zombie thanks to Derek blowing her off after they’d had sex. “No, I didn’t get to see her face then, but I saw it every day afterward. Unlike you.”
To his credit, he didn’t even blink. “She was so hurt and angry and seeing her like that ripped me apart. She turned to scream at me and it shattered my world. Rebecca’s always nervous but happy, and her eyes didn’t have any of that. Because I broke her, Shayler. That’s why I need this to be perfect. She deserves it.”
“Lilac balloons aren’t going to erase the pain.”
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