23. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
Margot
Rolling over in my bed, I feel a soft kiss on my nose and I open my eyes to see Ryan smiling at me. He pulls me close, wrapping his hand around my neck to kiss my lips and I sigh into his embrace. Feeling more risque than usual on a Saturday morning, I kiss him deeper before pushing him onto his back and straddling his hips. Ryan grabs my waist and sits up to pull me to his chest. I let my head fall back, my hair cascading down my back as I do my best to hold in the moan that’s threatening to escape from my mouth.
When I lower my head, it’s now Alex who holds my gaze with a look that would have me soaking if I wasn’t already. His lips are at my ear. He’s calling me sunshine and a slew of other dirtier things and my head falls aside to allow him more access to my neck. I feel him smile against my pulse before he starts peppering the space with kisses.
With a jolt, I snap back into reality. There’s a sheen of sweat across my brow, and I blink a couple of times before grabbing my notebook and reluctantly writing everything down. I know Danika is never going to let me live this down, but I have to show her so she can help make sense of this mess in my mind.
There’s a knock at my door before I can get out of bed and Sydney pops her head. “Heading to the gym. Need a ride to campus?”
I look at the clock on my phone, also noticing a good morning text from Ryan waiting for me. I do need to get some work done, but most of it I can do from my desk here, so I shake my head. I pull myself out of bed as she leaves the doorway and walk out to find Dani still sleeping on the couch.
“Morning, huns,” I say loudly, dropping the notebook on her stomach. Danika grunts from the impact and mumbles something about “bitches” before rolling over onto her side. I anticipate the sounds of the book falling to the floor but instead I look to see Danika cuddling it like a pillow as her snores pick up.
“See ya later,” Sydney says with a chuckle as she leaves. I walk into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee that sweet Sydney made before she left. Seriously no idea what I would do without her.
Grabbing another mug, I fill it the way Danika likes and sit on the coffee table in front of her. I place the cup in front of her and move it back and forth, wafting the rich smell under her nose. Danika sniffs and then blindly reaches out for the cup, which I immediately pull away from her and place on the table next to me.
Dani peeks one eye open and sees her mug out of reach. “You’re a mean, cruel person, Margot Elaine.” I remain silent as she sighs and sits up. “Can you just read it to me? My brain isn’t firing on all cylinders this morning.”
“Absolutely not,” I say firmly, causing Danika to sit up a little straighter.
“Oh this is gonna be good,” she says, taking a fortifying sip of her coffee. She places the mug back down and cracks open my journal to the most recent page.
Immediately her jaw drops. It stays dropped as she continues reading. And then it drops more.
“You saucy minx!” She finally looks up at me and gives me a little smack in the arm. I know my face is as red as a tomato but I don’t shy away. “Well this one is super obvious, you don’t need me for this.” She hands me the notebook and grabs the mug from the table.
“I’ve never had a sex dream about two guys before.”
After taking a sip, she lowers her mug to her lap. “Have you ever had a sex dream about one guy?”
I think for a moment. “No.”
Danika shakes her head with a giggle. “Girly pop, you’ve got it bad. And now you’ve got a choice. The hottie you’re dating or the guy you’ve decided is your friend .” Danika adds air quotes around the word friend. I roll my eyes.
She puts the mug down and walks toward the bathroom, plopping onto the toilet. I follow her like a lost puppy. “Alex is my friend, nothing more.”
“Then the choice should be simple,” Danika replies easily. After washing up, she sticks her toothbrush in her mouth and hands mine to me. She tries to talk while we brush but she knows I can’t understand a word she says so I just ignore her, making sure I hit every nook and cranny of my mouth with the minty brush.
We both spit and Danika continues her monologue as if I could hear everything she had said. “There’s just something about Alex. He looks like he’d talk you through it, you know?”
“Oh my god, I’m going to my room. Goodbye, psycho.” I head back past the kitchen, grabbing my backpack off the island stool.
“Hey!” she laughs from behind me. “You asked for my advice!”
