Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Naughty-good-girl
Ruby
Things hadn’t improved since New Year’s Eve. It was like Noah and I were in completely different time zones, but we couldn’t even use that excuse because Miami and Columbus shared the same one. We hadn’t FaceTimed once since he’d left, and we’d only spoken on the phone a few times.
Over the years, our petty arguments had never dragged on like this, not even when we decided to go to different colleges.
To distract myself, I’d thrown myself into work the past few weeks, picking up extra shifts whenever I could. But now I’d just started a four-day break, and I’d already wasted an hour doom scrolling.
Tori had just posted a mirror-selfie of her latest insanely stylish outfit to Instagram.
I double tapped the screen then continued scrolling until I came across Bri’s latest post. It was a carousel of pictures from New Year’s Eve.
They’d been taken before we left for the bar, so mine and Noah’s smiles were still genuine in each one.
He’d found his way back to the booth before midnight, but our new year’s kiss had felt more like an obligation than something he wanted to do.
Pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose, I refreshed my feed for the one-hundredth time. I was too tired to even consider the thought of wearing contacts. After that back-to-back-to-back work run, my eyes were burning from exhaustion.
Ryker had just reshared a post from the Phil-U football account. He was in the gym, his bare chest glistening with sweat as he squatted with a bar on his back. I couldn’t tell how heavy he was lifting, but there were at least four plates on each end.
It was a thirst trap if ever I’d seen one.
Snickering, I responded to his story.
Ruby: How many DMs did this get you?
He didn’t post often, and whenever he did, it was generally a repost or collaboration with the football team’s socials. That didn’t stop the followers though. He was closing in on forty thousand, and he even had the verified blue tick.
When I thought of Ryker, all I saw was my best friend, not the rising sports star the thirty-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine other people were following.
He would become a household name soon, which I would never not find insane.
As much as he deserved the attention he was about to receive, he’d always just be Wheels to me.
Jaz nudged me. “I’ll order dinner. Are you having the usual? Massaman curry?”
“Yes please,” I answered, not lifting my attention from my phone.
Searching Noah’s account, I rewatched his story. His fraternity was throwing a toga party tonight. He’d posted a photo with some of his frat brothers earlier, their skin seeming extra tanned against the white costumes.
Bri sighed directly into my ear, startling me. Too caught up in my own pity party, I hadn’t noticed her peering over my shoulder.
“Just call him.”
I threw my phone face down on the couch. “He messaged before saying people were already arriving.”
“Then call Ryker.”
I frowned. “Why would I call Ryker?”
“Because you’re always in a better mood after you talk to him. I even heard you laughing when he FaceTimed you last night.”
He’d called to tell me all about the latest deals his agent and publicist were negotiating. He’d been working with them for a while now, ever since it became clear he was one of the biggest college quarterbacks.
Ryker was big on talking things through. Every. Little. Detail. Because he didn’t have a girlfriend to lean on, the luxury always fell to me. Even though I was forever teasing him about it, I secretly loved it. His updates these days were all so wild and exciting.
He’d mentioned his publicist had suggested hiring a stylist to manage his image, so she’d emailed Ryker a portfolio of potential candidates. Naturally that meant we’d gone over every option for two hours, laughing hysterically at some of the outfits.
My best friend was a hoodie and jeans kind of guy. I’d pay a small fortune to see him in a satin pink suit with a matching pink cowboy hat – just like one of the stylists had put forward.
From where Daisy sat cross-legged on the floor, she topped up each of our wine glasses. For the first time in a while, we all had the same night free. We were celebrating with wine, take out and reality TV.
“I can’t believe Noah is still mad,” she said. “New Year’s Eve was three weeks ago.”
“We’re not arguing, we’re just not in sync,” I countered. “If we could only spend some time together, I know things would go back to normal.”
“So do that,” Bri simply suggested. “You have the next four days off.”
I’d mentioned to Noah I had a break in shifts, hoping he would suggest we make the most of it. But when he hadn’t, it had added to my funk. Four days together would be like a mini vacation.
