She reached over and tried to snatch the cell phone out of my hand.
“Okay! Okay, Christ. He just wanted to say good morning.”
Natalia rolled her eyes and righted herself on the bed. “I’ll drop it for now, but the second you start sexting I demand input. Don’t even fucking think about sending a nude without my review.”
“First of all, I would never.”
“Never say never.”
“I would never send a nude to a guy I barely know, and he’s already seen me without my clothes on.”
“He’s seen the top half.”
“A pussy pic, Natalia? I’m an elementary school teacher, not kickstarting an OnlyFans. The confidence a woman would need to send a crotch shot is not within my pay grade.”
She shouldered me playfully. “I wasn’t suggesting full frontal, Phee. Not that I think Frankie would protest whatsoever. He’d probably print it and keep a copy in his wallet.”
I looked down at my phone as it buzzed again.
Frankie <3: What are you girls up to today?
“See? Double texter. He’s obsessed,” Nat pointed out.
I shielded my phone screen as she read over my shoulder. “Don’t you have a boyfriend to be sending butthole snaps to?”
Natalia flipped her shiny hair off her shoulder, slapping me with the ends as she stood from the bed. She cleared the side tables of the empty wine glasses and bottles and swayed out the door. “Remember! No nudes without approval!”
When I heard the click of a door being closed down the hall, followed by the soft rain of the shower, I focused back on my phone.
Ophelia: Thinking about making it a spa day. I could use a good massage
Frankie <3: Something making you tense?
Ophelia: Fighting off tireless men
Frankie <3: I wouldn’t call what you did to me “fighting me off” exactly
Ophelia: Can’t a girl have a moment of weakness?
Frankie <3: You can have as many moments of weakness as you want O. I encourage it. Actually I implore it
Ophelia: Big words there from a military brat
Frankie <3: I had to adjust my game for the hot teacher I’m trying to impress
Ophelia: She’s impressed
Frankie <3: How impressed? Like, meet me on my lunch break for another go impressed?
Ophelia: Like, continue texting you despite your frat-level insistence impressed
Frankie <3: Ouch
Ophelia: You’re right, that was a little harsh
Frankie <3: No quarrel, Ms. Brody. It was grossly incompetent of me to assume something so outrageously promiscuous. I’ll see to it that I keep my egregious masculine urges to myself henceforth.
I snorted and played with the drawstring on my shorts.
Ophelia: Are you on thesaurus.com?
Frankie <3: Would it make you wet if I said yes?
Ophelia: No comment
Frankie <3: I’ll make a dirty girl out of you yet, O
I swung my legs off the bed and padded down the hall into the kitchen. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this impending infatuation toward a man. Which was as exhilarating as it was terrifying given the circumstances. I wasn’t even sure at that point if a glaring red flag tagged “will end badly” would deter the path toward Frankie. It felt as though every second I tried to stave off any involvement, the pull toward him just became more magnetic.
I flipped on the coffee machine and leaned against the counter as the grinds began to drip.
Ophelia: Does Mateo pay you to text on the job?
Frankie <3: I’m not texting, I’m testing the internet speeds
Ophelia: Slowest internet ever
Frankie <3: Part of the reason this install is gonna take the next two days
Ophelia: Ah, that must be why Nat and Mateo are having a sleepover on Friday. Two days without sex probably feels like a prison verdict
Frankie <3: First I’m hearing about it. What does that mean you’re doing?
Ophelia: Making cookies, wrapping gifts, singing Christmas music at the top of my lungs in an empty apartment
Frankie <3: Fuck that, come over with Tally
Ophelia: You don’t think that’s infringing?
Frankie <3: Last time I checked I paid half the mortgage and utilities, so whatever raw cookie dough I do or do not put in my oven is no one else’s business
The coffee came to a sputtering stop in the pot and brought my attention back to the room. Nat was idling around the kitchen with a towel around her chest, pulling two mugs from the cabinet above the sink and cream from the fridge.
“Would you care if I tagged along on Friday?”
She raised an eyebrow and then fitted me with an knowing expression as she put two and two together.
“Why, oh why would you ever want to do that, Ophelia?” she teased.
“Can we save the I told you so’s for when they’re necessary? We’re just hanging out. You and Mateo are hanging out, Frankie invited me to hang out. It’s friendly.”
“What Mateo and I are doing is far from friendly.”
“We’re just baking cookies.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”
I took the two mugs from my friend and poured the steaming coffee, attempting to hide a smirk. There was no telling exactly what would come of spending time alone with Frankie, but I also wasn’t naive enough to believe some salacious activity was completely off the table.
“So, you’re cool with it?” I asked, handing the mug back to Nat.
“Of course, Phee. I’m glad actually. I felt like shit leaving you for the night as it was. Now at least I know you’re in capable, strong, veiny hands.”
I swatted Natalia’s ass as she turned away, laughing and heading back toward her bedroom.
Ophelia: Sending you a list of ingredients, don’t forget anything
Frankie <3: Atta girl
12
The digital marketing agency I was working in for the next couple days was right next to a grocery store, so it’d be easy to hop over on my lunch break and find the list of things Ophelia texted me.
I was in over my head already, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
It might have been the season. Didn’t everyone get all sentimental and clingy during the holidays? No one wanted to spend Christmas alone, surrounded by people in happy relationships while they got blasted on eggnog alone at a family gathering.
It was entirely likely I was just sick of feeling excluded in my own home, and jealous of the attention that Mateo was giving Tally all the time.
I was bored. So unbelievably fucking bored with the mundane in and out of everyday life. Shit used to be so exciting for me. Five years prior I was hiking in Colombia with my ops team, gunslinging, kicking down doors. I hadn’t felt an adrenaline rush like that since…
Well, since the night before, actually.
Since I had Ophelia Brody riding my fingers in the pitch-black waves on Hollywood Beach.
Fuck, that was so dumb. We could have been swept up in a tide and gone without a trace, not to mention whatever could have been lurking beneath the water.
She was making me stupid. That was the best way to describe it. I was forgetting how easy it was to make the wrong decisions when it came to women. It’d not even been a full twenty-four hours and I couldn’t stop thinking about the next time I would be able to get Ophelia alone. So when she mentioned Tally and Mateo’s date night, I jumped, despite never baking a cookie in my goddamn life.