24. Reid
TWENTY-FOUR
REID
Avery
Are you free tomorrow morning?
Me
For what?
Avery
I wanted to run something by you. A proposal of sorts.
Me
You disappear off the face of the earth for the two weeks leading up to the regular season and now you want to propose something?
Avery
Did you miss me?
Me
No. The quiet was nice. Going undefeated in the preseason helped too. How does your 0-3 record feel?
Avery
I’m not answering that.
Jumping Joe’s at 8?
Me
You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?
Avery
I can’t tell you all my secrets.
Me
Fine. See you then.
Avery
Where’s your enthusiasm, Duncan?
Me
See you then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Avery
Being a smart ass doesn’t look good on you.
Me
What is Avery’s coffee order?
Maven
Why are you asking for her coffee order?
Me
I’m being a nice person. Waving the white flag.
Maven
Bullshit. Three nights ago, you complained about her for twenty straight minutes.
Me
Yeah, because she was annoying me.
Come on, Mae.
Maven
She gets an ice blonde roast. Light ice, with an extra pump of vanilla.
Me
Thanks. Give Dallas a kiss for me.
Maven
You boys are so weird.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in Avery showing up to this meeting of ours despite the fact she set it up.
I haven’t talked to her since the preseason game where our teams played against each other, and it’s been radio silent on her end too. There hasn’t been so much as a snarky comment on one of the Titans’ posts, and I’m concerned I did something wrong.
Fucking her in my office was accidental, obviously.
I don’t know how or why it happened, only that it did, and it was the stupidest thing I could’ve ever done.
I’d just gotten the idea of her out of my head, and then there she was. On my couch. Opening her thighs and telling me she thought about me when she touched herself, and I turned into an idiot without an ounce of goddamn self-control.
I saw lace. I saw bare skin. I saw her watching me, and I caved.
Fuck , I wanted her in that moment.
I wanted her more than I’ve ever wanted anything else.
That had to have been enough.
One final time, and now I can be done with her.
The silence has helped.
I’ve started to forget about how her hair feels wrapped around my wrist. What she sounds like when she comes apart. How she says my name, that breathy little moan she lets out when she needs more.
I made a vow last night when she texted me that we aren’t going to pause the feud again. I can’t afford to risk being nice. I’m not going to share parts of myself I like to keep hidden. We can settle into the usual back-and-forth we do so well and go on our way.
That is what works well between us, not some quick fuck without a condom that has me asking myself what the fucking fuck I was thinking.
And telling her I wished I finished inside her so I could see what it looked like? So I could watch her walk out of my office with my cum running down her leg?
I’m out of my mind.
This has to stop.
The bells above the door to the cafe chime, and I glance at the entrance.
Avery comes waltzing through in short overalls and a yellow tube top that shows off half her stomach. That anklet is still looped around her leg, and I remember how much I liked feeling it against my tongue when I kissed her calf.
She scans the room before her eyes settle on me. Her lips quirk up and she saunters over, all hips and curves and an obnoxious smile. When she gets to the open seat across from me, she sits down. She tosses her hair over her shoulder, and I notice she’s wearing another ribbon—white this time. She stretches out her legs, and her knee bumps mine.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hello.” I slide her drink across the table. “This is for you.”
She eyes the plastic cup suspiciously. “What is it?”
“Your usual order. Maven told me what you like to get.”
Avery blinks and lifts her chin. She tilts her head to the side and studies me. “Did you poison it?”
“I did. I carry around travel sized cyanide and poured it in there while the barista watched me. She’s in on it too. I can’t believe you figured it out.”
“My favorite.” She scoops up the cup and brings it to her mouth. I stare at her ear instead of her lips and do my best to ignore the irritating sound she makes when she takes a sip. “Tastes good.”
“So.” I scoot back so we’re not touching. The less physical contact, the better. I don’t trust myself after the last time I saw her. “What’s up?”
“I can’t believe the season starts tonight. The preseason went by way too fast,” she says.
“The rest of the year isn’t going to go any slower.”
