Chapter Sixteen #3
Taylor let go of Avery’s hand and turned to look out the window. She never cried, but she knew that if she kept talking about this, about how betrayed she felt by Erica, how much her words had hurt, she might break down. Sure, they hadn’t talked as much recently, but she didn’t think that much had changed between them. She couldn’t handle seeing the kind, concerned look on Avery’s face; she couldn’t deal with her gentle touch right now. She would fall to pieces.
“I, um…” She cleared her throat. “Am I dressed appropriately for my surprise? You didn’t give me a dress code.” She tried to put enthusiasm in her voice. This time, it seemed to have worked. Or at least Avery went along with her tacit plea to change the subject.
“Oh, don’t worry, I took care of that,” she said. “I have clothes for both of us in the trunk.”
Clothes for both of them? Hmm. Trying to figure this out was a good distraction. It was a hot late-September afternoon in Napa Valley. Avery’s sundress would be perfectly appropriate for just about anything they could possibly do.
Or were they going somewhere they had to really dress up? If they were doing a fancy dinner somewhere, Avery would definitely want to wear something other than her sundress. Maybe that was it. But ugh, Taylor hoped not. After dealing with the stress of the shower, plus everything that was jumbling around in her head because of that stupid, mean bet, Taylor was prematurely exhausted by the thought of sitting through a stilted, three-hour white-tablecloth meal. Hell, the thought of sitting in a chair for that long was tiring. She wanted to sit on a couch, recline on a chaise, flop in a bathtub, curl up in a bed, lie on the floor—any of those options would be far better than sitting in a chair for a fancy meal.
She sighed internally. If this was a fancy dinner, she was going to be enthusiastic about it for Avery’s sake. She wouldn’t lie to her; she’d never lied to Avery, and she wasn’t going to start now. But she also didn’t want Avery to feel bad. She would find something nice to say about it. Multiple nice things, even.
But she’d thought Avery knew her so well, that they were so in sync. If Avery would plan a surprise like this for her, then how well did Avery know her? What could have even given Avery the idea that she wanted to do something like this? Did she know Taylor at all? Was Erica right that they’d be over soon? Why did the thought of that make Taylor so sad?
Did Erica know something that she didn’t about how well Avery knew her? Had Taylor been on a sex high that had made her ignore red flags? Is that what happened when she didn’t have sex for months, she would fall hard for the next person she had sex with no matter what?
Was Erica’s bet like some self-fulfilling prophecy? Like, because she’d overheard it, it meant that it had to happen? Or maybe it was a curse. Wait, but that would mean that Erica had cursed her.
She was officially losing it.
She looked up with a jerk when the car stopped. She hadn’t even noticed that they’d turned into a parking lot. She took a deep breath, ready to smile.
“We’re here!” Avery said. “Time for a spa day—or, late afternoon, rather—at Calistoga’s famous hot springs, and Calistoga’s famous mud baths.”
“Spa day,” Taylor said slowly. “Mud baths.”
Avery nodded.
“You told me that if you won the bet with Erica, she would have had to treat you to a spa day, and I didn’t want you to lose out on that, so…”
Relief flooded through her body. It wasn’t a fancy dinner. It wasn’t somewhere she would have to sit in a chair! It wasn’t somewhere she would have to dress up. It was somewhere she could decompress and relax and lounge. It was something only someone who knew her well and had listened to her would plan for her.
“Mud baths!” she said again. And then she laughed so hard tears came to her eyes.
“Um, Taylor?” Avery said. “Is…are you…I thought…”
Taylor put a hand on her cheek.
“You thought right. This is exactly what I needed.” She flung open her car door. “What are we doing still sitting in the car? Let’s do this.”
Taylor jumped out of the car. As they walked toward the spa, she reached for Avery’s hand.
“This is a perfect surprise,” she said. “One question: When you said you packed clothes for both of us, what did you mean?”
Avery patted her tote bag.
“Swimsuits. Right in here.”
Taylor laughed again. She slipped her arm around Avery’s waist and pulled her in for a hug.
“Swimsuits. Of course.”
They checked into the spa and changed into their swimsuits, and then went out to the hot tub before their treatments. It was toward the end of the day on a Sunday, so there were only a few people in the very large hot tub, leaving Avery and Taylor a big corner to themselves. Taylor leaned back against the jets and closed her eyes.
“Wow. This… this is perfect.” She reached for Avery’s hand under the water and squeezed it. Avery squeezed hers back.
Taylor let her eyes drift closed. See, this was exactly what she needed after that baby shower. She never would have thought of it for herself, but reclining in this hot tub, with the promise of whatever the mud bath would be and then a hot shower and a massage afterward, was even better than a chaise or a recliner or the floor, or any of the other things she’d thought of in the car on the way here. She shook her head and laughed at herself. How could she have even thought that Avery would want to take her to a fancy dinner after that shower?
Why would Erica bet against her staying in a relationship with someone who knew her this well, someone who cared for her like this? Betting against her didn’t just mean she was sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happened; it meant she was actively cheering for the end of Taylor’s relationship with Avery so she could win her bet.
