Chapter 13
Theo
This shouldn’t be so hard. My palms are sweaty, and I’m feeling itchy, and my heart is pounding like I just killed a five-minute penalty.
It’s brutal and all because I might hook up with a woman, something I’ve done literally over a hundred times before.
Drunk. Sober me is apparently as nervous as I was in middle school when I asked Georgia Miller to dance at the winter formal.
But I know I need to rip this Band-Aid off.
I’m horny all the fucking time, and my hand is not cutting it anymore.
Especially because when I jerk off lately, the scenario my brain likes to conjure up is one of Lola Casco in my bed again, like in the snowstorm.
Only this time I don’t pull away, and when she straddles my hips, there’s no pillow, and we’re both naked.
I take a deep breath and stand still on the sidewalk just outside the bar that this Summer_L woman asked to meet at.
It’s Lola’s work, which also makes me nervous.
What if she’s in there and she sees this go down?
She’s the one who signed me up for the app, so I’m sure she’d be thrilled.
But a part of me wants to see disappointment glint in her pretty blue eyes.
I want her to want me because I really want her.
I know it’s problematic, which is why I’m here trying to get my sober sex virginity out of the way with a random stranger.
So I pull my phone out and text my potential hook-up.
Luke_T
Almost there. I have one question though. How do I find you? Your photos are lovely but vague, like mine.
Summer_L
I’m the only woman sitting at the bar. I just ordered a Sprite. On the Rocks.
I smile and feel even more confident this stranger is a good fit because she’s not drinking.
I don’t want to have sex with a drunk or even tipsy woman.
Not because I can’t be with someone who drinks.
I can for a night. It’s just I want them present, and I have first-hand knowledge of how zoned out you can be when inebriated.
Luke_T
One more question. What’s your favorite flavor of B&J?
I start walking toward the entrance as I wait for the response.
Summer_L
I’ll tell you in person.
I smile and pull open the door. The place is fairly dead.
A few people are at tables near the front, and some guys are playing pool at the back.
She is the only woman at the bar, like she said in her message.
Her hair is longer than in her photos and…
I stutter step as she turns, and I see her profile as she brings her drink to her lips.
No. Fucking. Way.
She feels my presence even though I’m a few feet away and turns and immediately starts to choke on her drink. I stride over, reach out, and pat her back as she coughs. Those blue eyes I’ve been thinking about almost nonstop get wide, and she wipes her mouth with a napkin. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here, Summer?”
Her mouth falls wide, and she blinks. “Shut. Up. No way!”
I laugh, because what else can I do? This is hysterical. She looks offended, though, and the bartender leans in and shoots me a wary glance before asking Lola, “You good here? Do I need to step in?”
“I’m great!” Lola says to him. “No worries. This isn’t my date. It’s a guy who plays with my brothers.”
“Who is also your date.”
The bartender looks confused.
“No. Not a date.”
“Right. A hook-up,” I say confidently, and her cheeks explode in pink.
“Neither.”
“You swiped right, gorgeous,” I remind her. She gets redder, and I laugh again, and she finally flashes a giant smile and laughs too.
Hanging her head, she waves off the bartender. “I’m fine, Todd. He’s harmless. Embarrassing and annoying but harmless.”
The bartender nods. “Good. I’m a big fan, Richard. I’d hate to have to bounce you to the curb.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I get you a beer? Something?”
“I don’t drink. Besides, I don’t think we’ll be here long enough,” I reply. “I’m kinda shocked she hasn’t run screaming already.”
Lola glances up at me, and the bartender nods and steps away to serve someone else. My eyes stay on her pretty face, and she takes a deep breath. “Your profile name was Francois, and your pics aren’t what I loaded.”
I shrug. “I tweaked my profile and changed my name.”
“Luke? Isn’t that your dad’s name?”
I nod. “Also, my middle name. I spelled it the English way for the app.”
“Middle name is Summer,” she admits, and we both smile again because what are the chances we went with the same line of thinking on our “fake” names?
I lean against the bar. “Looks like the universe wants this to happen. It keeps throwing us together.”
“The universe likes a good joke,” she replies, but she’s still smiling and staring at me with something in her eyes I can’t place, but it’s definitely not horror.
“Favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor? You said you’d tell me in person.”