“I know.” She looks out the window to her right. She taps her painted nails against her cheek and sighs. “My sleep schedule is about to turn to shit.”
“Not that I don’t love this awkward small talk we’re making, but why did you want to meet up, Avery?” I ask. “We don’t have enough common interests to warrant a hang out in our off time.”
“That’s not true. We both like comic books. And romance novels.”
My dick twitches at the thought of her spread out on my bed. A comic book in her hand and a flirty smile on her lips. The sheets pooled around her waist and her perfect tits on display as she reads me page after page from something off my shelf.
I need a lobotomy.
“Literature choices don’t make us best friends.”
Avery levels me with a look. “We need to talk about what happened in your office.”
“It was a mistake. I don’t know what?—”
“We should do it again.”
I squint at her. “What?”
“We should do it again,” she repeats, and there’s more gusto behind it the second time. “Sex. You and me. Together.”
“What—” I take a sip of my coffee to stall for some time. I have no clue what to say to that, and I have to tread carefully. “Why—how—what’s your reasoning?”
“We have chemistry. I don’t like to mix business with pleasure, but you can’t deny that we click in the bedroom. Sex with you is a good way to work out the tension I have from my job—a job that’s about to get even more busy and chaotic. Knowing there won’t be a relationship that stems from it means I—we—can enjoy the physical aspect without getting attached,” she says, and I wonder if she’s rehearsed this. “I don’t have time to date, but I do have time to get fucked. That’s what I want, and I want it with you.”
I blink. I think I’m hallucinating. I think I’m having a heart attack. There’s no way in hell this woman is saying what I think she’s saying.
“We can’t stand each other,” I tell her. It’s the first thing that comes to mind.
“We can’t stand each other outside the bedroom. Inside the bedroom, we really enjoy each other. Don’t we?”
I blush.
Sex with her the first two times was phenomenal. Out of this fucking world. But in my office was… intense. It was rougher. Hungrier. She asked for what she wanted, but I also took what I wanted. I’ve never come that hard in my life.
“Yes…” I say cautiously. I feel like this is a trap. A ploy to get me to admit something I don’t want to admit. “And you want to do it again?”
“I do. Casually. Like what we were going to do before.”
“What do I get out of it?” I ask, and she lifts an eyebrow.
“Is sex with me not enough?”
“It is.” I clear my throat. The cafe feels a hundred degrees warmer than it did twenty minutes ago. “What do you get out of this?”
“Orgasms with someone who understands my schedule and doesn’t expect me to call every night.”
“How often?”
“Whenever we want.” She shrugs and sets her phone down on the table, tapping the screen. “We’re in Georgia next week. I know you’ll be in Detroit. We can find time.”
“I thought we agreed it wasn’t going to happen again,” I say. “That it was a lapse in judgment so we could get it out of our systems.”
“I don’t want to get it out of my system,” she says matter-of-factly. “No one’s taken care of me the way you do, and I want it again.”
I grip the table so tightly my knuckles turn white. She’s blunt, just like me, and that’s not good for my well-being at all.
“I’m confused. You might be obnoxious as hell, but you’re gorgeous and smart. You’re talented at your job, and you could have any guy you wanted, Avery. Why—” I swallow again. “Why me?”
“Believe me when I say I’ve tried to stay away from you. I’ve tried to ignore you, but I can’t help it, and it’s infuriating. You’re nice and selfless. You’re attractive, and you know how to treat a woman. We’re up to our ears in work, and I think we both deserve to have a little fun.”
I nod like I agree with what she’s saying.
I guess she’s not wrong.
I’ve tried to stay the hell away from her too, but I keep coming back.
“We need rules,” I say. “Stricter rules than what we were tossing around last time we?—”
I think of her on the couch in my apartment. Her skirt hiked up around her waist and her nipples hard against her shirt. The way she fucked herself with her own fingers and let me watch until I was begging to have a taste.
Fucking hell .
“What did you have in mind?” she asks, and I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
“Work still comes first. My job is important to me. There can’t be any hard feelings if one of us says no because we’re busy. And this can’t be because one of us wants to win the bet. It’s not allowed to be sabotage or meddling. We’re fucking because we want to fuck, not because we want the other to miss a deadline. We leave our jobs out of it.”