I’d bet money that if I told Ryker I could be at Phil-U for four days straight, he’d have booked my flight before our call even ended.
Noah, on the other hand, had casually asked what I had planned.
Even after I told him I had nothing on – really emphasising the nothing part – he still didn’t take the hint.
“You should surprise him,” Jaz suggested. “You still have a credit for your flight to Miami that you cancelled, right?”
“Yeah. I do.”
Because I’d used points, I hadn’t been able to get a full refund when Noah surprised me over New Year’s Eve, so I had credited the flights for another Miami trip. With just over three months left of college for him, the clock was ticking to use it up.
“Do it,” Daisy encouraged. “Maybe you’re both in need of a good fucking.”
Bri chuckled. “Daisy might be on to something. When was the last time you had sex?”
I was too embarrassed to say. Leading up to Thanksgiving, I hadn’t seen him for two months.
Then the night we finally spent together, his hangover had him crashing early, and the next morning he was still being weird about my parents being in the house.
Then over New Year’s Eve, I had my period.
So I guess that put the running total at. ..
“Close to four months,” I quietly mumbled.
Daisy’s jaw hit the floor, like I’d just told her I was a twenty-one-year-old virgin. Easy for her when all she had to do was swipe on an app and have someone within five miles coming over.
Long distance was the pits. I was so fucking over it.
“Well there’s your problem,” she exhaled.
“That doesn’t include phone sex though, does it?” Bri clarified.
My silence said it all. Despite being almost four years into long distance, Noah and I had never tried that.
I’d suggested it once in freshman year, when I was drunk and we’d been partway through a particularly long stretch, but he’d shut me down because his roommate was due back at any moment, and I’d been too embarrassed to try again.
“You should send him a picture,” Daisy suggested. “Wind him up while he’s at the party. I guarantee he’ll crack and call you.”
“I vote both options,” Jaz said. “The picture and surprising him.”
I picked up my wine, mulling it over. I’d toyed with the idea of sending a photo to Noah before, so there were already some in my camera roll, but I’d always found myself chickening out last minute.
Sometimes I felt like we were trapped in the innocence of high school, like we were the two teenagers who’d shared their first kiss, and not young adults who could experiment and add spice.
The sex was good in the sense that I’d never needed to fake anything.
But it was kind of the same as it had always been. .. and polite.
Noah constantly asked where I wanted him and what I needed him to do, which I appreciated was his way of being considerate. But sometimes I silently urged for him to take control. To throw me where he wanted me, to make sounds that proved he was enjoying himself, to act more primal and dominant.
I’d never mentioned that to him. I had a feeling it would go down as well as my admission that I wasn’t ready to return home.
I reached for my phone. “Fuck it.”
Bri yelped in excitement. “Show me some options.”
She and Jaz sandwiched me in, and Daisy jumped up off the rug to sit behind me on the couch.
“Go that one,” Bri said, pointing to a mirror-selfie. “That black lingerie is hot.”
Jaz swiped past a few images, bypassing a collection of Ryker and me from his Senior Night. He was in his football uniform and I was on the field beside him. He’d asked me to come down with Tori and the other girlfriends so that he had someone to wish him luck.
“I prefer this one,” Jaz said.
I’d taken it in Ryker’s bathroom before the game.
He’d left earlier with the guys, and it’d just been Tori and me getting ready.
I was wearing a matching white set. It wasn’t overly lacy or seductive, but there was something about the simple white silk that had me handing over my credit card when I spotted it while shopping with Bri one day.
“I do like that you’re wearing your glasses in it,” Daisy agreed. “It’s giving naughty-good-girl.”
“What do I say?” I asked.
My friends were much more versed in this type of thing than me, and I loved having this ultimate no-judgement zone. Not living with them next year would suck.
“Keep it simple,” Bri said, taking the phone from me.
Ruby: I miss you. FT me later?
I grimaced. “Do it before I chicken out.”
With a triumphant nod, she fired off the text, though the moment she did, her face paled.
“What?” I asked, my heartrate suddenly through the roof.
It only took me a second longer to notice what she’d done – and once I realised, I almost threw up.