“What happened?” Her voice rockets up an entire octave. “Nothing happened. Did you happen?” She squeezes her eyes shut. “Fuck.”
I like this messy side to her. It makes me feel like I get under her skin as much as she does mine. Makes it less of a lonely place to be.
Maybe that’s why I take another step toward her, then another, until she’s staring up at me with those wide eyes that give way to the innocence I think hides under all her bold.
“C’mon, sunshine. You can’t possibly think I’ve forgotten. The way my name sounded leaving your lips on repeat is burned into my mind, just like the way your mouth opened when you came around my fingers, and again on my tongue.” I trail a finger over her hip before slipping my hand below her hoodie, wrapping my palm around her bare waist. “Would you like a reminder?”
I don’t have a clue what I’m doing right now. And Jennie is, without a doubt, the last person I should be doing it with. I guess I’ve decided—in this moment, anyway—I have no fucks left to give. Not based on the way I drop my lips, letting them hover above her mouth as the tip of my nose skims hers.
Jennie clings to me, chin lifting, plush pink lips reaching for mine. They part on a jagged inhale, cheeks flush under the intensity of my stare, the words I shouldn’t have said.
And then she comes back down to earth, shaking her head and essentially bodychecking me across the hall. She twists back to her door and jams her key in the lock.
Okay, she doesn’t, but she sure tries. She misses, like, twenty times, repeatedly stabbing the door, marking up the white paint.
“I’d love to chat, but I gotta go! Gotta take a shower.” She forces out a laugh that’s teetering on the edge of unhinged. “I stink.”
My eyes go to her hair, piled on top of her head and— “Your hair is wet.”
Never mind that she was leaving her apartment, not coming home. Also, she smells super fresh, with hints of vanilla, cinnamon, and something sweet, like she spent the morning baking Christmas cookies.
I’d like to eat her cookie.
No. No, Garrett. That’s what got us into this whole mess in the first place.
Jennie’s dimples disappear when she realizes she’s been caught in another lie, and she finally gets that damn key in the lock. The door springs open, and she tumbles through it.
“Greasy. Super greasy. My hair. Yeah, I haven’t showered in…days.” Her nose scrunches with disgust at her lie. “So it looks wet, but it’s just…” She circles a hand around her damp bun and sighs, resigned. “Greasy.”
“Jen—”
“Okay-bye-Garrett!” The words fly past her lips with the same speed she slams the door, and the sound of chuckling draws my attention over my shoulder.
Emily leans in her doorway, arms crossed as she grins at me. “Knew it.”
I scrub a hand over my eyes. I’m so fucking tired, and I don’t know what to do with my life anymore. “Knew what?”
“That you two were gonna fuck. You can smell the sexual tension from here.”
“We didn’t—ugh.” I rub the back of my neck. “She seems tense?”
“So tense. Girl wants your dick and hates that she does.”
I chuckle and Emily smiles. This should be weird, but it isn’t. In the years I’ve known Emily, she’s had plenty of boyfriends and girlfriends in between our casual hookups. I’m not worried that Emily caught…whatever the fuck that was. Maybe nothing. Probably nothing.
Or maybe something. Jennie’s impossible to read.
Except last weekend when I ate her pussy like the Last Supper. Pretty hard to misread the signals when she’s yanking on my hair, grinding her pussy against my mouth, and moaning my name as she comes. Twice.
“Things with Jennie are a little…”
“Challenging, best friend’s little sister, and all? Those are some serious balls, Andersen!” Emily knocks my shoulder. “Proud of you.”
I slip my fingers up the back of my toque and scratch my scalp to distract from the fact that I’m feeling a stupid amount of guilt. I let my blue balls do the talking, and now I’m gonna spend the rest of my life trying to hide it from one of my best friends.
“It was only the once. Won’t happen again.”
The truth is more disappointing than it reasonably should be.
Because as it turns out, offering to take care of Jennie’s needs might’ve been, like, the teensiest bit of a mistake, and a highly addicting one too.
On the plus side, her sprained ankle seems to be healing well. Girl can bolt faster than Usain.
Adam has a breakfast date tomorrow, and now I’m fucked.
“You’re not fucked,” he says for the third time. I might’ve accidentally said the words out loud when he told us the news two minutes ago. “It’s one date. It might not work out.”
How does something not work out with a guy like Adam? He’s the very best person I know, which is exactly why I’m fucked. He’ll settle down, and then I’ll really be lonely.
“I’m gonna be the only single friend,” I mumble absently.
“Jaxon’s single,” Carter tosses out. “You guys can pick up chicks together.”
“I don’t wanna—I hate—ugh.” Cheek on my fist, I glance at my lunch menu, then Adam. “Where’d you meet her?”
“At the grocery store. Cereal aisle. She said she likes dogs. That’s good, right?”
“Considering you have a dog, that’s probably for the best.”
Adam swirls the straw in his chocolate milk. “I haven’t been on a date in forever.”
Emmett looks up from his phone. “Cara wants to know if we can run a background check on her and also if she can dress you for your date.”
I tune out the conversation as I consider my future, what I want it to look like. My friends are trading nights at the bar for phone calls in the hotel room with their wives, and hangovers for early morning trips to Ikea, spending all their free time together, nothing but brightness looming in their futures.
I’m not bitter; I’m envious. There’s only so much COD a guy can play alone on his couch while his friends are doing coupley shit together, like how Cara extended the sympathy invite to Adam and me to cut down Christmas trees with her, Emmett, Carter, and Olivia. They’re moving forward, and I think I’m…stuck.
Emmett pulls my attention, poking me. “Hey, what about that girl? She’s staring at you. Ask her out.”
The pretty brunette approaches, and I roll my eyes. Gaze locked on the back of Carter’s head, she tucks her hair behind her ears and takes a deep breath before tapping him on the shoulder.
“Excuse me. I’m Arianna.”
Carter doesn’t look up from his menu. “I’m married.”
I lift my own menu to hide my snort.
Arianna opens her mouth, and Carter cuts her off before she can use it.
“Happily.” He looks up with a grin and shows her Olivia’s smiling face on his phone screen. “Isn’t she beautiful?” He flips through his photos. “Here she is on our wedding day. Fucking gorgeous, right? And here’s the baby she’s growing right now. That’s my baby. What do you think? Girl or boy? We’re not finding out. We want to be surprised. I’m trying to convince myself I see a penis, though, ’cause girls are scary.”