She looks away and blushes again, and fuck if my dick doesn’t start to wake up. She’s ridiculously hot. Am I really considering propositioning my teammates’ sister? My D partner’s sister?
“Caramel Sutra,” she says softly. My jaw drops because I’ve never heard of it, and the innuendo of it, in this situation, is icing on our sexually charged cake. She laughs. “It’s a real flavor, I swear, and it’s delicious!”
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter and lean in. My lips are so close to her ear they touch it when I speak. “Everything about you is sexy as fuck, even your ice cream flavor.”
Her breath hitches, and before I can pull away, I feel her fingers graze the side of my waist. She drops her hand to my hip and tilts her head to my ear. “I think we need to go back to your place and get this over with.”
I pull back so our eyes meet. She licks her lips, and if she didn’t work here, I would have slammed my mouth into hers already.
But I don’t want to give her co-workers, or anyone else, a show.
If this happens, it’s private. She reaches for her coat and bag, which are hanging from a hook under the bar.
I step aside and let her hop off her stool and help her into her coat.
She looks up at the bartender. “Have a good night, Todd.”
He waves, and when she marches to the door, I’m right beside her.
We don’t talk the whole way back to my building, which isn’t very long. When I get to the door and dig out my fob, I turn to her. “Get it over with is a weird choice of words.”
“What?”
“Back in the bar, you said ‘Let’s get this over with’ like a hook-up would be a chore.”
I’m not expecting anything, even though she left the bar with me. I am, however, hoping like hell. I open the door and let her in first. She smiles and shrugs. “Well, if fate or the universe or whatever really wants me to bone you, who am I to keep fighting it?”
I try not to let my jaw drop at her words.
Lola is nothing if not blunt, and as my pants get tight, I realize it’s attractive as fuck.
I always know where I stand with her. It’s refreshing.
My brain doesn’t have to guess at anything.
She punches the elevator button, and the doors open, so she steps in, and I follow.
After hitting the button for my floor, I turn to her and put my hands on either side of the wall beside her pretty little head. “You surrender pretty damn easily.”
She gives me a little shrug and a coy smile. “It’s the universe. I can’t win.”
I smile and lean in closer. Her long, dark eyelashes flutter. “I can make it feel like winning.”
“I’m counting on it,” she replies right before our lips connect.
We make out the whole elevator ride, and the doors open and almost close again before we break apart.
I manage to stick my foot in the gap so they open again, and she slips out, and I follow.
In seconds, we’re in my apartment and kissing before the door even closes.
Her hands are in my hair, and mine are on her ass, but I worry that’s too bold, so I move them up to her back.
She reaches down and moves them back to her ass.
Her lips leave mine, and she whispers, “Don’t overthink it. ”
So fuck it. I don’t.
I squeeze her ass in my palms and pull her whole body flush to mine.
She kisses me again and wraps her arms around my neck with a contented sigh.
We pull apart again, just long enough to peel out of our coats and drop her bag and my keys, and then she jumps and wraps her legs around my waist while I cup her ass and walk us over to…
where should I go? The bed? The couch? Is one being presumptuous? Is one being lame?
Her fingers push up into my hair again, her nails grazing my scalp, and my dick throbs as her lips move to my neck.
“Do not overthink.” She says each word slowly and firmly, in between kissing her way up my neck. “If you wanna fuck me, take me to your bed. If you just want to fool around, I can blow you on the couch. Your call, stud.”
Shit, this woman… her words have my blood on fire.
I walk over to the bed and then throw her onto it.
She lands in the middle of the mattress in a fit of giggles.
Her eyes are shining, and her smile is bright, and god damn, I am crushing hard.
I mean, it’s sweet. She’s adorable. I get onto the mattress and hover over her.
“This doesn’t mean we’re… You don’t have to just because I picked the bed,” I say.
She smiles and grabs the back of my head and pulls me down. “Stop overthinking, sober boy.”
“I’m not a boy.” I smile down at her.
“Prove it,” she whispers, grinning.
I kiss her and try to turn off my brain because this is fan-fucking-tastic.
She’s a beautiful, funny, smart, and smart-mouthed woman, and she’s into me.
I slip my tongue into her mouth and lower my body onto hers.
Her legs wrap around my waist, and her hands grip my shoulders.
I can’t help but grind into her, and she responds with the tiniest, hottest little moan.