“I take it back!” I call before shutting my door and welcoming the quiet. I can’t think about Ryan or Alex or anything else besides my psychology homework. And for the next few hours, that’s what I do.
Swinging the lobby door open, I’m shocked to see Alex standing outside, leaning his body against his jeep. There’s an iced cup of coffee in his hand, the condensation leaking through his fingers.
“This is cold,” he whines like a child.
I take the coffee from his out-stretched hands. “How long have you been waiting here?” Wiping the excess condensation on my sweatshirt sleeve, I notice the ice is almost entirely melted.
“I figured you’d leave a little early to catch the bus so I wanted to beat you to the punch.” He shrugs nonchalantly.
I take a sip of the drink, the same I always get. “Thanks,” I grin and he opens my door before swinging around to get into the driver’s side.
“I owed you for the patch job last night,” Alex says as he pulls away from the curb. He holds up his hand to show a fresh bandage.
I laugh. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
“I remember everything,” he says quietly. The rest of the ride is a blur of familiar scenery as we quietly make our way to campus. Pulling into the fitness center lot, Alex parks as close to the media building as possible.
When he shuts off the engine, I move to open the door but am stopped by Alex’s hand on my leg.
“I’m sorry about last night. I acted like a caveman.”
I shrug. “You were drunk.”
“That’s no excuse.”
I pause for a moment. He’s right, it’s really not. But I didn’t expect him to own up to it like this. “You’re okay?” I ask, motioning to his hand.
“Yeah, I followed what you did yesterday with the cleaning and the ointment before putting on a fresh band-aid.” He waves his hand to show me and then places it right back down on my knee. “How was the rest of your night?”
“It was fine. Good, we just hung out.” I say casually, making an intentional decision not to tell him about the kiss with Ryan. And especially not tell him about the dream. He loosens his hand, and I take it as an all clear to leave the car and we do, gathering back together on the other side of the doors and walk toward the media building. Nathan had texted me that he was waiting in the studio so we walked right there so as to not lose any of our time.
“Hey, guys,” Nathan greets us with a warm smile as we head into the sound studio. We smile back at him, as I take my sweatshirt off revealing the tight top I choose to wear for today’s session. Well…the one Danika helped me choose, in an effort to be more likable. As I pull the hoodie over my head, the shirt rides up, revealing a sliver of my stomach. When I look at him again, his gaze is directly on my body, specifically that part and I pull the shirt down quickly and twist around, dropping the sweatshirt and hiding the blush that’s crawling up my cheeks.
Alex drops his bag and hangs his jacket on the studio chair. “You ready, sunshine?”
I let out a deep sigh, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s do it,” Nathan says and I grab my notes as Alex and I head into the recording studio, taking the same seats as last time.
After we settle in, Nathan gives us a thumbs up and the red recording light turns on.
“Helllllllllllo, everybody!” Alex says, his signature greeting now. “Thank you for tuning in to our show Ask Alex , where you send in your questions and I answer them as best I can. I’m your host, Alex Prescott and as always I’m partnered with the ever lovely Margot Davis.”
He’s really laying it on thick and I can only assume it’s because he’s trying to get ahead of the mean comments that I’m sure are going to come in about me. If it seems like he likes me, then maybe the commentators won’t have a leg to stand on.
“Hey, folks,” I say in greeting. “We’ve got a really great episode for you today so let’s jump right in.” Gathering my notecards, I find the first question.
“Alright, Alex. First question. Are you ready?” I say with feigned seriousness.
“I am ready, Margot,” he replies in a tone that matches mine.
“Sarah P. asks: ‘How do you balance school work and a social life in college?’ She says she’s drowning in work and hardly ever gets time to go out with friends.”
“Well, first of all, thanks, Sarah.” Alex winks at the camera and I roll my eyes. Standard procedure. “And secondly, the answer is easy. You don’t.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Honestly, sunshine, I think you’re better equipped to answer this question. You’re the workaholic here.”
