by T Gephart
Oh. Wow.
There was a conversation I hadn’t expected.
How the hell did she know, and how the hell did I answer that? So yeah, we spent the entire weekend screwing each other’s brains out, but he’s not my boyfriend or anything. She’d have that shit on the internal circulation quicker than you could say hello, office gossip. Yeah, would really prefer not to deal with that. It was only freaking Monday; surely I had until Wednesday before I had to deal with crazy.
“Come on, Beth.” Rita batted my arm softly before lowering her voice. “No need to be coy; it’s all over the internet about you going home with Max Reynolds. You know, the hot bass player from Black Addiction.”
“Oh, Max. Yeah, he lives in our building. Just moved there.” I waved her off pretending to be bored, hoping my disinterest would throw her off the scent. Not likely given the look on her face.
“You looked rather cozy in the photos. Rather affectionate for a neighbor, wouldn’t you say?”
Oh she was good. The sweetness balanced with the sarcasm to form the perfect mix of I-don’t-believe-you.
“We’re friends, I’ve known him for a long time.” All true, something she could have probably found out herself if she’d widened her Google search.
“Yes, I saw that. You guys dated before he was famous.”
So, she had Googled. Could’ve saved us all a lot of time if she’d led with that.
“Yep, all true.” I smiled, hoping this would be the end of the conversation but knowing it probably wasn’t. Today hadn’t been a good day for food, my chicken salad in front of me remaining uneaten.
“He’s awesome,” Jules chimed in, her addition to the conversation welcomed. She was right there so helping to deflect attention would be much appreciated.
“Oh, I bet he is.” Rita fanned herself, her pretty pink nails waving in front of her face. “So, you two aren’t dating?”
“Max and I?” My head shook as I couldn’t help but giggle. Not because it was funny, but because well, I didn’t really know. We’d slept together but that wasn’t what she’d asked and there was distinct difference between are you having sex with Max verses are you dating Max. “No, we’re not dating.”
“So, can you introduce me?” Her eyes flew open with excitement, her lashes threatening to fly off her face. “You know, I have a little thing for him. All girls want to have at least one time with a bad boy.”
Oh, please, no. She couldn’t be serious? She wanted to meet Max and hopefully fill her bad boy quota? I didn’t know whether to laugh or be disgusted.
“Well, I’m not really sure if he’s interested in dating at the moment.” Completely true, not like I’d asked and I hadn’t seen him with any other girls. “He is really busy. The band takes up a lot of his time.”
“One meeting. Come on, Beth,” she pleaded, her hands wrapping around my arm in a show of desperation. “Just invite him out to drinks or something, you don’t even have to stick around.”
Because that made it so much better. Here, hook me up with your friend to earn me cool points but don’t hang around or anything. Did the bleach she used to dye her hair—spoiler alert, she wasn’t a natural blonde—seep into her brain? Let’s file that under, not going to happen.
“Look, Rita.” I was really trying to be cordial, the lounge filled with our colleagues not to mention the principal. “I’ll mention it, but I can’t make any promises. Chances are he’ll probably say no.” As in hell no, over my dead body.
It didn’t matter whether or not he wasn’t dating me, he could not date her.
As in ever.
Not even as a joke.
At all.
No.
“Okay, well do the best you can, huh?” She fluffed up her golden mane of greatness and gave me a smile. “I’d really like to meet him.”
No shit. And still the answer was going to be an n-oh!
“Sure, will do.” I gave her a finger wave as she returned to her posse of pink angora cardigan wearers. No doubt with news that I wasn’t dating Max Reynolds and with any luck, she would be. Which totally had the same probability of an asteroid smashing through the window and killing us all in the next thirty seconds.
Oh, look. We’re all still alive. Guess it sucks to be her then.
“Can you believe that?” I tried to replay it back in my head slower to see if it made more sense the second time around. Nope, still lame.