Taylor opened her eyes. Avery was next to her, relaxing against the jets, her straw hat on to protect her against the late-afternoon sun like the practical, organized, stylish person she was, and Taylor smiled. She was nowhere near getting sick of those qualities of Avery’s.
Did Erica think Avery would get sick of her? Taylor was well aware of her own faults: she was bad with money; she was too impulsive (which sometimes was a good thing, but okay, fine, wasn’t always); she was a little too convinced she was right all the time; other people called her fickle; and yes, she relied on her ability to charm people to get her what she wanted too frequently. Would Avery get sick of those things? Or was there something else that Avery hated about her that she didn’t even know because Avery wasn’t good at conflict?
Why the fuck was she spoiling this great time by being consumed with all this fucking insecurity?
Taylor forced herself to shake off her negative thoughts. Avery had planned this fun day for them; Taylor wasn’t going to ruin it. She refused to let anything interfere with her first mud bath experience.
After a while in the hot tub, they went back to the dressing room and changed into their enormous spa robes. Taylor grinned at Avery when she tied hers.
“I’m impressed that they gave me one that’s big enough to fit me; most of these ‘one size fits all’ robes at spas leave me half naked.”
“That’s awful,” Avery said. “What do you do then?”
Taylor grinned at her again.
“Oh, they have bigger ones on the men’s side; when I walk around half naked for a while, they usually find one for me.”
Avery burst out laughing.
When it was time for the mud bath, a staff member led them out of the changing room and to the back of the spa.
“You can wear a swimsuit in the mud bath if you prefer, but I don’t recommend it,” she said to them. “I tried it out when I first started here, and I never got the mud out of that swimsuit.”
Taylor smiled and glanced over at Avery. She was also smiling, but she looked a little nervous.
“I’m fine without one,” Taylor said.
“Um, yeah, me, too,” Avery said.
The staff member threw open a door. “It’s through here.”
Taylor wanted to giggle when she walked into the room. The rest of the spa was all white linen, flowers, soft music, cucumber slices; this room was industrial, utilitarian, gray concrete. It made her feel like this was the old-school version of the spa, and she was into it. Whatever happened in this room, this was the real deal.
The floor was covered in black rubber mats, with buckets everywhere, and there were four huge, deep tubs, full of thick black mud. When she’d imagined what a mud bath would be like, she somehow hadn’t thought it would be this intense. Now she was even more excited.
“Taylor?” one of the women standing by a tub said, and Taylor stepped forward. “I’m Gloria. I’ll take your robe. Sit here right on the edge, and then turn around and lower yourself into the bath.”
Taylor lowered herself, very awkwardly, into the tub full of steaming hot, very heavy mud, as Avery did the same in the tub next to hers. Finally, she was all the way in or, rather, on the mud, at which point Gloria picked up a bucket and scooped more mud over Taylor’s whole body until she was covered from her neck to her toes. She turned to look at Avery, who was also now packed tightly into her mud bath. As soon as their eyes met, Taylor burst out laughing, and Avery followed suit.
“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” Taylor said. She lifted her hand out of the mud and squeezed a handful of it. “This is like…when I was a kid, I used to love going to the beach and playing in the sand, especially when it was a little wet, and this is like the grown-up, much more expensive, and also much dirtier version of that.” She laughed at the look on Avery’s face. “Nonsexually dirty, to be clear.”
Avery giggled.
“I was about to say. This is so deeply gross and fantastic at the same time.” She lowered her voice. “Though, speaking of sex, I feel like I’m going to have mud in every single crevice of my body after this.”
“Oh, without a doubt,” Taylor said. She leaned her head back against the pillow at the edge of the tub and let herself relax into the sensation. At first, this had felt like a gimmick, but after a few moments of feeling the warm, heavy weight of the mud surrounding her body, in this cozy tub, with Avery right next to her, peace overtook her. She wasn’t thinking about the shower, about the bet, about what Erica said; all she was thinking about was how happy she was to be here, right at this moment.
She could have stayed in the mud bath for hours, but eventually, they had to get out, take very thorough showers, and move on to their massages. They were some of the last to leave the spa that evening, and then they drove straight back to Avery’s apartment and collapsed on the couch.
“So,” Avery asked after they’d ordered takeout. “Good spa day? How did you feel about your first mud bath?”
“I’m not sure if anything in my life has ever felt that good that didn’t involve sex,” Taylor said, which made Avery burst out laughing.
Taylor smiled at her.
“But seriously, thank you. For thinking of it, for arranging it for today, when you knew I’d need it, for everything you did for the shower—it was all perfect.”
Avery curled into Taylor’s side, and Taylor wrapped her arms around her.
“You’re welcome,” Avery said, and kissed her on the cheek.