It was the first time he called me ‘sunshine’ on camera. I don’t even think he did it on purpose, I think it just slipped out like he always does. Still, the nickname isn’t going to do me any favors with the internet trolls.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a workaholic—”
Alex scoffs. “What would you call it then? You’re in the library more than your own apartment.”
“Just because I spend a lot of time on my schoolwork doesn’t mean that I don’t make time for my own things. You should know that, I go to your parties, don’t I?”
This conversation is getting a little too personal for my taste, but I keep it going. We can always edit out anything we don’t want to use afterward.
“You do but you’ve been known to bring a book with you,” Alex laughs.
“Those books are for pleasure, you ass,” I push him and he just laughs harder. “We’re getting off topic. If I have any advice for balancing school and social life it’s just to prioritize. Don’t drive yourself crazy, just budget your time well and you’ll find that you’ll get done what needs to be done and still be able to go to a party or two over the weekend.”
I shrug, because that’s the best I can do.
“Yeah, and you know that the Kappa parties are the best so you should make sure to prioritize going to those parties,” Alex jokes and I scoff. “You don’t agree? Whose parties are better, then? The Deltas? Please.”
He’s skating on thin ice right now. There’s no reason to bring up personal things like this. This podcast isn’t about me. When the banter gets too close to home, it’s time to switch up the topic.
“I wouldn’t know.” I shrug. “I’ve never been to one. Time for another question?”
Alex looks like he wants to keep this conversation going but the tone of my voice informs him that I’m ready to move on. He shuts his mouth and nods for me to continue.
We get through two more questions from listeners about life in the frat house and how to keep from gaining that “freshman fifteen” before it’s time to get to the Alex-specific question.
“This question comes from Hannah L—and if you wink again, I’ll strangle you.”
Alex looks hesitant for a moment as he thanks Hannah for writing in but I know he winks once I look down at my notecard.
“Hannah wants to know your biggest deal breaker in a relationship.” Putting my notes down, I give Alex my full attention. Not because I’m very interested in his answer, mostly because I…am very interested in his answer.
“That’s a great question,” Alex says genuinely. He takes a couple of seconds to think about his response. “I’d have to say my biggest deal breaker is dishonesty. There’s no reason to be with someone if you can’t trust them completely. If you’re a dishonest person, I want nothing to do with you.”
For some reason, I didn’t expect him to take the question so seriously, but I’m glad that he did. It’s a great response. One I completely agree with.
“Margot, what about you?”
My gut instinct is to say that these people don’t care about my answers, but I don’t want to add more fuel to the internet hate fire. “I agree with you. Honesty is very important.” I want to elaborate more but again, this isn’t Ask Margot so I leave it at that.
Alex and I give our send off goodbye and the recording light overhead shuts off just as Nathan gives us a thumbs up.
“Another great session,” Nathan says as we open the studio door.
“Thanks, man,” Alex replies as he clasps hands with Nathan. Huh, when did these two get so chummy?
“Great work, as always Nathan.” Nathan nods in thanks.
“Do you wanna get some dinner or something? I’m starving.” Alex asks as we head toward the car. It’s a normal friend thing to do, grab dinner and hang out, but for some reason, it just feels like a betrayal to Ryan. I don’t like the way my stomach clenches at the idea and I can’t decide which thought bothers me more–the thought that Ryan would be upset or the thought that I care what would upset Ryan.
Either way, I decide that it’s not a good idea.
“Maybe another time. I’ve got some—”
“Work, yeah. You know, you should take your own advice sometime.”
“I do,” I say as we leave the parking lot and start the drive toward my apartment. “I spend a lot more time with you when I should be doing work.”
“Do you?” He asks curiously, as if he’s really wondering if it’s true. And it is. Whatever free time I don’t spend with my roommates, I often spend with Alex. Whether it be at his parties, his gala, the library, or recording sessions, we spend a lot of time together.
Before I know it, we’ve pulled up in front of my apartment. “See you,” I say as I climb.
“Bye bye, sunshine,” Alex says and I can’t help but smile.