12. Layken
CHAPTER TWELVE
LAYKEN
“ W ill you be taking all your umm,” Ella clears her throat, “well, these?” She gestures to the now open drawer of my bedstand where an array of sex toys are stored for a rainy day.
Or a sunny day.
Or an overcast day.
Any day really.
Picking up on Ella’s tone, Scarlett turns from my closet to see what Ella is talking about. When she spots the open drawer, her brows spike and her mouth opens into a wide smile. “Oooh giiiirl! Yes! She most certainly is taking every last one of those toys with her!”
My cheeks have to be as pink as the shirt I’m presently wearing. “What? No. I don’t need all those.”
“I beg to differ,” Ella says, motioning with her head toward Scarlett. She picks up my purple vibrator. “This one is great for any day!” She picks up the small bullet next. “And this little guy is great to use on him too!”
I cock my head, my brows furrowed. “Hmm. Do friends touch friends’ vibrators?”
In tandem, Ella, Scarlett and Corrigan answer, “Yes.”
I laugh. “Okay well, anyway you guys, we haven’t…” I shake my head, looking around the room at my friends. Ella waves off my comment.
“Yeah, but you will.”
“What?” I gasp. “What makes you say that?”
Corrigan laughs. “Pfft! Cause there is no way in hell you’ll be able to resist his charm forever.”
Scarlett stands with her hand on her hips. “You mean to tell me you’ve lived with him for several weeks—no, almost a month now—and you two never…”
I shake my head. “I can confirm we have never.”
“What about your wedding night?” Ella smirks.
Oh well…hmm.
We did fool around a little.
“Uh…”
Corrigan points at me and draws in a lengthy gasp. “Layken! You slept with Griffin on your wedding night?”
I tilt my head and cringe. “Welllll…”
“Holy shit!” Ella claps her hands and leaps onto my bed followed by Scarlett and Corrigan. “Tell us every fucking thing!”
“Actually, there isn’t much to tell.” I shrug, standing in front of them. “We didn’t actually go all the way. We had so much to drink that night that he uh…you know, he couldn’t…”
“Get it up?” Scarlett finishes my thoughts. “Are you seriously saying the Griffin Ollenberg, star player for the Anaheim Stars hockey team, couldn’t keep an erection long enough to plow his wife?”
“That’s…yeah.” I nod, cringing slightly. “That’s what I’m saying.”
With mouths hanging open they all stare at me completely flabbergasted. “And he never tried again after that?” Ella finally asks.
“Nope. He’s definitely flirted with me...and I with him, if I’m being honest. He tried to tell me his penis works just fine when I kind of teased him about it.” I think back to being with his family. “And then the other night…”
Corri’s eyes bulge. “What happened the other night?”
“Yeah girl,” Ella says, making herself comfortable. “Spill the tea. Don’t hold back. We have to know these things!”
“Why?”
She sighs. “Because at some point the two of you are going to fall in love and it’s going to be the cutest thing ever.” She lifts her arms in a shrug. “Come on, Layken! You literally write this shit for a living. You should know this. You should see it coming. In fact, it was you not too long ago who said it.” She repeats my words back to me. “It’s part of romance right? Girl meets boy. Boy kisses girl. Girls and boy fall in love. Girl and boy eventually sleep together, etcetera, etcetera…”
I shake my head. “I don’t know though. I don’t think so. I mean he hasn’t really made a move.”
“So, what happened the other night then?” Scarlett asks.
“Uh..”
Okay they got me.
“Well, we had dinner with his family and when we got home, he kissed me.”
“He kissed you?” Corrigan nearly shouts in excitement, bouncing on my bed.
My head teeter-totters. “Yeah but it wasn’t like this super romantic gesture. He said it was a thank-you kiss. For hanging out with his family and being so great with his brother and stuff.”
Corrigan and Scarlett and Ella glance at each other and then fall into a fit of giggles as I watch in confusion.
“What? What’s so funny?”
Corrigan takes my hand. “Layken, he likes you!”
“Yeah, he fucking kissed you, Lake! That was him making a move!” Ella adds.
“What? No.” I shake my head “It wasn’t like this super long kiss or anything.”
Scarlett softly asks, “How was it? The kiss. Was it good?”
Soft lips.
Protective hands.
Warm body.
There wasn’t a damn thing I didn’t like about it.
“It was…breathtaking and addictive if I’m being honest.”
“Yes!” Corrigan and Ella squeal in tandem and high five each other as the three of them show me their beaming smiles.
“So, you like him?” Ella asks.