Jules laughed, not even trying to be discreet. “I was totally going to jump in there, but you seemed to be handling it.”
“I stopped short of telling her Hell hadn’t frozen over yet; I think that deserves a cookie.” I eyed the vending machine, my salad no longer appealing.
“You totally do, me too because I had to listen to it.” Jules pulled out a few crumpled dollar bills, the cookies obviously her treat. “But, I think you should totally set them up, but only if we get to go on the date.”
She didn’t give me a chance to answer, stalking to the vending machine and gathering cookies. The plastic wrapping crinkled in her hand as she handed over my reward.
“Are you insane?” I pulled open the wrapper, the fresh cookie smell making my mouth water. “Even if I hated Max, I wouldn’t set him up with her, and I don’t hate him.” A piece of chocolate chip was tossed in my mouth. Yum. Almost got rid of the Rita after taste. Almost.
“No, you loooooooove him.” Jules shot me googly eyes as she took a bite out of her treat.
“Are you twelve? I don’t looooooove him.” I countered with some googly eyes of my own to illustrate how ridiculous she was being. “We’re friends.”
“Who had sex,” she pointed out, in case anyone had forgotten.
“Who care for each other,” I corrected. It hadn’t been sex without emotion, I’d always cared about him. Probably would until the day I died, but love? I just . . . didn’t know.
“So, put yourself out of your misery already and date him.”
“Maybe.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to date Max; I mean I really, really liked dating him. He was an awesome boyfriend, an amazing lover and a great friend. But like always, we hadn’t really defined what we were doing. I hadn’t asked him if this was just a friends with benefit thing—something we’d done. Or if it was a relationship thing—something we’d also done. Orrrrr, if it was a casual sex thing that happened from time to time—something we’d also done. So, there really was no precedent, which really was an occupational hazard with us.
As much as I found him irresistible, there had been a reason I’d tried to stay away. My heart wanted more, and I was almost positive his wouldn’t. He cared for me, sure, but more than that? It was a question I was too worried to ask. If he said no, it would hurt this time and I had walked away to avoid that kind of hurt.
We should probably stop it.
Like after this time.
The day progressed as normal. I wasn’t hijacked in the hall by some other breathy debutant wanting a hook up so that was a plus. And other than an email from Rita reminding me to try, there was no further discussion of the sexy Black Addiction bassist. Another win. Not that my mind strayed far from him, our weekend together dominating my mind. The two text messages—one sweet and one dirty—he’d sent me, also made it hard to forget.
Classes ended with Jules and I heading back to the apartment. It was good to get home, waving to Ben on our way to the elevator, the doors opening when we’d reached our floor.
Of course getting home introduced a whole new set of problems.
Did I call him? Was I going to see him tonight? When was the next time we were going to have sex again? See, we really did have issues, me taking out my phone and scrolling through to his number no less than five times.
Gah.
I should probably not call.
My eyes were still locked on the screen when it started ringing in my hand. The name of the caller displayed on the screen. Max.
“Hey.” I tried to sound cool, vowing to not
bring up the should-I-call debate with him. “How are you?”
Oohhhhhh because that sounded cool; my saving grace was he didn’t see my face palm.
“I’m good, tired.” He yawned followed by a laugh. “Someone kept me up most of the night and I’ve been at Angie’s all day. Just getting into the car now actually; thought I’d call and see if you wanted to do dinner.”
Whatever concerns I’d had eased when I spoke to him. He had a way of pushing back any lingering doubts and questions and for everything just to be with us. It was a calm that I couldn’t explain, a stillness that I craved. Like he was able to center me just with words.
“Dinner sounds nice, but Jules and I were about to make something here.” I cringed wanting to spend another evening with Max but being aware I’d been MIA all weekend. “I kind of don’t want to ditch her.” Especially as I had already offered to cook to make up for being gone while she was sick.
“That’s cool, have you got enough for one more?” Max asked without any hesitation.
“You want to eat dinner with us?”