She nods. “What else?”
“We only sleep with each other. Adding other people to the mix is a headache I don’t want to deal with. Also, our dislike for each other stops when we get in bed.”
“Or on a couch. Or in a hallway,” Avery adds, and I have to take a deep breath.
“Right. Any of those places. No insults. No mean shit. It’s not some revenge game we’re playing.”
“Okay.” She smiles. “I like all of those stipulations.”
“We leave emotions out of it too. If we’re going to do this, we recognize what it is: two adults who want to get off. That’s it.”
“I know you’re a relationship guy. Are you going to be able to do this without falling for me?” Avery asks.
I snort. “I haven’t fallen in love with you in the three years I’ve known you. It’s not going to happen now.”
“Good.” She beams and takes a long sip of her coffee. “Are we in agreement?”
“We’re in agreement,” I say. “What’s your schedule this week?”
“That desperate for me already?”
“You’re the one who propositioned me.”
“I have a season ticket holder event tomorrow night at the stadium, then a fanfest party on Saturday afternoon. Sunday is a three p.m. kickoff, and next Monday, I was asked to speak at Georgetown to a group of communications majors.”
“Is that what you got your degree in?” I ask. Just because we’re fuck buddies doesn’t meant I can’t learn more about her.
She nods. “And sports journalism. I’ve always wanted to work in the industry, and I knew that was a way to get my foot in the door. What did you get your degree in?”
“Computer programming and software technology. Trust me when I say working for a football team was not on my radar.”
“Any regrets?” she asks.
“No. Life has a weird way of figuring itself out.”
“I like this. Five minutes ago, we were talking about our rules for being fuck buddies. Now we’re getting personal.” Avery traces the letters on her cup and smiles. “We’re talented, aren’t we?”
“I guess we are.”
“What’s on your schedule coming up?”
“We also kickoff on Sunday, but in the primetime television slot that night. Other than that, it’s the usual workload. I do have a charity softball game coming up soon. It’s one of the Titans’ fundraisers, and I’m going to embarrass myself in front of everyone.”
“What charity does it benefit?”
“Give Kids the World. Maverick is a big donor, and he got the Titans to partner with him for an event. Some of the hockey guys will be there, and a couple guys from the DC Dolphins baseball team too.”
“How are your ticket sales numbers looking?” Avery asks.
“Good,” I say honestly. “Snagging Griffin Harrison was a big pickup for us. After the Super Bowl drought, people think this might be the year we get another ring. It entices them to make a deposit, and it’s going to help me win our bet.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but ours are high too. We’re running some promotions, and people are flocking to the box office. I’m going to give you a run for your money.”
I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to say. I have things to do and a meeting with my boss in an hour. There’s a headache starting behind my eyes. I should probably get going, but I don’t know proper protocol for walking away from this sort of thing.
“Are you, uh, going to hang around for a bit?” I ask.
“No. I need to change and head to the office.”
“Me too.” I smooth my hands over my jeans and stand. “I guess I’ll talk to you soon?”
“Yeah.” Avery smiles again, and I hate how it nudges its way into my chest. “Want to meet up tomorrow after I’m finished with my event?”
“Tomorrow,” I repeat. “I’ll have to, uh, check my schedule, but I think tomorrow could work. Or, ah, tonight? If you don’t want to wait.”
“Do you want to wait?” she asks.
“No.” I shake my head, and I don’t care how desperate that might make me look. She can have this win. “I don’t.”
“We can do tonight. Your place?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “Sure. You remember where I live?”
“I do. I’ll text you when I’m heading over,” she says.
“Good. That’s good. I’ll see you later then.”
Her smile stretches to a grin. “Have a good day, Reid.”
I drop my drink in the trash and head for the exit. When I look behind me, Avery is watching me. She averts her gaze and stares at her phone when I catch her. I know she’s pretending to look busy, but it doesn’t matter.
She was looking at me, and that makes me feel like a real smug bastard.