Finally letting out a long sigh, my shoulders drop and I tilt my head, staring at my friends. “How do I even begin to answer that question?”
“Honestly and sincerely,” Scarlett retorts with a shrug and a smirk.
“Honestly?” I don’t know . “I mean, yes, I like Griffin. He’s a terrific guy. Sexy as hell. A total muse when I’m writing. He’s funny. He has a great sense of humor. He makes me laugh. He’s a total ten.”
“Buuuut?” Corrigan furrows her brow.
“But…” I lift a shoulder. “I don’t know. I just get this feeling that he doesn’t feel the same way about me. He’s way out of my league for starters.”
Ella scoffs. “Totally beg to differ but continue.”
“I guess I assumed if he was really interested, he would’ve made a move already, you know? Or he would’ve said something. I mean he’s Griffin fucking Ollenberg. He can pick up women everywhere he goes.”
Scarlett lifts her brow. “But does he?”
“Does he what?”
“Does he pick up women? Has he flirted with even one woman since the day you walked into his apartment that one night?”
Hmm.
Come to think of it…
I try to think back to any of the days since I knocked on Griffin’s door a wet newly unemployed mess. “I guess not. At least not that I know of.”
“And he kissed you last night after spending the evening with his family?”
I nod silently.
“And you don’t think that’s his way of telling you how he feels?”
I sigh again. “Well now that you put it that way,” I whine. “I don’t know. Maybe? I mean why can’t he be clearer? More specific?”
Corrigan laughs. “Lake, he kissed you! What do you want him to do, bend you over and impale you with his manhood without warning?”
Her question forces a laugh. “Okay maybe not without warning, but…”
“So, we need him to be a little more intentional,” Ella suggests, and I nod.
“That would be helpful, yes.”
Corrigan’s arches her brows. “And if he were to be more intentional, you would be open to those intentions?”
I feel like I shouldn’t be smiling but I can’t help it. “Yes?”
“Great!” Ella claps her hands. “I have the perfect idea.”
“Okay let’s hear it.”
She leans over and pulls a large rainbow-colored dildo with a suction cup on the end out of my bedside drawer, her eyes huge with humored excitement. “This.”
I cover my mouth with my hand to hide my giggles. “And what the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
“What it’s intended to be used for! Duh!” she says with a completely straight face. “You’re putting this sucker in your shower where it belongs.”
“Oh my God, seriously?” I jut my hip out. “Like I’m going to use that thing in my shower with Griffin around where he can see it.”
Corrigan bursts out laughing. “Honey that is exactly what you’re going to do. You’re going to put that thing in your shower like the trophy it is and let him see it!”
Scarlett gasps. “Oh, my God, yes! Corri’s right, Layken. Who cares if you use it or not? You have to display it in your shower and then make Griffin go in there to see it! Holy fuck he’ll shit a brick!”
We all have a healthy laugh over what Griffin would possibly say to my having an extra-large dildo suction cupped to my shower.
Ella wiggles the dildo in her hand. “But I bet it’ll give him plenty of dirty thoughts to drive him crazy. He’ll be picturing you using this thing every time he looks at you until he’s so frustrated that he can’t help but make a move.”
Scarlett slips her hand into her pocket and pulls out money. Holding it up she says, “I’ll give you fifty bucks right fucking now if you promise to do it and then tell us what happens.”
“I’ll give you fifty bucks right now if you make him go into your bathroom for some reason while we’re all there so we can see his reaction,” Ella adds.
Corrigan jumps up from the bed and grabs my hands. “Please, oh please, oh puh-lease let us be there when it happens!”
Scarlett’s eyes grow huge. Eyeing something on my dresser, she jumps up from my bed. “I have an idea!” She squeals and reaches for a bottle of nail polish remover before spinning around to show the rest of us.
“We’re putting this in the moving box along with a few of your nail polish colors. Tomorrow night when we’re all at August and Ella’s place, we girls will plan to do our nails.” She shakes the remover. “But leave this in your bathroom. And then you can ask him to come upstairs and get it for you.”
“Yes!” Ella claps her hands. “Then he’s bound to see this,” she says, still waving the dildo in her hand. “And we’ll all be able to see his expression when he comes back downstairs!”
The idea of playing with Griffin a little bit to get him to be more open with his feelings does sound exciting.
Will it work? I have no idea, but even if it doesn’t…even if it turns out he doesn’t feel the same way as me, seeing his reaction to a huge vibrating dildo in my shower would be funny as hell.
“Alright. It’s a deal.”
Corrigan wraps her arms around me. “That’s my girl!”
