Chapter 37 Phone a Friend
Dakota
I didn’t have to open the store today. I just needed to get out of my house with Calder. I didn’t want to cuddle him in my
bed or make breakfast. I didn’t want to notice how good he looked standing in my living room or have him watch me do my hair
and makeup or bring me up a cup of coffee.
The shower was bad enough. Doing anything more domestic would freak me out because I am in way over my head, and the fact
that we’re headed back to the sex club tonight has me freaking the fuck out.
I park outside of my store and open my phone, needing to talk this out with someone before I explode. I can’t discuss it with
Cozy or Trista because they would both encourage me to be open with Calder and tell him how I’m feeling. That’s how it worked
out with their Fletcher men.
But Max and Wyatt are so different from Calder. Max was married once before, so obviously open to love, and Wyatt was ready
for a family so much that he was willing to hire a surrogate. They both clearly have different end goals in life than Calder—the
perpetual, self-proclaimed playboy.
I need to confide in someone who doesn’t know both parties and who is unequivocally Team Dakota.
“Hey, girl, hey!” Tatianna’s voice peals into the phone. “Good morning to you.”
“I’m having tons of casual sex with Calder Fletcher and we’re checking kinky experiences off a PowerPoint presentation that he put together after I asked him to be my sex club wingman and he told me I wasn’t ready for it and tonight we’re supposed to go back to the sex club for the first time after weeks of mind-blowing, incredible sex with him and I am freaking the fuck out. ”
I exhale heavily and hear nothing on the other line. “Tot? Tot, are you there?” I pull my phone away and see the call is still
connected so I put it back to my ear. “Tatianna?”
“Tatianna has passed away, and you are now speaking to her celestial spirit.”
I groan and scrub my hand over my face. “Be fucking for real, please.”
“I am!” she squeals. “I just poured creamer into my coffee, and you come at me with that? Of course I died and went to heaven.
What the hell is going on up in those mountains?”
“A lot of sex. Like a lot a lot. Like I’m insatiable, Tot. I hardly recognize myself anymore. I used to think good sex was
only for smutty romance novels. It’s not. It exists out there for real.”
“Don’t tell me that,” she tuts, and I hear her set her coffee down. “I cannot believe that these fictional men can be real.
I’m delulu enough without that sick fantasy.”
“I know, it’s upsetting to me too.”
She releases a long sigh that I feel in my bones. “So what is the problem, exactly?”
I shake my head, my chin trembling instantly as I let reality settle in. “I don’t want to be done with Calder.”
She pauses for a moment, and her tone is serious and sincere when she asks, “Has he given you any indication he doesn’t want
to be done either?”
“Not really, not fully.”
She harrumphs into the line, and my chest tightens with anxiety. “I don’t think you’re going to like what I’m about to say,
but Dakota... when a man tells you what he is, believe him.”
I close my eyes and feel the burn of two hot tears sliding down my face. “I know.”
“Randal told you what he was, and you didn’t believe him, and look how that turned out.”
“I know,” I croak again, and press my forehead to my steering wheel. “I hate that I’m doing the same damn thing I did before.
My God, it’s like I learned nothing from a divorce that cost me half a million dollars.”
“You did learn something,” she says, and my head pops up. “You phoned a friend. You didn’t phone any friends when you were
in your Randal era. You dove into that mess without a second thought.”
I nod woodenly, willing myself to really listen to what she’s saying. I can’t let myself believe a man is anything other than
what he’s shown me he is. Randal showed me what he was on day one, and I ignored the red flags. I have to refocus on what
my initial goals were with this arrangement with Calder... no matter how much it hurts me.
“So, what do I do about tonight, then?” Chills crawl over my skin because there is no part of me that still wants to go, especially
when it most likely means it will be my last night with Calder.
“You go to that club with him, and you act totally good. You let him spank you in front of strangers or whatever nasty shit
your kinky ass is into. Be totally chill, like you’ve been training for this like the motherfucking Olympics, okay?”
I garble out a laugh. “I kind of have. Seriously, my vagina is probably never going to look the same.”
“That’s disgusting and appealing all at the same time.”
“Right?”