“Sure, I’m game. I mean what’s the worst thing that could happen.” He laughed, not needing to remind me what was the worst that could happen.
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” My head fell in my palm, still horrified about my own stupidity.
“Nope, are you cool with a house guest, or am I forced to fend for myself?” The amusement playing in his voice as he spoke. “I would like to point out that I will happily pick up any ice cream of your choice for dessert.”
“Ice cream, huh?” Not that he needed to sweeten the deal, but who could ever say no to a good-looking man with ice cream. That was a no brainer.
“Deal.” Who was I kidding, even if he showed up empty handed, I was going to want to see him. He’d just made it a whole lot easier. He was great like that.
“See you soon, text me what flavor you want.” The ignition started, the roar of his engine making it harder to hear.
“Sure, will do. See you soon.” I ended the call; the grin I was wearing threatening to split my face apart.
“Jules, we’re having company,” I called out, the night taking an unexpected up turn. And I couldn’t wait to see him.
I’d made the decision when I kissed her goodbye on Monday morning that I’d be seeing her as much as possible. Why? Because I wanted to, and it felt like she’d wanted that too. And as far as I could see there was no reason to hold back.
I didn’t care if inviting myself to dinner made me seem desperate. My life wasn’t a fucking national survey, and I’d do what I wanted. Completely no fucks given on what anyone else thought, unless it was her. So, as long as she had no problem with having an extra mouth to feed—which she didn’t—I was party crashing.
Dinner had been really nice. Nothing fancy, just some Hamburger Helper, crusty bread and a salad but it tasted amazing. Sitting in her kitchen, just the three of us, talking felt good. sort of like old times when she used to crash with me and Joey. Except this time it had been reversed and it was me who was crashing. Which was completely cool with me. And it was fucking awesome having a home cooked meal instead of take out.
The conversation had been easy too.
“How’s the song writing going?” Beth asked in between mouthfuls, the question lacking the usual obligation it normally attracted when asked. It was like she genuinely wanted to know and not fishing for when the album would be done or needing a conversation filler.
“It’s going well. Lots of material. I’m writing this particular song about a girl who drugs this guy.” I couldn’t help but grin watching her face morph from the smile she’d been wearing into horror. “I think it would sell well.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” Her eyes narrowed, my laugh spelling out I had been joking. “And it’s still not funny.”
“I disagree, I think it’s hilarious.” Jules weighed in, her head nodding in agreement. “Go ahead, Max. Number-one hit for sure.”
Jules having an opinion was nothing new and I loved how both of them seemed real when they were around me. In a sea of people trying to please me, it was a welcome change.
“So, what about you ladies? How’s school?” And I genuinely wanted to know, finding out what had happened during Beth’s day pretty high on my priority list.
“It was fine.” Beth gave me a tight smile, part of the conversation obviously missing. The sideways glance at Jules a hint, I was probably right.
“Really? Just fine?” I probed, curious as to what the story was. And when Beth was cagey, there was always a story.
“Yeah, everything was great,” she added, the smile and the words not convincing.
“I’m going to go, and . . .” Jules rose to her feet and looked at us both. “Yeah, something needs doing surely.” And if that wasn’t a big freaking sign there was something that needed discussing then I didn’t know shit.
“Something you’re not telling me?” I didn’t bother continuing the charade. More than just a little curious as to why she was being evasive.
“Some pictures of us are online.” She hesitated before adding, “Together.”
Pictures of me and who I was with often turned up online. It was par for the course. I didn’t even notice the cameras anymore so it wasn’t even on my radar. I didn’t even think to give Beth a head’s up that it might happen.
“Does that bother you?” I’d never cared on whether a girl gave a shit about it or not, but with Beth it was different.
“No, I mean. It’s just weird because it’s just me.” She shrugged, not offering more of an explanation. “I guess it’s a slow news day.”
