Chapter 10 #2
“It’s not exactly what I did…it’s who.”
Sommer gasps. “What? Tell me everything!”
“I shouldn’t,” I whisper, even though I know I will.
“Nope. You have to tell me. Remember the pinky promise we made after I slept with Jason Hunsinger in the back of his dad’s Chevy Nova?”
Oh, I remember. She told me all the dirty details the next morning, and we promised to always share those amazing sexual experiences that leave an imprint on our minds.
The bad ones, ehhh, not so much. If they were that terrible, why would you want to share those details with a friend?
You’d want to forget it ever happened and move on, right?
Probably why I never talked about sex with Richard…
“I remember,” I say.
Silence hangs between us, and I know she’s just waiting me out. I called her for a reason, right?
“If I tell you who—”
“When you tell me who…”
I exhale dramatically and stand up from my couch to pace. I’ve been doing that a lot since I got home. I haven’t even carried the dirty laundry into my condo, if that says anything. All I’ve done is replay what happened, and tried to ignore the fact I really, really liked it.
“Fine, when I tell you who, you have to promise not to make a big deal of it.”
There’s a pregnant pause for a moment before she asks, “You didn’t sleep with Richard, did you?”
“What? Fuck no. I wouldn’t touch that man with someone else’s vag.”
“Okay, thank God. I was about to drive over there and slap some sense into you.”
I snort, shaking my head. “No way. Not after he cheated on me with Gabby. That ship hasn’t just sailed, it burned and sank at sea.”
“All right, so if it wasn’t Richard, who would you sleep with and be afraid to tell me?” she asks, almost absently to herself.
Then, I hear the gasp.
“Oh my God, Charlotte Ann Miller! You slept with…Quinn!”
My face is a thousand degrees and as red as a tomato, I can feel it. “Shhhhh!”
“No one is here,” she insists. “Holy shit, I’m coming over.”
“No, that’s not—”
“I’m on my way! Don’t you dare leave, you little hussy. I need all the dirty details, and something tells me I need to hear them face-to-face.”
Before I can say another word, the line disconnects, which is completely overly dramatic, because we can talk on the phone while she drives over here.
I set my phone on the kitchen table and decide to go out and get the laundry bag. At least I’ll be getting something done, other than just pacing the living room floor and freaking out.
I move to my attached garage and pop the hatch on my SUV.
The garage door is still open, since it’s such a gorgeous day, so there’s no missing the sound of Sommer pulling into my driveway on two wheels.
No, not literally, but that girl was flying down the road and practically tore into my driveway like she’s making some NASCAR move.
My mouth drops open as she leaps from the driver’s seat. “What the hell? How fast did you go to get here?”
She shrugs and grabs the rest of the bedding from the back of my vehicle before closing the hatch and following me inside. “Holy crap, that’s a lot of laundry,” she says, noting the pile already sitting in front of the washer.
“Yeah, I didn’t bring it home with me when I got sick, so I’m behind. Not to mention the fact it took me a few days to get a new hose installed on it when the old one cracked and started leaking. I feel like I’ve been drowning in laundry.”
Sommer sorts the sheets from the blankets, while I pour detergent into the dispenser. As I start to place the first load of sheets into the unit, she gives me her complete attention. “Spill.”
I exhale, turning the machine on and walking into the kitchen. “Want something to drink?”
“No, I want all the dirty deets, Charli. I must know how in the world you and your brother’s friend—the very friend who’s had a massive crush on you since forever and you swore you’d never touch him because you just don’t see him like that—ended up doing the nasty wherever you did it,” she states, grabbing a bottle of water from my fridge and leaning against my kitchen table.
Then, she jumps back. “Oh my God, you didn’t do it on the table, did you?”
I make a face. “Well, not that table.”
Her green eyes practically bug out of her head. “Spill!”
So, I do. I tell her all about him stopping to help me, and me being a total bitch to him—like I always am—and insisting I didn’t need his assistance. How, like a switch being flipped, I threw myself at him and we ended up going at it on my massage table.
When I’m finished, she doesn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. “Sommer?” I finally ask, needing to hear her tell me this isn’t a big deal, and I won’t think about him later tonight and end up touching myself because I’m all worked up reliving our time together.
“Wow,” she murmurs, finally turning her attention to me. “I mean, honestly, Charli, I’m not surprised.”
“Wait, what?”
She laughs.
Laughs. In. My. Face.
“The sexual tension surrounding you two is off the charts. He’s been sending ‘I want to fuck you’ vibes for-eva, my friend. Not to mention you just confirmed the Big Dick Energy I’ve been feeling.”
My eyes have to be comically wide. Like cartoon character shock written all over my face.
“There’s so much to unpack there, and I have no clue where to start,” I mutter, wishing I had something strong to drink.
“Let’s start with the vibe. He’s had his eye on you way longer than you want to admit, and in case you weren’t aware, you’re now thirty.”
“I’m very much aware of my age, thank you,” I grumble.
“And he has that mid-twenties stamina thing in his favor. I bet he could go for hours,” she says.
“He’s five years younger than me, Sommer.”
She blows out a breath, clearly not impressed with my reasoning. “So? You’re both adults. Age means nothing once you hit twenty-one, Charli.”
I rub my hand over my temple, trying to ward off an impending headache.
“And let’s not forget the other part. He’s got that energy, and don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. And you may not have noticed it, but he has this swagger about him that just screams good time. It’s in his dark eyes.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I insist, wondering how we even got to this point in our conversation.
“And those eyes, Charli, are always following you. You may not have seen it, but I have. That man’s had it so bad for you for so long. He’s like a dog, following you around and humping your air.”
I bark out a laugh. “My air?”
“Yes, because he knew if he tried humping your leg, you’d kick him square in the balls.”
She has a point.
“All I’m saying is, it’s not really surprising you two ended up humping on your massage table. I’m just shocked it took this long to happen.”
I shake my head, trying to wrap my head around what she’s saying. Yes, I’ve known Quinn has had a crush on me, but that doesn’t mean we should have acted on it. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did,” she singsongs.
“It won’t happen again.”
That brings a grin to my friend’s face. “You’re looking at this all wrong.”
“I’m not,” I insist, vowing to stay away from Quinn Garrison and his Big Dick Energy.
Laughing, Sommer just shrugs her shoulders and leans back. “If you say so, but I give it a week, and you’ll be right back to banging the younger, hot, best friend of your brother.”
I open my mouth to argue, ready to take the bet, because I know she’ll lose.
But I can’t do it.
My vagina tells me I’m a liar.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
That’s the problem.