Taylor could still feel the knot in her stomach from what happened at the party, and part of her wanted to call Erica now, ask her why she would do something like that, why she would root against Taylor’s happiness, why she thought so little of her. But she made herself push that aside. She had Avery’s silky-smooth body tucked against hers, and she was still slightly dazed from the mud bath and massage; she was too happy and peaceful to think about Erica and her bet right now. Plus, she had better things to do.
She put her hand on Avery’s thigh.
“You know,” she said, “even though that massage didn’t involve sex, that doesn’t mean everything today has to be like that.”
Avery nuzzled her neck.
“Mmm, I like the way you think.”
Taylor slowly pulled Avery’s dress up above her knees. Avery put her hand over Taylor’s and slid it up her thigh to her ass. Her bare ass.
Taylor’s dramatic gasp wasn’t even pretense.
“Avery Jensen! You aren’t wearing underwear?”
Avery kissed her neck and giggled.
“I forgot to bring an extra pair with me, and after my massage I didn’t want to put the pair I’d been wearing all day back on, so…”
“You naughty girl,” Taylor said, with a gentle smack of Avery’s ass that just made her giggle more. “And here I was, about to tell you how hot I found it for us to be naked and getting massages at the same time, and how I was thinking about you glossy with that massage oil, and the whole time you were walking around naked under that dress. Does this mean that on our drive back here I could have done this in the car?” She slipped a finger inside of her. Avery shifted to give Taylor more access, and Taylor took full advantage of that.
“You definitely could have, yes, if you’d wanted us to get into an accident and possibly arrested,” Avery said.
Taylor smiled and looked at Avery. Her eyes were closed, and a smile was on her face.
“Do you know what I thought about at the spa?” Avery asked her.
“No, but I have a feeling that I really want to know.” Taylor moved her fingers a little faster inside of Avery.
“I thought about how much I wanted to do this to you when we were in the hot tub,” she said. “I wanted to pull those little shorts of yours down and push your legs open, and watch you right there, with my fingers inside of you, and see your face as you arched your back in that way that you do, and hear those little soft sounds you make when you’re getting close. And then, right when you were almost there, I would make you sit on the edge of the hot tub, and I would put my face in between your legs and my mouth on your pussy and see how long I could make you come for.”
“Holy fucking shit, Avery!” Taylor was scandalized, and very, very turned on. Avery had so far been tentative with dirty talk, but she had apparently lost those inhibitions.
Avery looked both smug and extremely proud of herself, as she should. She pulled herself up so she was kneeling over Taylor, pulled her pants off, and pushed her legs open. And then she gave Taylor three orgasms in quick succession.
Taylor was still gasping for breath when Avery’s phone rang.
“I think that’s our food.” Avery jumped up. “I’ll run down to get it.”
Taylor sat on the couch, half naked and fully satisfied, as she waited for Avery. Usually, she was the initiator in their relationship when it came to sex; she’d always assumed that was partly because she was more experienced and confident, but also because that’s how their personalities shook out. Avery was the quieter, shyer, more conservative one; Taylor was the loud, outgoing risk-taker. But tonight, for whatever reason, Avery was driving around without underwear and taking the lead in sex, and Taylor fucking loved it. Maybe it was because Avery thought Taylor needed a treat after that shower, maybe it was because Avery finally believed Taylor when she had said she enjoyed the hell out of their sex life, but whatever it was, Taylor was very fucking grateful for it.
“What’s gotten into you?” she said, when Avery strolled back into the apartment, a big bag of food in her hand. “ Not that I’m complaining, I’m doing the opposite of complaining, I’m just wondering if there’s something I did so I can do it again.”
Avery flashed her a grin.
“It was probably the mud bath,” she said, and took the food into the kitchen. Taylor followed her.
“If it was the mud bath, I want us to go at least once a week,” Taylor said.
Avery laughed again.
“Or maybe it’s just that now I know that we have a hard stop in seven weeks, I want to enjoy this for as long as I have left,” she said.
A hard stop in seven weeks? Taylor paused halfway through putting rice on her plate and looked at Avery.
“Huh?” At some point today, she’d lost her ability to be articulate.
“You know, because of the bet?” Avery looked at her, and then her smile faded. “Sorry, I can tell that you don’t want to talk about the Erica thing more tonight. Forget I said anything.”
Taylor shook her head slowly.
Avery had been serious when she’d said they should break up after Erica had the baby. Taylor had thought she was joking. And she was lighthearted about it, like it didn’t bother her at all.
“What if I don’t want to break up in seven weeks?” Taylor asked her.
“Oh, I thought about that,” Avery said. “Don’t worry, if we break up before that, I won’t tell anyone. Well, I’d probably tell Luke, but I’d swear him to secrecy. I’m invested in Sloane winning this bet now.”
Whether Taylor wanted to break up wasn’t the issue— Avery definitely wanted to break up in seven weeks or less. Assumed they would break up in seven weeks or less. Had already thought about what they’d do about this stupid bet if they broke up before the seven weeks and three days were up. And she told Taylor about it in that casual, no-big-deal way, like it didn’t matter to her, wouldn’t matter to her.
“Oh,” Taylor said.