August and Ella’s place is laid out similarly to Griffin’s except that everything is the opposite direction since their apartment is on the other side of the hall one floor below us. From what the guys have said, the place, when August lived here by himself, was bland and plain without much personality to it. But since Ella has moved in, their space is a colorful array of textures and furniture that really give their home a fun eclectic vibe.
“Is it there? Where it’s supposed to be?” Scarlett whispers from her seat on the couch. The guys are huddled around a couple boxes of Harold’s Hotdogs, stuffing their faces while the ladies are hanging out in the living room. We’re flying out tomorrow for the team’s string of away games so tonight is our last hurrah for a few days while the guys, and Ella, are working.
I nod my head with the slightest of smirks. “Yep.
“In the shower or on the sink?” Corri asks, hiding her smile behind her glass of soda.
“Shower. With my nail brush. There’s zero chance he’ll miss it if I send him in there.”
Scarlett beams and sits back against the couch cushions. “Perfect.”
“I hear Kraymer took a skate to the face on their last game,” Barrett says before taking a large bite of his hotdog. They’ve been chatting about their upcoming game against Boulder for the last fifteen minutes. “Doubt he’ll even be playing.”
“Are you kidding?” Harrison asks, amused. “If he knows you’re in the net, there’s no way he’ll stay out of play if he can help it.”
Barrett shrugs. “I guess we’ll see. You could be right though. He’s been itching for a goalie fight for a long time.” He rolls his eyes. “The guy’s a dumbass.”
“We need more beer,” Griffin says, emptying the last of his bottle.
Ella shakes her head, smiling at the guys standing around the kitchen bar. “If there’s one thing you guys like to do during your time off, it’s drink,” she says and then cringes. “But also, I forgot to buy more when I was out today. I’m really sorry.”
“No worries, Ella,” Griffin says, pulling his key out of his pocket. “I’ve got some upstairs. Be right back.”
“Oh wait!” I wave him down trying my very best to keep a straight face. “While you’re up there would you mind grabbing my nail polish remover and nail brush from my bathroom?” I gesture to my friends. “We’re going to do our nails so we’re ready for tomorrow.”
“Sure thing. Drawer? Sink? Cabinet?” he asks.
I give the impression that I’m thinking about where my stuff is even though I know very well where I put everything. “Uh, the remover is on my sink and the nail brush is sitting in the shower. It’s yellow. You can’t miss it.”
“Got it. Be right back.”
“Do you need help?” I ask even though I know he’ll say no.
“Nope. I’m good. Back in a flash.” He smiles and winks at me and I return his smile as he walks out the door.
And then all of us take a sip of our drinks to keep ourselves from laughing.
Ten minutes later he’s still not back.
I bite at my bottom lip wondering what could be taking so long.
“Where the hell is Griffin?” Ledger asks another ten minutes later. He rotates his wrist to look at his watch. “He just lives upstairs. How long does it take to grab some beer?”
“Maybe he’s dropping a deuce,” Barrett suggests.
“Or he’s jacking off,” Bodhi says with a shrug.
“Or both,” Harrison adds much to the amusement of the rest of us. His eyes find mine and I’m instantly red in the face. If he only knew what Griffin was forced to see up there. “Sorry Layken. That was a little?—”
“Griffin?” I shrug off his comment and smile. “You’re not wrong, Harrison.”
Just then the door swings open and a red-faced Griffin comes storming in with two cases of beer in one arm and the exact items I asked him to retrieve in his other hand.
“Dude, where the hell have you been?” Ledger inquires as he crosses the room to set the beer on the kitchen counter.
“Busy.”
Ledger laughs. “Brewing this beer yourself or…?”
Griffin ignores him and walks out to the living room, his eyes finding mine. Instantly my skin tingles and my heartbeat rises. His face is flushed and the stunned look in his eye tells me he saw everything I wanted him to see. He blinks rapidly and then, standing stiffly in front of me, he hands me my nail polish remover and nail brush.
“Thank you,” I tell him, reaching for the items he brought to me.
His voice cracks and he clears his throat before trying again. “No problem.”
Watching him like any good wife would I cock my head and furrow my brow. “You okay?”
How I’m keeping a straight face right now, I’ll never know.
With a closed-lipped smile, he nods and answers, “Yep.”
“Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.”
I notice when he turns back around he drags his hand over his face almost as if he thinks if he closes his eyes and reopens them, he’ll be able to forget about the oversized dildo suction cupped to my shower wall.
But I have a feeling that was a sight he’ll not soon forget.