I was fairly sure there was more to it than one picture but I didn’t push, figuring I had all kinds of time to get more info. I wasn’t in a hurry; nope I want to savor every second I had with her. So, while she seemed to be done with that, we moved on to random every-day shit. Everything and nothing, at no time did it seem awkward.
And when it was time for bed, rather than kiss her goodbye and head out the door, I extended my invitation.
“I’m thinking I should stay.” My lips traveled up her neck, our feet moving towards her bedroom. “I have something important I need to do.”
“Oh really?” She didn’t fight me, pulling off my shirt as we made our way to her bed. “And what’s that?”
“Making you come.” I licked my lips, wanting to taste her more than anything. “Don’t get me wrong, dinner and the conversation was awesome, but I promised to bring dessert and I’m a man of my word.”
“We ate the ice cream.” She whimpered as my hand lowered to in between her thighs, my fingers desperate to get to skin.
“Then consider this the cherry on top.”
Leaving her wasn’t an option, and if I was honest, it wasn’t just about sex. I didn’t give jack about whether it was her mattress or mine that got the pleasure; feeling her beside me when I fell asleep, the only criteria I needed.
I could have gone home sometime in the early morning. Got a couple of hours more sleep, her alarm sounding way earlier than mine. But I would trade a few less Z’s for more hours with her any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Even woke up a little before we needed to be so I could give her a wake up of my own.
Best. Start. Ever.
And I only agreed to let her shower by herself, because I knew if I got in there with her, it would end up taking three times as long. Her schedule not as flexible as mine.
“Hey, big guy.” Jules punched me in the arm. “Sleep well?” The grin on her face told me she was more than aware that not a lot of sleeping had gone on.
“Great actually.” I took a mouthful of coffee as I stood in the middle of their kitchen. It was how I liked to enjoy my morning cup. On my feet, the cold tile underneath—substituting kitchens didn’t bother me. “Never better.”
“Riiiiiiggggghhhht.” She nodded, probably having heard more than she should. And if I’d had any decency, I might have been
embarrassed. Not that she seemed to be. Looked like it was a win/win all around.
“So, I was wondering if you have plans for Friday night?” She rocked back onto her feet, her work gear already sorted as she waited for Beth to get ready.
“You asking me out on a date?” I bit back a grin. Not that there’d been a chance, but it was fun to watch her squirm.
“Hahahahha. No.” The exaggerated laugh proving she knew I’d been kidding. “I need a tiny favor.” She pinched together her fingers giving me the visual cue. “It’s actually more for Beth than me.”
Well, wasn’t that just the magic word. It’s for Beth would pretty much guarantee I’d do anything. Need a spare hand? Sure, let me cut off mine.
“This Friday?” I waited for her to nod. “Nope, nothing solid. What did you need?”
Jules took a deep breath, which meant she was either going to spill one hell of a story or she was nervous, and I wasn’t sure which was better.
“We have this thing, sort of like a fundraiser—a bowl-a-thon.” Her mouth raced without taking a break. “And we both volunteered to go; Beth’s really excited about it. It’s only a couple of hours, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it which means she’ll be without a partner. I know she’d be so disappointed if she didn’t get to go, you know. So, I thought maybe I’d just find a replacement for me. There’s a cute single dad at school; I could totally ask, but I figured I’d see if you were interested first.” She took a big suck of air, almost passing out from her detailed rundown.
I chose to ignore that part about the cute single dad, because that shit just pissed me off. And it was too early in the morning for me to be throwing back some verbal gymnastics of my own, so I let that slide. Plus, I knew when I was being baited, and Jules had the line out, lured and hooked just waiting for a nibble.
Wasn’t happening.
She also seemed to have a case of motherfucking amnesia, failing to remember I’d known Beth a long time. Bowling? Please, I’d have a better chance getting her excited about going to a car wash.
“Beth doesn’t like bowling.” My arms folded across my chest wondering where the fuck this was going. Like it or not, I was interested so dismissing it wasn’t an option.
